We love talking to bands, especially young bands who have every chance to ‘make it’ on the scene, you may laugh but think about it, every young band has a chance, all they need is the right team behind them, someone to spot their talent (think Alan McGee and OASIS) and WHOOSH, they’re off.

We were approached by a group of musicians from York who call themselves The Rosemaries, we listened to a few of their tracks and loved what we heard, we wanted to get involved and with the release of their latest single ‘Hullabaloo’ (19th January 2022), we caught up with Billy (B) and Arthur (A) to chat about influences, early musical memories, roughing up James from Yard Act, super powers, songwriting and even get invited round for tea, just wait until you see what they’re planning on cooking/warming up in the microwave for us…..

Gentlemen, you’re in a five piece band from York called The Rosemaries who knock out some great tunes, tell me something about the band or a band member that not many people would know

A: This one’s fairly tenuous but my 2nd cousin… twice removed I think is Jeremy Irons. When he did his “who do you think you are” episode back in the 2000s they worked a lot with my late grandfather because he had all of our family trees and stuff dating back about 500 years. He’s obviously a busy man because it's a bit of a family legend that he was around 6 hours late (he was due to get to my granddad's for lunchtime and then do the filming for the episode, but he ended up arriving at about 5 or 6pm)

The Rosemaries is an interesting name for a band, tell me how you came to settle on it and were there other names on the table at the time?

A: It’s a bit of a lockdown thing. Back in January/February 2021 when you were only allowed out of your house to exercise, Billy and I would go on loads of walks and just traipse around the city centre of York. There's a road that goes straight from my house into town and it ends up being called “Walmgate” and just off it there’s a little affordable apartment complex and all the courts are called “Rosemary Court” or “Rosemary Place” and suchlike. We’d often get chips from a kebab place nearby and sort of explore the area and so when we needed a name we sort of just defaulted to that inspiration.

B: There were loads of ideas knocking around when we were starting out- I think we had a list somewhere with names like The Gulags and The Liminals but when we came up with The Rosemaries it just clicked. 

Describe your sound in just three words…

B: Extemporaneous, frenetic, unpolished.

Would you rather be able to read minds or see into the future?

A: See into the future for me. Not that that would be particularly good but just, reading minds would be awful. Even presuming it's on command at the wrong moment and it could be a horrible notion. Our thoughts go all over the place don’t they but our actions are the only thing that counts obviously. So yeah for me definitely seeing the future.

B: I think I'd want to read minds, but only in the way you ‘read’ a magazine in a dentist’s waiting room- you know, just a quick skim through to alleviate the boredom without actually learning anything profound.

Would you say that you come from musical families? If so, who plays/played what instrument?

B: My dad’s in a band called Missing Kids. He writes the lyrics and sings and plays guitar and my mum’s always singing around the house. My sister as well, actually, has been in choirs and stuff for years. I’ve always considered myself the least musical in my family to be fair. 

A: I’m definitely from a musical family. My Dad’s sung in choirs since he was a kid and my Mum plays a load of instruments to a pretty high standard… Piano, recorder, violin, viol, probably some others too that I can’t remember. So because of that I’ve been learning instruments since I was about 7 and started singing in my old church’s choir from about 6 years old and did that for about 7 years. Just generally growing up a massive chunk of my time has always been doing something musical whether it’s practising or learning production or writing or doing cover bands.

We’re all coming to yours for a meal, what are you planning on cooking for us?

A: I reckon I cook up a mean Butter Chicken. At least, no-one’s ever told me that it’s not nice and no-one’s ever got food poisoning. So I hope you like curry and aren’t a vegetarian because if not I might have a problem.

B: Soup. From a can. 

Your influences are interesting as they all seem to stem from the same genre of music from the 1980’s, what is it about that period that you like so much? 

B: The 80’s, in my opinion, was a time that was massively austere in terms of ‘pop music’. I think a lot of the songs from the time either feel hollow compared to the raw energy of the 70’s counterculture or seem to fetishize that catchy, meaningless sound- but then what do I know? But what the eighties do provide, for me, is a few bands that really rejected the status quo and their sounds are all the more explosive for it, and I think they’re the bands I’m influenced by.

