I stumbled upon a new band on TikTok called RATTLESHAKE the other night, they were asking for follows so to help move things along, I sent across a bunch of questions for them to take a look at, here’s how they got on….

You’re called Rattleshake, you’re a 4-piece band, please tell us a bit more about yourselves, who plays what etc?
So RattleShake is :
Lead Vocals - Kelcie Sanders
Drums - Szymon Koczur
Bass - Harry Fray
Guitar - Harry Fowler

When did you form the band?
I (Harry Fowler) put the band together roughly in the middle of January this year (2024) with some members of the last band I was in and some new members. It felt that now was a good time to put it together with plenty of time to get ready for potential performances in the summer.

Were you in bands before forming RATTLESHAKE?
Myself and Szymon were all in a band together during secondary school, we had done a few performances together in that previous band. Harry Fray was in a band within his school as well and has done performances.

Did you all know one another before the band formed?
As I previously said, I knew Szymon from school, Harry Fray and Kelcie also knew each other from school which is how we got Kelcie as a singer due to her knowing Harry. This was after I brought Harry in after finding him through an online musicians website.  

Interesting name, tell me how it came about?
The name came about after we were all just throwing every possible name we could think of just to have something to brand ourselves as. I was trying to think of anything and was scrolling through my liked songs to try and find any inspiration. I saw two songs called Rattle Snake Shake, one by Skid Row and one by Motley Crue and it just seemed natural for some reason to just chop the middle word out and the others went with it.

You’re based in Leicester, are you all from there?
We are all local to Leicester, this means that it isn't too difficult for us to all get together.

How is the music scene in Leicester right now?
In all fairness, I'm not entirely aware of the extent of the music scene in Leicester at the moment, we did host ‘Radio 2 Live in the Park’ last year.

Please shout out any live music venues in the local area which deserve a mention
Harry Fray : The Donkey in Leicester, where he saw a really good Punk Band called The Boilers.
Harry Fowler : The Musician which I saw Ginger Wildheart play the other night, De Montfort Hall where I have seen bands like Status Quo, The Proclaimers and Europe.

Do you all share the same tastes in music?
Everyone has a general appreciation for many kinds of music which obviously includes lots of Rock and Subgenres of rock but also much more. But some popular genres are hard rock, heavy metal, 2000s punk rock, 80s hair metal, and classic rock. But at the same time we have some folk and new wave influencing myself and pop rock, phonk, techno and electronic influencing other parts of the band.

I saw a couple of videos on TikTok of you performing tracks by CREAM and Amy Macdonald, which other bands or artists do you enjoy?
Harry Fowler: My favourite bands are without a doubt Def Leppard, Status Quo and Bowling for Soup
Harry Fray: Blur, Black Sabbath or really anything Ozzy
Kelcie : Fall Out Boy. Always has been, don't even need to think about it
Szymon : It's got to be Linkin Park, I absolutely love Linkin Park, the energy the emotion, everything about Linkin Park is just incredible

Would you cite these as key influences?
I'd definitely say these bands all influence our playing and my songwriting is heavily influenced by the rhythms of Status Quo, chord work and structure of Def Leppard and Bowling for Soup and solos from Volbeat and Europe in the melodic nature.

What are your plans for releasing music?
We are currently working on a few songs, many of which are not too far from completion so we would like to be releasing them as soon as possible. As well as this, we are writing more new songs all the time.

Any plans for gigs yet or is it too early?
We currently don't have any immediate plans to gig, we want to focus on building our chops and stage presence as we are still relatively new playing all together. This does alo mean we currently have no festivals in the diary.

Who would you LOVE to share a stage with in the future?
Harry Fowler : I think it would be amazing to share a stage with Phil Collen, Ginger Wildheart, Justin Hawkins and Jaret Reddick because they are all massive influences and i think it would be really cool to play with them.
Harry Fray : The guys from Iron Maiden, i think their energy is amazing it would be incredible to experience that energy with them on stage
Kelcie : Patrick Stump, and obviously all the others from Fall Out Boy, but definitely Patrick Stump!

If you could curate a 3-day music festival using ANY bands or artists (they can be dead or alive) who would you choose and why?
Harry Fray : To be fair I'd just love to see Ozzfest come back more than anything.
Harry Fowler : I'm going to cheat and choose the line up from the 1986 and 1990 monsters of Rock Donnington festival for 2 days and the last day the Moscow Music peace festival

Is there ONE album out there that you will NEVER tire from hearing?
Harry Fowler : Pyromania - Def Leppard, Sorry for Partyin' - Bowling for Soup, Just Supposing - Status Quo, Generation Wild - Crashdiet, Skid Row - Skid Row. All of them are perfect albums beginning to end for me all day every day
Harry Fray : Nice and simple answer, Paranoid by Black Sabbath is a musical masterpiece

Describe your perfect meal?
Harry Fray : I LOVE steak pie
Harry Fowler : A roast dinner, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Lamb any, it's all good
Kelcie : Pork, im not chef so no specifics, just pork and crackling

Which social media sites are best to keep up to date with your journey?
Keep up with our TikTok and Insta to make sure you are up to date with the band and any developments, and music and gig announcements.

Finally, would you rather live with a singing dog or a gorilla that cleans?
Harry Fray : Definitely the gorilla because honestly, the amount of time you'd save I could use to write music
Harry Fowler : I'd say the dog because, well, it's a dog which is already a win but it sings as well? Even better
Kelcie : The dog would be so fun!

Keep up to date with the band’s movements and whereabouts via their Linktr.ee

Interview by Steve Muscutt