1 December 2025
Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with London based band The Here and Now 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?
The Here and Now are all London-based and currently consists of Cherry (Lead vocals), Rich (drums), Jason (guitar and backing vocals), Callum (bass). The band was formed in 2020 during lockdown (great time to start a band right!?!) by Rich and the band’s original bassist, who both met at uni in the early 2010s. Later in 2020 Cherry was introduced via a mutual friend and joined. Jason rounded out the band becoming a 4-piece in 2023 and Callum stepped into bass duties in 2025. The name is taken from a lyric in a song by the UK band, Architects, and is a nod to us seeing the band as a vehicle for protecting our mental health and seeing writing and performing music together almost as therapy.
Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
We’re proud to have such eclectic music tastes and influences between us, but we’re all drawn together by some legendary rock/pop/alternative artists from different decades including Queens of the Stone Age, Paramore, Muse and Alabama Shakes. Jason loves the iconic effects wizardry and catchy riffs of Matt Bellamy, Tom Morello and big hooks of Queens of the Stone Age. Rich loves the powerful, dynamic range and emotive playing from Travis Barker (Blink-182), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Abe Cunningham (Deftones). Cherry’s powerful vocals draw from a number of legendary female vocalists including none other than Hayley Williams of Paramore. Callum loves to fuse elements of funk and folk into rock music and keeping the bass lively like Mike Kerr of Royal Blood.
How would you describe your sound?
We’ve been told by a lot of people that our sound has evolved to be reminiscent of 90’s rock/grunge (which we never complain about of course and are very flattered by).
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest release is a track called ‘Riptide’ which is about the pain of being with somebody when you’re both damaging each other. Things can seem calm on the surface, but underneath you’re caught in a riptide that might pull you out to sea.
What’s your local music scene like?
Of course, London has an incredible music scene and a lot of fantastic underground, independent venues which we’ve loved playing over the years. We’ve shared bills with some really talented artists over the years and some who’ve made their own unique sound that you wouldn’t necessarily hear on the radio or at larger shows. Sure, the crowds may be pretty small at some of these shows and it may be dominated by friends/family of artists but you can really get exposed to some rough diamonds by going to support artists at these smaller shows at independent venues… everyone starts somewhere.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
Earlier this year we were focusing on recording the songs for our upcoming EP, of which Riptide is the first single from. Now we have a new lineup and will be releasing the EP over the coming months, we’re excited to get back out live more regularly to play these new songs before hopefully playing a bit more outside of London and some festivals next year.
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
What a great question! I don’t think we can have a definite answer, but, we love bringing together our various musical loves and genre bending a bit so maybe a collab with an artist or band with a different sound to us would be pretty cool.
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
We were playing a show in Soho last year, which was probably one of our favourite shows together to date, when Jason’s guitar and amp completely cut out for almost the entirety of a song. Of course, the rest of us managed to keep it together and not crack (even throwing in a bass solo to jazz the song up a bit in the temporary absence of any guitar) whilst Jason looked like a lost puppy pacing the stage trying to figure out what the issue was. After the song ended, sure enough it was a very simple fix from the sound person which was pretty much like flicking a switch on. As if that wasn’t enough, one of the house cymbal stands fell 6x during the set, which of course is a nightmare for drummers. Any musicians who’ve experienced similar know those situations can be pretty annoying and can feel like they last an eternity, but we managed to laugh the whole thing off and still had a blast playing.
Do you have any upcoming live dates and performances?
Saturday 13th December at O2 Academy2 Islington and Tuesday 27th January at Star in Shoreditch.
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
We’re passionate about greater diversity on bills, particularly in rock music. We’ve played many shows where Cherry is the only woman band member across any of the acts on a bill or there are not often people of colour on stage…
You can find out more about The Here and Now via Apple Music, Instagram, Spotify, TikTok or YouTube.
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