If you had to name one act that epitomises the 1980’s music scene, who would it be and why?

A: I think it has to be The Smiths really. They sort of encompass the good and the bad of the 80s I think. They had the potential to write incredible songs but also to produce some utter dross (golden lights).

You have been asked to nominate three headline acts for Glastonbury 2023, who are you choosing and why? (can be dead or alive)

A: Number one for me is Daft Punk. I haven’t spoken about them yet but they are a massive massive influence on me, one of my favourite bands. Discovery is one of my Dad’s favourite albums so he always used to play it around the house when I was young - and CDs were still a thing, just - and Digital Love, I could listen to that song forever. Second on the bill has to be Pink Floyd. Absolutely love their music, but especially Wish You Were Here, the album is an absolute all time favourite of mine. And then finally I’d have The Strokes. A massive influence on me as well and I just love their melodies and their energy and their variety.

B: We’d be headlining (obviously) and then I'd have to say Patti Smith and The Happy Mondays. 

What about the Sunday afternoon ‘Legends’ slot, who’s going to fill that?

B: Has to be The Clash. London’s Burning is one of my top ten favourite songs of all time. Genre defining. 

A: For me Chuck Berry. Fantastic tunes and clearly he was an amazing stage presence.

Describe a perfect day…

B: The answer I'd like to give would be to sleep all day. But I don't sleep- I'm like a bat. Spending the day songwriting with round the clock access to Yorkshire tea and then gigging in the evening sounds blissful though!

A: I am going to give a bit of a typical answer and say I’d do a lot of sleeping. Maybe till about 12. Then go into York and get gyros from a little street food van called Stam and Maria which does just about the best food I’ve ever tasted. Then some recording and writing with Billy and then either a gig or a meal at The International in Bradford which does the best curry I’ve ever had. If you can’t tell, I live a lot of my life thinking about my next meal.

Tell me about an artist or and that people should be checking out right now

B: Blackhaine - for sure. So much of his music is so unexpected and it’s the kind of music that makes you really sit up and pay attention.

A: I’m on a bit of an R&B bent right now so I’ll say an artist called Sybyr who I think has massive potential and especially his song “Then We Get Nast(y)”, listening to it just feels like the auditory equivalent of laying your head on a really soft pillow, I love it.

Tell me about your approach to songwriting, is it a 5 man operation or do Billy & Arthur do most of the legwork? 

A: So originally The Rosemaries was just a sort of dream conjured up by us during the second lockdown, then after lockdown it was just the two of us writing songs in my bedroom. Billy does the lyrics and I handle the instrumental composition and production. It was when live music started to look like it could happen again we decided to expand the band. We write with the band in mind and they’ve even written parts of certain songs, but the majority is just the two of us. It’s quite nice because Billy and I are together loads so it means we have a really spontaneous songwriting process and the rest of the band have other bands and musical ventures they partake in and write songs with people who have musical tastes more similar to their own than mine and Billy’s are.

B: I think lyrically, writing is something quite insular and personal so I do a lot of the writing alone in my room, which is obviously very rock n roll. It’s usually a case of sitting about in my pyjamas with a cup of tea and a book of poems. Poetry has been a massive influence and the thing i’m really interested in is metre and rhythm so quite often the rhymes will dictate the story of the song as opposed to the other way round. When i turn up at Arthur’s, a lot of the songs are metrically really regimented- some of them are even in pentameter - and the process of hearing Arthur’s score is really liberating in terms of shattering that pentameter and letting the music be a conduit for the lyrics’ metre. I think, at the end of the day, our best songs take really considered and metrical lyrics and inject frenetic energy with the musical score.

Do you all share similar tastes in music or do you all bring something different to the table? Does this cause any conflict?

B: Arthur’s definitely dragged me into modern music by the scruff of the neck. I really love early 70's punk- Crass and The Clash and Patti Smith too-  and I'm into Pulp and The Smiths and The Cure. The Jesus and Mary chain- for fear of rambling that’s all I’ll list but yeah, my music taste was pretty set in the past and Arthur’s introduced me to a lot of Trap and rap music to which I actually owe a huge lyrical debt. Generally, although we’ve got massively disparate music tastes, I think that’s what makes us work as a songwriting duo and we always manage to discover so much incredible music through one another’s tastes.

