13 November 2023
Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with London band Calyco 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 name?
We met during lockdown and auditioned each other to be part of a group and the name is comprised of letters of the members, Angel, Chloe, Izzy, Julie and Mollie.
Angel is from London, Chloe is from Scotland, Izzy is from Suffolk, Julie is from Spain and Mollie is from Manchester. We all live in London.
Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
So many musical influences but definitely groups like Destiny’s Child, En Vogue, Spice Girls and TLC. Also male groups such as One Direction, Jodeci and New Edition.
Influences now are very much ourselves. We have a rich mix of latin, hip hop, pop, rnb and afrobeat in the mix for our songs.
How would you describe your sound?
Pop music infused with rnb, hip hop, latin and afrobeat.
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
The latest single is called Don’t Stop Never Quit. It’s a song about never giving up on your dreams no matter what people say. We co-wrote this with a producer from LA that we met called Andrø Pop and we had so much fun writing this over Zoom and finally putting this out there. We also worked with Lenscape Junkie on the video where we got to wear different outfits and get across our vision.
What’s your local music scene like?
Not as many performance venues as we would like but we are trying to encourage more bands to get together and play bigger venues.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We have started on a schools tour in the UK and we hope that over 2024 we can expand this to Ireland, Europe and the USA.
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
So many artists but probably somebody old school and fun like Pitbull or Sean Paul.
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
We were lucky enough to perform in Paris in 2022 and even though we had a French speaker (Angel), we all made an effort to learn a few lines in French to entertain the crowd. We received such a massive cheer every time we spoke in French.
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
Calyco are a positive force for change. We believe in bringing increased diversity in heritage and language into the music industry and hope that other female artists can be inspired by our journey.
You can find out more about Calyco via Apple Music, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, TikTok, X (Twitter) or YouTube.
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