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Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with unsigned UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with unsigned London band The Steady Letters to find out more…

Who is in the band, how did you meet, where are you from and how did you come up with the band name?
Joe is our lead singer and songwriter from Tooting, South London. He met Tom our drummer when they both worked in restaurants- Tom is a world class pizza chef! Joe then recruited Andy our bassist from an open mic night that he’s been running for about 4 years in Clapham, where Andy was playing acoustic guitar… Andy is a bit of a multi-instrumentalist wizard.

We then had a big hole to fill, with guitarists swapping in and out for live shows, before finally finding Simon to play lead guitar. Safe to say he’s the wildcard of the band and we love him for it. The name ‘The Steady Letters’ came from Joe having studied English at uni, while he tried to figure out what to do with his life, and eventually turning that into a way to develop his awesome lyric writing.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
We all have different inspirations, but if you look at the songs we all play together for fun whenever we have the chance to play covers at a gig- we tend to gravitate towards big indie rock tunes and love playing a bit of White Stripes or some Black Keys. We’ve always been inspired by bands that put on a good live show and our influences now are all of the amazing up-and-comers that we’ve shared a stage with in the last couple of years. Music isn’t always easy but they always give 100% and make it a good time.

How would you describe your sound?
We have often been compared to Arctic Monkeys and The Black Keys, with lots of guitar hooks and catchy lyrics (especially in the early days of our sound). Now we’re really trying to branch out and introduce new sounds into the band and give it a new twist- synthesisers, wild guitar effects, and a more mature song structure.

What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our current single is called “The Blue.” It’s about breaking out of the shackles that modern life places upon us (especially at the moment) and learning to be free in the moment. We’ve released our first proper music video with it and it’s turned out better than any of us could have imagined- we love it, and we want everyone to see it. The director is a really talented up-and-comercalled Alexander Jeremy and the actor Sarah put in a phenomenal performance. We really love it.

What’s your local music scene like?
There is a great scene in London and we’ve played gigs at lots of awesome venues that are right on our doorstep including Nambucca, The Old Blue Last, Sebright Arms, Water Rats, and lots more! It’s great to have hundreds of venues on your doorstep and be able to share the bill with so many different artists.

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We actually have three new singles already in the pipeline so it’s going to be a huge year for us! We’re hoping that people enjoy the new sounds we’ve been discovering, and also the music videos that we’ll be putting out.

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
We’ve always wanted to get into the studio with a legendary rock producer, like Josh Homme, to see what would come out of the other side of that collaboration. Otherwise- it would be great to collaborate with an artist that’s a million miles from our genre, for the exact same reason.

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
There are a couple of people in the band who, not naming names, you never know what they’re gonna do on stage. Let’s just say their name starts with S and ends in imon. There have been a few beverages consumed, and a few people licked.

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
Things are just going to keep getting better this year – even better songs and (hopefully) bigger shows.

You can find out more about The Steady Letters via Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitter or YouTube.