Hi and welcome to the Awayday Radio interview were each week we will be interviewing new and up and coming bands and artists from the UK.
This week we have Sharp Class ……
Please introduce us to the band.
Sure, we’re a three piece band from Nottingham, East Midlands that formed 2017 while we were in our 3rd year of secondary school. Our lineup is:
Oli on the guitar/vocals
Lewis on the bass
Dec on the drums
What first got you into music?
I first properly got into music when I started learning to play the guitar at the age of 6/7. I remember that when I began learning how to play the blues, I was really hooked on not just the guitar, but music. However, we started getting into playing music together as a band when we were in our 3rd year of secondary school. We played together every lunchtime in the school’s practice rooms. That’s where the band started out. We would perform at the school’s events and we remember getting nervous doing so. Those were our first experiences of playing music together live.
Who inspired you to make music?
What inspired us to play music was the feeling we get when we’re playing together. It’s not like anything else. Once we started getting our first gigs outside of school when we were still 15/16 and all wide eyed at the thought of playing somewhere that wasn’t the school assembly hall, it just snowballed and we couldn’t get enough of it. The thrill of it, the fun of it and the passion for it is still what drives us today. As for what inspired us to make music, it’s really music itself that inspires us. Wanting to get a message or a point of view across in a song, expressing an emotion or a feeling or telling a story are all things that inspires not only me when I’m writing the songs, but also the band as we are always striving to make great music together. So in that case, I suppose we also inspire ourselves to make music.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
We describe our music as a fusion of power pop, punk and soul. It think that fits it pretty well in our opinion. Our music is a culmination of the music that we like to listen to. It’s as simple as that really. As for lyrically, all of it is derived from my own feelings, experiences, points of view, thoughts and stories which I think makes it down to earth and realistic, like our songs are the scriptures of my/our lives.
No, we haven’t signed with any record labels, independent or major. We have however got a working relationship with Heavy Soul! Records which is great. They distribute all of our releases as vinyl records. You can find them on heavysoul45s.co.uk
Where have you performed?
Over the years we have performed up and down the country from our hometowns of Nottingham and Derby to London, Blackpool, Liverpool, Sheffield, Devon, Isle Of Wight and more. We love the travelling that comes along with all the gigs. It’s part of the fun for us.
What are your favourite and least favourite venues?
One of the last gigs we did before the first lockdown back in March of 2020 was at The Dublin Castle in Camden, London. We all unanimously agree that it was one of the best gigs we’ve played. The venue isn’t massive but it was full to the brim that night, probably so much that it was over capacity and the whole place in general holds a lot of musical history within its walls which makes it 10x better. The atmosphere that night was something else. As for a least favourite venue, we’ve played a couple of pubs and clubs in our time where there’ve been situations that have started to get out of hand. Those kinds of things are what dampens the experience for us and for everyone else.
Do you have any upcoming shows?
To say we’ve had a lot of time off, we’ve got plenty coming up this year. Within hours of the Government confirming the dates that places could open up again we were getting calls and messages coming in for people wanting to book us for gigs which was a great feeling after all this time off. We’ve already got dates, some new and some rescheduled in Sheffield, Blackpool, Isle Of Wight, Camden and loads more. 2021 is finally shaping up to be a good year!
What is your favourite song to perform?
We love playing music in general, but as for our favourites to play live on stage we’re always quite fond of playing new tunes of ours, a couple in particular that we love playing are unreleased track called ‘Tales Of A Teenage Mind’ and our latest single ‘Living For Kicks’ which you’ve played on AwayDay Radio. One of our other favourites would be our version of ‘Down In The Tubestation At Midnight’.
What other songs or albums have you done?
In mid 2020 we changed our band name from SubCulture to Sharp Class. While we were under the name SubCulture we released for singles as 7”inch records and digitally. Those releases included ‘Young, The Kids Don’t Dance, Sound Of Truth and Break Me Free, each with their own B-Side too which would end up at a total of 8 tracks under the name SubCulture. Once we changed our name to Sharp Class, we took no time in releasing our first single under our new name. Our first single as Sharp Class was called ‘Move’ and it came with ‘Ready To Go’ as the B-Side. We then went on to release a cover of the Spencer Davis Group hit ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ and up to this point, we’ve just released our latest single ‘Living For Kicks’ with the B-Side ‘Time Meant Nothing To Me’. We’ve also had a couple of other ventures so far like our collaborative cover of ‘Teardrops’ at the beginning of 2021 and our acoustic version of ‘Waterloo Sunset’.
Which famous musicians do you admire and why?
Personally I admire Ray Davies of The Kinks. I just think his songwriting is incredible. I’d love to have written half the songs that he has. It’s got something so natural and down to earth about them that really strikes a chord with me. As a band, we all like bands such as The Kinks, The Jam, The Who, Small Faces and so on.
What is one message you would give to your fans?
To find the faith within yourselves and to keep the faith. Figure out what that really means to you. That goes a long way.
I got to ask this but what football teams do you support?
Oli – Nottingham Forest
Dec – Nottingham Forest
Lewis – Derby County
What casual gear do you all wear?
When it comes to casual gear, all three of us are pretty much on the same page. We have some great pieces from Fred Perry, Ska & Soul, Trojan, Gabicci, Merc and so on.
What’s next for you?
We’re ready to get back out there now, we are rehearsing twice as much as we were before and loving it. We’re on the tracks to continue our journey. After having to push it back more and more we’re now back to working on our debut album which we are looking forward to putting out there later this year. It’ll be a culmination of the past 3 years within 12 or so songs.
Well here at Awayday Radio we are big fans of yours so we will follow you on your journey to the top and we hope that you will come back and do another interview with us after you finish your world tour?
Cheers, thanks for the support on the music. Of course, we’re available anytime! (right after we play our closing show at Wembley) Cheers again for the support on Living For Kicks. Look forward to doing more with AwayDay in the future.
