SPANGLED

MARCH ARTIST FEATURE

MARCH ARTIST FEATURE

Our Pass It On artist feature of the month for March is no other than the marvellous Mancunian quartet Spangled.

Spangled are band that we have loved for a long time over at Pass It On. No matter if you’re watching one of their high energy festival sets, or listening to fan favourite Little Tom full blast in the car, Spangled’s sense of fun is simply infectious.

This band truly feel like a breath of fresh air in the ever saturated landscape of the modern post punk scene, with their sincere yet silly songwriting style taking them to new heights with each release.

We met the band at their practise studio where they were preparing for their upcoming UK tour, to find out a little bit more about their latest single, B-line to Bruges and their favourite festival memories.

How did you start playing music together?

Jamie: I was a big time nerd, he laughed at me in school (looking at Ben) then he decided I might be alright. I thought he can dance, he can't sing yet but maybe he can. Then we went for a pint, said 'band?', and the band occurred. We decided we might need a few more people, found these two on the street and they were alright so we let them stay.

Ben: You've just skipped out our entire friendship there mate.

Jamie: (Laughing) No we are best buddies, we met wayyy back in 2016.

So you've just released your new track, B-line to Bruges which is about an accidental trip to Ans, can you tell us the story?

Ben: So it was me and my two mates Stan and Ash. We went to Belgium, and arrived in Charleroi and was like: "Right, let's go to Bruges for the day". I was sat on the balcony and was like "let's take a b-line to Bruges boys" and they were like "that has to be a song", so we decided to write a song throughout the day.

One of us would say some random words, and someone would go "that's a lyric, write that down". So some of the lines don't make sense because we'd been drinking.

We got on the train, but we had to change in Brussels, and I SWEAR the train said Bruges on the side. We got on it, and it did not go to Bruges. We were travelling for a bit, went on Google Maps, zoomed out a bit and realised Bruges was in the opposite direction. We ended up in a little town called Ans, there was nothing really there, so we tried to get back to Bruges, which took us 7 or 8 hours on trains, we stayed for about 4 hours and then had to head back to Charleroi on the last train. All in all, a dreadful, dreadful day, but good fun.

For those who have listened to the track, who is Fork, who is Shop and who is Vespa and why?

Ben: Well I'm shop, because .... you're gonna love this, I went to the shop.

Ash did something with a fork.. I think he used a fork.

And then Stan was stood in the middle or the room and went: "If you're Shop and he's Fork, then what am I?” So we just decided he was Vespa and he was like "yeah alright".

You're heading out on tour this month, where are you most looking forward to playing?

Niall: All of them really, its always a good time at every single gig. We always have as much as, if not more of a good time than everybody watching us.

Ben: I'm looking forward to our Manchester headline the most. We've sold out Band On The Wall, and we've not played in Manchester since Gorilla in 2023.

Have you got anything special planned for Band On The Wall?

Niall: We’re actually doing an after party at Night and Day Cafe ...

Ben: And Professor Brian Cox is coming (whole band erupts into laughter).

Jamie: We thought he was our boy, he replied to me once on Twitter, but no. BUT if anyone is reading this and DOES know Brian, send him our way.

How do you find putting on a tour as an independent band?

Jamie: Rough, fun and expensive.

What have you got planned for festival season?

Jamie: We've just been confirmed for 110 Above festival, and a few more that we can't talk about yet.

What's your favourite ever festival memory?

Jamie: (Pointing at Joe) seeing him coming back with a shower tent at 6 in the morning.

Joe: Yeah we went on a wonder through General Camp and ended up just nicking things for a laugh. Walked through the whole arena with it and took it back to Artist Camp. Security stopped me and was like "Where are you going with that mate" and I told them it was my girlfriend’s tanning tent and they let me through.

Ben: My favourite has to be at Isle of Wight when Jamie got stuck in a portaloo. He thought that we were holding the door shut. He was calling us but our phones were in the tent and we were just frolicking around.

Jamie: I eventually managed to slam the door open and there was this poor little girl outside just stood staring at me.

Any new music on the horizon?

Niall: Nothing recorded yet, but we do have some songs on the horizon that we plan to get done soon.

Ben: It's hard to decide what we want to record, because we'll think we want to record one song and then we write another one and think "no no, let's do that one". They're all different genres as well, we wrote a reggae one the other week.

As we are called Pass It On, we ask all of our artists to pass a question on to our next interview.

Your question is from James Petralli from White Denim, he asked: What was the last book that you read, and did it lead to a song?

Niall: Dairy of a Wimpy Kid.

Ben: Yeah and it lead to 'Good Life Better' (band fall into hysterics).

Catch Spangled on tour now, head to https://spangled.band/