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6 October 2025

Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with Tommy from Liverpool band Horrid Fog 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?
I, Tommy, met Joe shortly after moving to Liverpool. I had been in bands before but went through a lot during the pandemic, suddenly losing both my parents (who were big believers in my music) and giving up on pursuing or writing music in any way. I then moved to Liverpool a few years later and was looking to make new friends, so I posted on reddit (r/liverpoolmusic) looking for people to just casually jam with. Joe had also previously been in bands and worked in studios but hadn’t played in a few years, so he and I became friends really quickly, and when we realised that the music we were making was actually good, we decided to take it a bit more seriously and formed Horrid Fog.

It began as just a studio project, and we released our first EP last Winter, recorded almost entirely in Joe’s flat. This year we decided to work on a live show, and that’s when we found Fab (our bass player) and Robin (our drummer).

The name comes from one of the lyrics I had written for a song about grief. A lot of my lyrics are inspired by folk songs and sea shanties so the lyric goes “When that Horrid Fog was in your eyes, and your holding pieces in your chest, well you better be not too surprised when there isn’t any pieces left”.

We really struggled to come up with a name and when Joe suggested we just take that from the lyric it immediately stuck. Some people really like it and some people really don’t, I think that’s why I like it haha. Loads of people call us Horrid Frog, which I don’t mind because it’s quite funny.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
We had similar influences, both mine and Joe’s dads were into the folk rock scene of the 60s and 70s, like Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy, Steeleye Span. There’s this really weird band called Comus that basically did one folk-horror album in the 70s who are a massive influence on me. But we’re both also really into more modern psychedelic rock influences. We also both love big productions so artists like Rufus Wainwright also have an influence on our music.

How would you describe your sound?
I’d describe it as psychedelic folk rock. The songs themselves (the themes, language, lyrics, structure) are heavily folk inspired. But we also lean heavily into heavy rock riffs and more proggy arrangements. My favourite film is the Wickerman (not the Nic Cage one!) so I would maybe describe us as Wickerman-rock.

What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest release, our self titled EP, we’re really proud of. Two of the songs on there are originals and it also includes an arrangement of a folk song called High Germany, which was most notably made famous by Martin Carthy. It covers a range of topics: grief, paganism, war, loss, magic, the ocean. I think it has really connected with people that are into history, folklore and spooky stuff but all the stories are about real struggles.

What’s your local music scene like?
Liverpool is such a unique place. It’s obviously got a lot of history with music, and the music scene is very, very busy but it still has a local feel to it. My dad was a scouser and he called it “the world’s biggest village”. There’s tons of venues and gigs going on but also everyone kind of knows each other.

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We have just recorded a song as a reaction to the Unite the Kingdom campaign/the rise of Tommy Robinson supporters. We are actually working on another 5 track EP but we both felt so emotional about what was going on that we basically paused everything to work on this song. I asked Joe what he thought about doing something like this and he said “Absolutely yes. Music is about expressing how you feel and this is how we feel right now”, so that will be coming out in the next week.

After that we are finishing up our second EP, which we’re aiming to release on halloween. We’re also planning to do more live shows around the north.

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Even though we think a lot of people would describe us as a rock band, we’d love to collaborate with some more of the artists in the folk scene. Bands like the North Sea Radio Orchestra. We’d also love to work with some string groups like the Manchester Collective.

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
When we first started writing we went to some open mic nights just to see how audiences would react to the music. There’s this great one in Liverpool called at the Belvedere, which is basically just a few musicians in a room above a pub. It’s super intimate and everyone was playing these gorgeous acoustic songs, and then we played a 7 minute rock song on our guitars and it definitely changed the mood a little bit.

Do you have any upcoming live dates and performances?
Yes! Saturday 18th October at the Jacaranda, Liverpool.

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
We don’t think that there are many bands out there that sound like us, and we also put so much thought into our songs that the more you dive into the lyrics, the arrangements, the production, the more cool things I think you’ll find.

You can find out more about Horrid Fog via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Instagram, Spotify or YouTube Music.