Jazz/country-influenced outfit, Reservoirs, return with their new EP simply titled ‘EP 2’. Lee Allcock caught up with the band to discuss Johnny Cash, recording the EP with Harbourmaster, and much more.
Tell me a bit about ‘EP 2’ and what listeners can expect both sonically and lyrically…
We’ve leant more on that Johnny Cash and June Carter vibe for this one, which is something a bit different from what we’ve done. The lyrics were all written last summer when I (Philip) left a job and wrote ‘Hole in my Heart’ about how you’ll miss your work friends and parts of your life, but things move on. Then ‘Signora’ is a bit of an older cut we’ve played for a while. To be honest, I was a bit sick of it until Amy started singing it with me and it’s a duet now. We’ve cut it all back and played it on the classical guitar and yeah, I personally like it better this way.
How has the reaction been so far to ‘EP2’?
Well, our friends have liked it. I think we’ve not pushed it loads and it’s hard to get many listeners outside of our circles, so yeah, listen to it and give us more reaction. ‘Hole in my Heart’, which is probably the main song on the EP, gets a good reaction when we play it live, but that’s maybe because it’s so different from the rest of the live set.
What or who are you influenced by?
Each member of the band is different and we have got a wide variety of stuff we like, but we all like Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins etc. I’m a big jazz fan and I get a lot of stuff from that…my favourites are probably Joe Pass and Charlie Parker. But also bits of post-punk and bits of folk. It’s a bit all over the place and I think that comes through in the music. Oh and Me, Amy (vocals) and Liam (bass) know each other originally from when we were in musical theatre when we were kids, so we’ve got a bit of that somewhere in there too.
Where did you record the EP? And what did you learn during the writing/recording process?
We recorded it in South Shields with Harbourmaster, as we did with the last EP. I think we learnt how to slow stuff down for this one and build the song around the lyrics, letting the vocals come forward instead of building the song around the instruments and trying to play as aggressively as we could.
What other North East bands are you into at the moment and why?
Our best friends are Holiday in Tokyo but they also make proper bangers too. Personally, I really like L Devine who I think is making the most interesting music in the North East. Marketplace are also pretty sick and obviously Buzzcocks is the king.
And finally, do you have any live dates lined up?
We’re playing The Globe in Newcastle on Saturday 22nd June (and I’ve already checked – there’s no England game on that day).
You can listen to ‘EP 2’ now on all major streaming platforms.
