Yorkshire indie/alternative band The Sherlocks are gearing up to play Hardwick Live this month so Lee Allcock caught up with frontman Kiaran Cook to speak about their new release, recording at Parr Street Studios and more.
You’ve just announced that you’re releasing your sophomore album, ‘Under Your Sky’, this October. What can we expect from the release in terms of the overall sound and lyrical content?
It would be hard to say that we have completely changed our sound because that is not the case, but what we have done is made a conscious effort to keep the elements of our sound that people love as well as introducing new elements. For example, the big sing-along choruses will always remain a part of our sound. The main difference with this record compared to our debut is that it sounds more contemporary; we purposely chose to simplify the sound this time around rather than filling every space.
Why did you choose to record the album at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios? And how was the recording process?
As a band, we’re open to working anywhere with anyone. We are the kind of band that like to mix things up and keep things fresh; and what better way is there to change it up than going from the middle of nowhere, being Rockfield Studio in Wales, to Parr Street studio in Liverpool. On the first record, we were literally secluded with nothing around us which meant no distractions, but this also led to us working ourselves to death around the clock. We had never recorded a full album before and because it was all new to us, we probably didn’t know a shutoff time. Whereas this time around we’ve grown as a band as well as musicians and we’ve learnt how to do the studio thing a bit better. We definitely had a lot of fun making this record and that definitely rubbed off on the music.
What was it like working with The Coral’s James Skelly on the album?
Working with James was a pleasure. It would be fair to say that we both took a gamble on each other as we’d never even met before the first day of recording: we didn’t even have a pre-production session; we literally just put all our eggs in one basket. It wasn’t a case of whether it would work – it had to work. James is a top bloke and he really helped with pushing our band in the right direction sonically as well as the writing process. James, being a songwriter himself, really made a difference to the melodies and lyrics of this record. Overall, I would say James’ biggest strength is his ability to recognise the good bits as well as the not so good bits in a song and refine it into the best song it can be.
Moving away from the album, what can we expect from your live set at Hardwick Live?
You can always expect a great show from us. We will be playing some old classics with a mixture of the new stuff. We always have a great time on the festivals and our songs lend themselves to a festival audience easily – so expect fireworks. Hardwick Live has always been good to us and was one of the first main festivals we ever played; they really gave us a leg up when they invited us to play there at least 5 years ago. Our profile was a lot smaller then so Hardwick live will always have a special place in our hearts.
For further information about Hardwick Live, head to hardwicklive.co.uk.
