Local groove-jam four-piece Grow have finally unveiled the first fruits of last year’s recording sessions at Castleford’s Buffalo Studios. Their debut single, Your Own Time, backed by Take It And Run, has been produced by JB Pilon and is released on brand new local label Grayston Unity Records.
Luke (guitar): “We wrote Your Own Time just two weeks before going into the studio. We wanted an absolute banger.”
Isaac (drums): “There’s elements in there of all the other songs mashed into one.”
Luke: “It’s got loads going on. The harmonies, the outro, the key change at the end that just lifts it and speeds it up.”
Isaac: “That was JB.”
Founder of Buffalo Studios, JB Pilon, has worked as an engineer, mixer and sound tech for over 20 years. The artists he’s collaborated with have racked up many millions of streams between them and he’s worked in iconic studios like Abbey Road, RAK, Konk, Livingston and Cloud Hills in Hamburg. Describing his specialist genre as “anything groovy, dirty, jazzy, sexy or trippy”, JB is a perfect fit for Grow.
Luke: “He’s a really good producer. He knows his stuff. We did one day with him a few weeks before the recording sessions and he told us exactly what we needed for these songs. So we went off and worked on them for three weeks.”
Isaac: “It was a bit humbling at the time because we thought we had these songs cracked.”
Luke: “We went through the song structures a lot. We changed the drums. He knew, with our sound, we wanted this groove and the drums are a big part of that.”
Isaac: “It was a challenge when we got in the studio. He wanted this dragged drum kind of thing, just behind the groove, which sounds good, but I found it quite tricky. But we got there.”
Luke: “We had four days in the studio and we did it all pretty much live, as a unit. There was no individual recording, apart from the vocals. It probably took us about 10 takes each. Then we added little bits of slide guitar or whatever. He had so many different instruments. Mainly keyboards. Shack [Harry Shackleton – keys] was in heaven. He had this massive grand piano, an original Mellotron, a Hammond organ, a Fender Rhodes. He mixed it up with all these different sounds, which just took it further.”
Isaac: “It makes you want to do it full time.”
Luke: “Yeah, that four days away, it was like a holiday.”
Isaac: “We actually stayed in the studio. There was a bunk room with three bunk beds and then Luke brought an airbed.”
Grow are a close-knit bunch. Isaac and Shack have known each other since they were kids. Harry’s dad and singer Jack’s dad used to play together in a local band called Broadcast.
Isaac: “I’ve always been in bands and Shack wanted to start a band. Then Jack came in – we had another guy singing originally. Then we decided to download this app called Vampr, which is like Tinder for musicians. One day my eyes just landed on Luke Bradley. It was love at first sight. We were messaging Luke and didn’t hear back, but I was certain he was the right fit. Months go by, we Google him, we find out he’s a guitar teacher. We’re ringing him. Nothing. Then one day he decided to return the call.”
The band line-up complete, Grow have spent the past 18 months steadily accruing avid followers in the Calder Valley, gigging as often as work and life commitments allow. Luke’s a guitar teacher, Isaac works in marketing at Dean Clough and Harry is an Olympic level skateboard coach. Jack is described by Isaac and Luke as “a man of many jobs”. An article in itself.
Among the fans they have attracted, two of the biggest are Grayston Unity owner, Michael Ainsworth, and venue manager, Tom Townsend. They heard the finished tracks from Grow’s sessions at Buffalo and were mightily impressed. So impressed, in fact, they wanted to make sure the EP got a proper release and promptly set up the label Grayston Unity Records to help facilitate it. Launchpad, an organisation that provides advice, funding and opportunities to musicians and aspiring music business professionals in Yorkshire, are also on board.
The debut single features two of the four tracks recorded at Buffalo – Your Own Time and Take It And Run. The band are looking to release a six-track EP later in the year, which may feature recordings of the other two songs from those original sessions, River Rocks and Flowers, as well as newer material.
Isaac: “We had five or six songs in mind at first. We had Secondhand Gamble and Mother Nature’s Way as well.”
Luke – “JB helped us decide.”
Grow draw on the artistry of classic songwriters like Neil Young and Kevin Ayers. The legacy of stoner rock is never too far away either, or the spacial jams of Pink Floyd. Steely Dan vibes make an appearance too. You can hear traces of Nineties and Noughties indie – Oasis, Supergrass and the like. But there are also many more modern electronic embellishments, as well as the funk and rawness of bands like Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The ingredients are many and varied.
Luke: “I write a lot like King Krule.”
Isaac: “For drums, I like bands like the Black Crows. Van Halen.”
Grow’s early songs have tended to originate from a piano chord sequence, written by Shack, with the full band then shaping the initial idea.
The final studio version of Your Own Time reflects such an approach. It opens up with a colourful, dancing piano line, raggish and breezy. Jack’s vocal, tinged with Gallagher swagger, gives the track an immediate sense of purpose. It’s brimming with indie-pop singalong effervescence on the surface while, below the water line, intricate melodies bob and weave. The song builds to a decadent, rousing finale, all manner of funk flourishes and acute studio touches adding gravitas to what is, essentially, an irresistible and infectious radio-friendly rock chorus.
B-side Take It And Run, with its fluid brush strokes of piano-led indie, floats with an airy confidence, cohesive yet loose, resembling Keane at their peak. There are elements of bands like Athlete, Turin Brakes and Guillemots in there too, while there is a beguiling, retro-grade comfort in the lounge-ish harmonies that is somewhat similar to those conjured up by Arctic Monkeys on their last album The Car.
Your Own Time has an accompanying video, produced by Nick Small, who has worked with the likes of Manic Street Preachers, Fuzzbox, New Model Army, Sunk Anansie, Pop Will Eat Itself and The Wildhearts.
Isaac: “Nick liked the songs and had an idea for Your Own Time. So that’s the one we’ve focused on. We’d already recorded a video for Take It And Run with James Mirfield, who does all our photography. He’s a top guy. He did an amazing job in a random field out in Booth.”
For more news on that, all future releases and upcoming gigs, follow @growtheband.
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