WALLS

Competing up against 543 up and coming artists to secure a slot on the Lakefest Main Stage alongside Gaz Coombes and Johnny Marr, Sheffield based quartet WALLS made it all the way to the grand final. The final, which took place last month at Cheltenham’s Brewery Quarter saw the winners of the three regional semi finals come together for the ultimate battle of the bands. On the day, WALLS faced competition from Kisskie, BARSTAFF, Laurie Wright, The Chase, Jordan Hemingway, Leon O’Leary, Morning Tourist and eventual Amped Competition winners Two Pounds Down. Despite not collecting the grand prize, WALLS will still excited to be joining all finalists and semi finalists on Lakefest exclusive AMPED! stage.

The South Yorkshire lads first came together in 2018 after meeting at Hillsborough’s Tramlines festival. Collectively, the band aspire to bring the familiarity of traditional rock n roll with a modern flare and working class edge. Armed with classic rock inspired rifts and a breezy ambient glow. They released their debut singles Fatuous and This One late 2022 with ambitious plans to release an EP in the not so distant future. Safe to say WALLS were delighted to reach the AMPED! Competition final last month and look forward to bringing that energy to Lakefest this weekend.

We caught up with WALLS ahead of the festival to ask all things AMPED! and what else is to come.

Describe your sound in three words?

In Your Face

Congratulations making it all the way to the Amped final last weekend! How did it feel to get down to the final 10 out of over 500 artists?

We weren’t even thinking we’d get noticed in all honesty, just to play The Cavern Club in the semi-finals was a pinch-me, dream come true moment for all of us. After getting down to the last ten in the finals I think our brains just melted into mush, certainly no ego was inflated, we were just incredibly honoured to be chosen and appreciated for our art amongst the incredibly high calibre competition.

The competition was strong, did you have a favourite to win (from final or semi finals?)

The competition in both the semi-finals and the finals was incredibly strong, everyone deserved to be there but the tastes in our band are slightly varied. Our drummer Lewis really dug the groove of Khaki Fever in the semi-finals and our guitarist Brad almost fell in love with Laurie Wright and his high octane rock and roll. On the other hand, cousins Cameron and Kyle (frontman and bassist), were firm backers of The ‘Charming’ Chase as winners – they couldn’t help but fall under the charismatic spell of these lot and dance their northern souls out to ska.

As with all Amped finalists and semi finalists, you will still play this year’s festival on the dedicated Amped stage. What can festival goers expect from your Lakefest set?

Four bread-and-butter South Yorkshire lads smashing out some dirty original rock music that DOESN’T sound like the Arctic Monkey’s debut record… for once.

Who are you hoping to watch at Lakefest?

We definitely want to catch as much of Johnny Marr’s set as possible with our frontman being a die-hard Smiths fan. We also want to catch up with a few other finalists/semi-finalists; BARSTAFF, Khaki Fever, Flood Hounds.

If you had won, what would you have the £5K prize been put towards?

The plan was to spend 5k across some high quality studio time putting together an EP, maybe some additional music gear to improve the overall sound, and injecting some money into the universally loathed digital world of social media advertising.

What else do you have planned this year that you would like to share with our readers?

We’re going into the studio after our LakeFest performance to record a bunch of new singles and then we’ll be getting out there on the Tour de South Yorkshire in late September / early October. LONDON CALLING – we’ll also be appearing live at The Dublin Castle in Camden on 26th November.

Finally, if we see you at the bar what are you having??

Lewis: ‘As many lagers as possible’

Bradley: ‘Old man scotch whiskey’

Kyle: ‘Pint in working men’s’

Cameron: ‘all the money in the till please, hand it over, there’s a good lad’