THE RANTS
When it comes to The Rants, you get exactly what it says on the proverbial tin. If you find yourself hopelessly complaining about the overall state of affairs in the 21st century, then they are the band for you. The composition of their vibe is a blend of sarcastic, tongue in cheek lyricism from frontman Joe Berry, accompanied with memorable vocal melodies and dazzling guitar hooks seeming to have been plucked straight out of the 1980’s by Josh Madden. This era of The Rants see's them introducing newest members of the band, drummer and philanthropist Matty Talbot and groove - laced bass player Milosz Fornalski, bringing them both into the mix to accompany your journey through the anguish of modern times.
If they aren't enough to get you dancing round your room like Grandpa Joe after Charlie won the golden ticket, we don't know what will.
As a band who influences you the most and what were your influences behind your last two songs, ‘Dangerous Game’ and ‘Expensive Things’ ?
Milosz: When you’re creating art ,you gain more influences as you go along, your songs change with your personal taste too.
Joe: When we were writing ‘Dangerous game’, we all listened to a lot of Mid 2000’s British indie-rock. The Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and In fact, I was listening to The Vaccines a lot at the time and that’s where the idea for ‘Dangerous Game’ came from. In those years in between the songs, I started listening to a lot more 80’s pop music, that’s why ‘Expensive Things’ is so different. I think it’s important not be afraid to do a left turn, especially early on, because no-one is really expecting anything from you after one release.
Joe, you’re releasing ‘Blue with you’ on February 14th, what was the inspiration behind that and Zen Like State as a solo project?
Joe: I enjoy writing, lots of different songs and not every song I write is gonna work for The Rants. My solo songs sound completely different to what we do as a band. I just thought it’s a shame to just throw them in the bin, so I thought I’d just put them out into the world without taking it too seriously. If somebody happens to enjoy it, it’s a bonus. It’s just nice to do something different, and it’s nice to do something creative right now. I can do this from home. It's just keeping me busy more than anything.
How does living in Manchester influence your Music ?
Joe: A lot, I've discovered bands that I don’t think I would have found had I not made the move to Manchester. Having the chance to meet other bands has influenced me too, like when we were playing a lot last year, and getting to know them and talking about what music they like, and you start realising, you have mutual interests. The bands that we know in Manchester, feels like a community, there is also a known sound in Manchester, It’s all just really nice because you don’t get that back home.
Milosz: The best part for me is If you’re walking past someone in Manchester that you also listen to and you see them in the street, you’re like omg I just walked past …
And it’s like we’re actually in the city, it’s one of the biggest musical cities in Europe.
ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY SHAUNA GRIMMET
Leading on from that, as it’s Independent Venue Week what has been your favourite gig to play?
Milosz : I think The Castle was good, for dangerous games, that was a very sweaty one.
Joe: I’d definitely play The Castle again, I love it there. I’d have to say ‘Night and Day’, because when I first came to Manchester, in my head, that's one I wanted to play. The 1975 have played there and Alex Turner. It’s a historic venue and when you get on stage, you do feel a bit of a shiver. I stood there and thought, wow all the legends that have stood where I'm standing right now. It spurs you on a bit, you definitely feel like you have to give another legendary performance.
On your instagram over lockdown, you’ve shared information on #LetTheMusicPlay and The Black Lives Matter Campaign, can you talk to me about why these are both important to you as a band?
Joe: Being completely honest, I didn’t know the severity of the issue. Not until the George Floyd incident, and I think a lot of people were in that same boat. I remember watching thinking this is awful, it’s cold blood murder. I was then made more aware by my friends and by what I was seeing in the news that this happens everyday. Everyday somewhere in America and across the world, and it’s just not good enough. You hear all these things and you start discovering the injustice within the music industry too, that it’s a lot more difficult for black artists, because there's not as many opportunities and it made me feel sick. I always thought music should be the most inclusive thing, it’s for everybody, it doesn’t matter what colour your skin is or where you’re from, you can still be extremely talented. You also have a right to enjoy and make music. I’m disappointed. It’s important for bands to stand by black artists and support them, and to come together and push the music industry to provide more opportunities and to take Black artists seriously.
Josh is big on #LetTheMusicPlay, he's not here right now but he is a big head in supporting local music venues because it's sad seeing a music venue that you love close its doors for the last time. There's things we can all do as well in preventing this, all as individuals.
