
Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with Manchester band We Three Kings 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?
Rich is originally from Nottingham but moved to Manchester for Uni and settled here, Pete is from Salford, we both met at work in the city centre, we both had been involved in other projects, Rich invited Pete to join a rock covers band and that is where the bromance began!! We Three Kings was born out of the ashes of the cover band, 3 of us remained and decided to have a go at writing our own music, the name came about after much deliberation, and we settled on a title based on being a three piece (in hindsight now we’re a two piece, maybe not the wisest of moves!!!).
We’ve come so far we can’t change it now!
Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
Where do we start! My (Pete’s) influences growing up, there were so many, Queen was huge! Always on around the house, lots of British music, from The Beatles, Stones (obvs) to Deep Purple, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Status Quo even, my Dad was into the more rockier stuff, my Mum was into Eurythmics, Madonna, The Beatles (only the early stuff, not when they “went weird”!! The influences were wide ranging!
As I got older, American rock became a big influence – I loved Guns N’ Roses, Rage Against the machine, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and later years Foo Fighters, my brother played Extreme and Mr Big non stop! and you can’t forget the Juggernaut that is AC/DC! Huge influence.
And I also moved into folk and acoustic as I started to play guitar… Jeff Buckley, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan…
And of course being from Manchester, lots of the local bands of the time, The Charlatans, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, James, Oasis, New Order… basically all of that scene, you can’t be from this city and NOT be influenced by it!!
Band influences now – a lot of the above that we still listen to and love, that has all helped to shape our sound.
How would you describe your sound?
Riff heavy, energetic, fuzzed up good time rock and roll music! If you like that sort of stuff you will like us! And if you don’t believe us, to quote from a reviewer we are “Rapid neck snapping mosh worthy rock that will have a live audience in a manic frenzy” we’ll take that!
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Gold Digger was released in January, the song is flipping the narrative of what society sees as a gold digger, from the female to the male, telling the story from the male perspective, welcoming us into his world, he is unashamed of his lifestyle, in fact he seems to enjoy it! (or so he says!).
What’s your local music scene like?
Eclectic! It’s Manchester innit! Any music genre you want, if you know where to look, you will find it!
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
More music! We have 1 track in the can and more studio time booked, we are through to the quarter finals of Metal2TheMasses BOTB’s on Sunday 24th March Rebellion Manchester, we also have the FireVolt BOTB final on Saturday 11th May again at Rebellion Manchester which if we win, we will open up the FireVolt festival later in the year! Have some festivals dates booked in already, Heaven & Hell fest – 27th April, Call of The Wild – 24th May, Love Rocks Festival – 20th June near Bournemouth, and we will also be gigging in Nottingham and Newcastle towards the back end of the year, so busy year for the band!
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
We have no plans to collaborate right now, our focus is taking our music out to the masses! But never say never! If the right opportunity comes up we will explore it…
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
IF you haven’t seen the band live yet, you will see that there is a third member on stage, Bonesy!!
He is quite quiet, introverted, but please say hello, he won’t bite! In fact he won’t do anything! Check out some live shots of the band to find out more! All will become clear 😉
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
Come and see us live, you will not be disappointed!!
You can find out more about We Three Kings on their website or via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, X (Twitter) or YouTube.