Original Articles

Original Article

If you think that Essex is all about chavs, slags and orange tans, then you are very wrong. If you think that all good indie music must be either American or Northern, then you are also very wrong. It's 10:30am and we are in the West Essex town of Loughton, on the Debden estate to be exact, in a personal recording studio about the size of Gene Simmons' toilet to interview one of the best new bands we have seen for a long time, Incase of Emergency.

Hey guys, How's it going?

Will Portch (Bass): Yeah we're good man, just got back from our first UK headline tour. Driving from Manchester to Southampton in one day in our van was interesting.

Shaquib Rahman (Vocals): It was a lot of fun, but it's f***ing great to be home dude. Living in a van just big enough for three beds that we had to share and a porn shelf isn't the ideal holiday (laughs).

Dan Clark (Guitar): We sold out ten different venues across the country, I didn't know so many people liked us!

WP: I think the Electric Ballroom (Camden, London) gig was probably the best. I remember seeing Enter Shikari there with my brother when I was like 15 and the atmosphere was amazing then, it's so intimate and intense in there.

Is it true you did a secret gig at a home town venue as a warm up?

SR: Yeah the Royal British Legion in Loughton, it was packed-out, I've never seen so many people in there.

George Hall (Drums): I was where we played our first ever gig and we wanted to give something back to the people that helped us get where we are now. We had a few of our mates supporting us which was cool.

How's the album going?

DC: Erm it's almost done. We've written two thirds of it, so after a break we'll go back into the studio to finish writing it and record it.

Do you have a name for it yet?

GH: Wasted. It symbolises the youth of Britain. It might seem a cliche 'cos we are teenagers, but since we were at school we've always had an interest in our own culture and other youths across Britain and how they are treated.

SR: We know that people will take the p**s saying we are typical, grumpy adolescents of the Skins generation, but we do feel strongly about it. Skins is a great example of what adults think kids do, but its completely exaggerated which is what we like.

You are supporting The Wombats on their UK and US tours this year, how did that come about?

WP: Well some of their people got in touch about six months ago saying that they liked our music and that they wanted to meet and speak with us. We met with them in London and they gave us free tickets and travel to a secret gig they were playing Liverpool. So we went up there and after them gig they asked us to support them and took us to a bar, good guys (laughs).

SR: We really love their music, so to play with them will be amazing. We aren't like quite a lot of bands now that think they are big-time straight away without much effort, we are still the same as we were when we first started and playing with our favourite bands completely humbles us.

You sight the London and Essex hardcore scene as a major influence on your music.

GH: Yeah...erm we used to go and see our mates in hardcore bands play gigs thinking if we ever start a band it can never be like this. It used to be a laugh, but we were never really into the music that much.

DC: All the bands that played near us were hardcore so we tried to make something completely different to what was already around.

So when can we expect your album out?

SR: We're aiming at releasing it before the end of the year. We're hoping that we can release it before we tour with Wombats and use the gigs as a bit of promotion but it's not likely, so probably in November or December.

Will Portch



As you know us here at music station like to seek out and promote new and unsigned talent, and today, on this wet and windy afternoon we’re going to be talking to “Tom” a one man band who is filling out venues across the beautiful county of Essex. Which is quite an achievement considering his set consists of him and a Roland electric piano that his grand parents bought him.

Hey Tom how’s it going

Yeah it’s all good mate, the gigs have been a brilliant and I’ve been in the studio for the past couple of months recording my first ep which has been quite an experience since I’ve never been in a proper studio before.

What never?

Nope, all my earlier stuff was recorded in my bedroom on a little mp3 recorder that me and my mates chipped in to buy and on a couple of the tracks you can even hear my mum listening to Magic fm or watching Eastenders downstairs *laughs.

How do you manage to entertain a crowd and do a full set on one instrument?

I don’t know really, it’s something you don’t often see nowadays and I’ve always enjoyed watching and playing acoustic sets, plus I can’t do much else to be honest *laughs.

How would you describe your music?

Erm acoustic indie I suppose but I’m planning to get some friends of mine to come on the road with me and help out with the gigs, and they’re all great musicians anyway so it would be great to add some more depth to my music. Plus it would really help if I had that extra depth when I’m playing covers of songs.

What bands do you normally cover?

Oasis and Radiohead mostly but not I’m just a tit with an acoustic that plays wonder wall, I always try to make my covers as unique as possible and I got a great reception when I performed a cover of “best of you” by Foo fighters at the Camden underworld a few weeks ago and I always get a shiver down my spine when I hear a crowd singing the lyrics back to me.

What do you see as a major influence on your music?

Great performers and pianists like Jamie Cullum, I love his music and his attitude towards other music genres. He just uses aspects of loads of genres to make great music and that’s something I want to aim for. But I can’t forget all the bands me and my mates listen too, it’s because of them that I listen to so much stuff from indie and screamo to rave and techno and always try to fit those other influences into my music so I can sound different to the other pianist singer songwriters there are out there.

When is your EP going to out?

Next month if all goes well, they’re going to be sold at my gigs for a “modest” price apparently *laughs. I’m unsigned so I have to rely on Myspace to get my music out. But I’ve contacted by a small north London based record company called quite riot records, they’ve said they like my stuff and would like to meet me, a date hasn’t been sorted yet but hopefully I’ll chatting with them over tea and biscuits in a few weeks or so.

Tom Hutchin