Do you remember the first CD you ever bought? Have you still got it? Do you still like it?

A: This is probably going to show my age but it was about 5 years ago. I think I was about 12 or 13 and I had heard that Calvin Harris song “Slide” with Migos and I really liked it so I went out and bought the album, “Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1” it was called. I actually still think it's a really good album and I still listen to all the songs from it.

B: I honestly don’t think I've ever bought myself a CD. Also showing my age.

What music are you currently enjoying?

A: Really into Yard Act at the minute. Also The Weeknd. I’ve always listened to him but especially recently, just before christmas. So when he announced Dawn FM I was very happy. Also Bull, who are a band from York. I’ve been aware of them for a while but then we played a gig with them and so I actually listened to their album and I couldn’t recommend it more. 

B: Yard Act, for me as well, are a favourite, but my music taste is pretty eclectic. I’m a big fan of Buzzcocks at the moment and then people like Pulp and Billy Bragg too. I’ve been really into The Crystals lately, their song And Then He Kissed Me is a favourite, and i love Hello Mary Lou by Ricky Nelson as well!

We’re off to the pub, what are you drinking?

A: Gotta be Ribena for me.

B: Hardcore cranberry juice.

I read that Billy accidentally hit James Smith (of Yard Act) with a door. I need to know more about this, please tell me all the details from the start…..

B: My dad was playing a gig supporting Yard Act and Arthur and I went along. I've got this massive tweed overcoat that belonged to my grandad that I always wear and I took it off and stashed it with my dad’s stuff backstage. Anyway, at the end of the night James and Yard Act were in the room with the coat so when I went to get my coat back I heard a resounding ‘ow’ in that unmistakable Leeds accent. I was a bit star struck so I just took my coat and bolted - sorry James if you’re reading this.  

Are you planning any live shows in the near future? If so, when and where?

A: We are! Currently all that we’ve got publicly penned in is a gig at The Fulford Arms on Jan 28th. It's like a showcase of up and coming bands in York and we’ve played there a few times before so they asked us if we wanted to play this showcase so of course we said yes yes yes. We also have a few things lined up for February but they’re unconfirmed so people will just have to watch out.

Your latest single ‘Hullabaloo’ was released on 19th January, how did you celebrate the occasion?

A: Well, actually we celebrated by getting up at 7:30 (AM) and going off to school to do a load of mock exams. Probably not the best timing from us there but when we uploaded the song it slipped our mind that it was going to be released in the middle of a week of mock exams. So it's been half promo, half revision these past couple of weeks.

You mention Yard Act as an influence, this is quite a current band. Are there any other newer bands out there that have really made an impression on you?

B: In a similar vein to Yard Act vocally I suppose in their spoken word style but Sprints are a big influence. Bull, too - who are just the nicest people of all time as well - are big inspirations. Dry Cleaning are doing some really innovative stuff; Scratchard Lanyard is well on the way to being seminal and Unsmart Lady too. Actually, slightly more in the mainstream i thought that Billy Bragg’s Million Things That Never Happened had some beautiful lyrics- “An’ all of the songs that I never wrote… are rottin’ in the pocket of my winter coat.'' The metre of that was something that was electric the first time I heard it. 

What’s next for The Rosemaries?

B: World domination.

A: Maybe not, but on a more serious note I don’t think we’re limiting our ambitions. Essentially we’re just gonna follow the sound. Of course we’d love to make it big, but we don’t want to do it by making fluff for some random record executive. If we get popular we’d want to be changing the sound of the mainstream, not conforming to it. But yeah, we’re just going with the flow and letting the music take us wherever.

We’d like to thank Both Billy (B) and Arthur (A) for taking the time to reply to our mundane questions but we’re grateful that they did as I feel that this feature allows any would be fans the chance to delve a little deeper into their minds and find out more about them that you would normally do.

To keep up to date with their musical happenings, head to the following sites, give them a like, a share, a kiss, whatever floats your boat!

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