You know that none of us are big fans of the Government and so it’s important for us as people to reach into our own pockets and support individual music venues. Although the Government should be leading the way with that, because there would be a lot more people seeing an example set and be willing then, to do the same. But currently we have a Government who are willing to see a music venue demolished, because it doesn’t affect them at all, that's the sad thing at the moment so the message is just to get people supporting that.
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As students, What’s it been like to study music and try to work within music, without any Live Events?
Joe: Ahh mate I can’t tell you how much I miss gigging!
Milosz: We had that one back back in September, didn’t we, that was fun.
Joe: It was like an acoustic sesh at Lock 91, that was good fun, it was nice to see that people were still up for getting out and coming to gigs, which is what I've been quite worried about. You know when this pandemics over, are people still gonna wanna come and be shoulder to shoulder with other people, in a sweaty crowd, you know?
Thankfully, It showed me that people will. It’s been difficult but at the same time, it’s given us a lot of time to think about music as our primary focus.
Milosz: It’s given us more time to perfect our instrument, and define ourselves a bit more.
Joe: Lockdown’s improved me a lot, in just my general understanding of music, it’s not been the worst thing in the world, you know, cause also everyone’s in the same situation, it’s not as if people around you are climbing and you’re not doing anything you know. So it’s important bands don’t feel guilty for not wacking out loads of tunes or practising because, it's a different situation for everyone isn't it.
What do you think of Live concert streaming being popular now, do you think it will continue to be when things get back to normal?
Joe: I think they’re quite good.
Milosz: I don’t think they’ll last forever though, I think for the time being they’re pretty useful to be fair but, It’s not the same as a live event whatsoever.
Joe: I’m not sure about people buying tickets for these events, but if that same band put on a real live event, it’s most likely they’d pull a load more to come and watch it. I like the idea of them, if you’ve got a small set up, you can do it.
That’s what I like about it, anyone can do it. I’ve seen loads of good stuff, you know YungBlood, I don’t really listen to him much but he's got his own TV show now and that's pulling him a massive audience, so it’s nice to see people getting creative and find new ways, I think that's kind of the nature of the music industry isn’t it people are always looking to try new things and figure out things to solve the problems.
You both study music, what led you into this scene, or have you always had a musical background?
Milosz: No, not really. I sort of remember the first time I listened to indie music was Fluorescent Adolescent by the Arctic Monkeys and that was back when I was in Primary, so it didn’t change anything, but then back in High School I got into them again and then from there, I really got into it and started playing Guitar, which moved on to Bass etc.
Joe: I think I've always dabbled, but I never took it seriously until college, when I was like. “oh?” Because I didn’t really know that if you wanted to study it, you could.
You can actually make a career out of it, so I was like right, this is ideal for me.
So that's about the time I started taking it seriously. Going to college, and that’s when I met the other band members, Josh and Milosz and started gigging around North Wales at the time, because there wasn’t much else to do for me.
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If you could set up your own day festival, who would be your headliners?
Joe: Just three, I'd have to pick Tame Impala, because imagine seeing them live. The Strokes, 100% and then an acoustic act, to get everyone going, get everyone warmed up, maybe Damien Rice, then straight after put The Strokes on.
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How has the Pandemic affected your production?
Joe: A lot to be honest, I've been doing a bit on my own. It's difficult because we’re at the stage where we want to start going and recording new songs in a studio, and we can’t do that obviously, but we’ve still been able to circulate ideas.
Milosz : It’s just getting them all together, writing as a band, and getting everyone into the same room. That's been difficult.
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This is your chance to shout out a small artist / band, who are you going to choose?
Joe: ‘Katz’, I’m good friends with them and they just put a single out called ‘The Last American Virgin’ and they recorded it on a four track Tascam in their bedroom, and it just sounds so cool. I also believe they have an EP coming out and plan to make cassettes and stuff, I’m just really enjoying what they're doing at the minute. It’s surf-rock so it’s not something i’d usually listen to but I stuck it on, and it's so catchy, so good!
Milosz: Swamp Chicken - We did our first ever gig with them at Jimmy's. They’re great people. One of their songs is literally about Pizza, which is so cool. They’re really funky and it shows as well that you can literally write about anything and they did a good job on that.
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And, finally what are your coming plans for 2021?
Milosz: I think we’ve got an EP out.
Joe: Oh that’s a big tease. I think the general consensus is that we want to have an EP out by the end of the year and also see what festivals are doing next year, and try to play some of them. Just get some more music out, actually the challenge now is picking songs.