Four-piece indie/alternative band Sugar Roulette have just released their new single, ‘Deja Fool’, so Jacob Easton caught up with the band to find out more.
How did you get together?
We were friends before lockdown and we’d met through the scene in other bands, and when lockdown came around, our separate bands all fell apart. So we came together and had a whole year to practice before our first gig in September 2021.
Who does what in the songwriting process?
Our songwriting process is always in the practice space: it’s always with jams and then we kind of build it up from there. A lot of the time we record stuff and listen to it afterwards and then go back to it. I think ‘Tranquility Lane’ is the only song that wasn’t fully written in the practice space. Also, no one plays their own instrument in our practice room – everyone’s always swapping around – so ‘Deja Fool’ came from Will picking up Nathan’s bass and then we just started jamming to his bassline, with Finn back on drums and Nathan playing guitar.
How would you describe your style?
It might be cliché to say that ‘we don’t want to stick to a genre’, but I think we like doing both sides of it, so doing the really aggressive punkier songs and then also being able to do the more poppy side. I like to think that we meld both of them quite well into our set because we’re fans of both. Sometimes, we just want to swing the guitars about and snap some strings and then other times, it’s nice to do the songs that everyone’s happy to sing along to.
Who are your biggest inspirations as a band?
It’s got to be King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They’re such a genre-bending band, they don’t stick to one, so that whole idea of being able to try everything is part of the appeal. Also, Queens of the Stone Age is a big one for us.
What’s the meaning behind the name of your new single, ‘Deja Fool’?
We all had notes with different names on it but Finn’s just happened to be the wackiest and that was the one that stood out – and it was really easy to write lyrics for it, to be honest. It came together really quickly. We tend to think of what song fits the name first and then come up with the lyrics afterwards. So, it’s a song about the frustration of someone continuously repeating the same mistakes over and over again and never breaking the cycle that they’re in, so a “Deja Fool”.
You were due to perform with Pit Pony at the Westgarth this month. How disappointing was it when you found out that the Westgarth was closing?
It was heartbreaking. Some of our favourite gigs happened there. We were gutted about the gig, obviously, but the venue closing is such a huge blow. It’s a huge shame because it’s a big piece of Middlesbrough live music history gone.
It was the same for Base Camp as well as that’s pretty much where we formed as a band. We did a lot of our early-day practices and our first headliner, which we managed to sell out.
You can listen to ‘Deja Fool’ now on all major streaming platforms.
