CONCRETE CLUB INTERVIEW |

Despite only releasing their first track just over a year ago, Concrete Club have rail roaded their way right to the forefront of the Manchester emerging indie scene and show no signs of slowing down.

With a string of headline shows and festival slots under their belts, the Manchester 4 piece formed by Jonny Brewster (Vocals & Bass), Kallum Delf (Guitar), Jamie Butterworth (Guitar) and Jonny McGill (Drums) are destined to make 2023 their year. July saw the band release their debut EP The Riot Act, a 4-track concept EP that strikes the perfect balance between celebrating youthful reckless abandon, and displaying a level of musical maturity impressive for a band so new to the scene.

With a characteristically sarcastic and elusive Instagram bio of ‘Musicians, not builders’ you may be wondering just who these new kids on the (breeze) block are. We stole the band for a chat after their gig at Manchester’s Off the Square to find out more about the men (at work) behind the instruments.

NE: So where does the name Concrete Club come from?

Jonny B: So I was watching Fear City on Netflix and there was a section about the Mafia in New York in the 70’s and 80’s. They basically owned all the construction companies and all of the sky scrapers that were built around that time were built by the Mafia. They had this thing called the Concrete Club because they owned all the construction companies. So I thought that’s a cool name.

Jonny M: So if the band doesn’t work out we’ll tarmac your drive for a good price.

NE: How long have you been gigging together?

Jonny B: It’s been about a year now. Our first ever gig was on the hallowed ground that is The Peer Hat.

Jamie: I was the latest edition I joined in October, and my first gig with these guys was at Off the Square, where we’ve just played. I started off doing a bit of band photography for them and ended up joining the band. Looking back on that first gig we all played together in October compared to now, its amazing to see how far we’ve come. The difference is like night and day.

NE: So what’s your writing process? Who writes your lyrics?

Jamie: That would be Kallum, he’s the magician, our very own Stephen Stills.
Kallum: I write the words and the music on a guitar, occasionally I’ll fuck around with other instruments. Then I’ll take it to Jonny Brewster over there and we’ll sit in our kitchen- we live together. He’ll come up with the bass line, he’s fucking brilliant at coming up with bass lines and he’ll tweak the melody to suit his voice a little bit.

Then we take it to the band and see if they think it’s shit or they like it. If they think it’s shit then I’m like right… give me a week.

Today was just a snippet, we’ve got about 75 tunes in the bag that I like …. I need to get a life really.

Jonny M: We give Prince a run for his money.

NE: Tell us a bit more about your new EP ‘The Riot Act’?

Jonny M: It’s shit hot.

Kallum: Some songs take about 5 minutes to write, Jackie Don’t Mind is one of those songs. But the title track The Riot Act, I came up with it when I was watching some bands and I thought that’s either an album, a band name or a song, and it took 6 months. Cause getting the syllables right for the chorus was fucking nuts. A lot of people see the song as about a relationship, and it kind of is, but it can be about anything, your boss or your parents giving you a bollocking or whatever – we’ve all been there.

All the Bombs is one of our earliest songs, written in 2017.

NE: That’s surprising as it seems like all the songs are following a similar theme, The Riot Act, All the Bombs, it’s got quite a strong image.

Kallum: Yeah it all worked together as a bit of a concept EP. You’ve been kicked out, you go on a mad one, Relentless is about the drive after you’ve been kicked out of your house, All The Bombs is about all of the drugs that you do, and Electric Sunrise is my personal favourite.

It was another song before, and we recorded it but the words were shit. I went can I just have the music and try and make something else from it. And we did and it just so happened to work with the kind of concept. You’ve gone through a hell of a night and you’re waking up and seeing the Electric Sunrise.

NE: If your music could embody any object what would it be?

Jonny B: (Looks at Jonny M) Don’t fucking say it.

Jonny M: I know, I know, let’s keep this PG.

Jonny B: An old roman mosaic would be nice.

Kallum: Yeah, buried for 2000 years.

Jonny B: Yeah just something they’ve been waiting to uncover for 2000 years.

NE: What’s your most controversial music opinion?

Jonny B: I’m not a big fan of Oasis, which is controversial when you live in Manchester. Blur are considerably better. I hate that so many bands in Manchester want to sound like Oasis.

Jamie: I don’t like Morrisey but that’s hardly controversial.

Jonny M: Get rid of Wet Leg man.

NE: If you could support any artist at any venue what would it be?

Kallum: Joy Division at Jackson’s Pit in Oldham in 1979.

Jamie: The Castle in Oldham before it was knocked down, The Castle was mint.
Kallum: Or The Cure at Glastonbury.

NE: If you could have any artist watch you from the crowd who would it be, who would you want to impress?

Kallum: Paul McCartney, he’s a genius.

Jonny M: JayZ.

Jonny B: Mozart or Bach, what the hell would they think of our music? They would have never seen anything like it, it would be interesting to see what they think about what music has become.

NE: What’s coming next for you guys?

Jonny: We’ve just done a performance music video for the song The Riot Act, which was our first music video so that’s out now. But our next plan is to record some songs at Vibe Studios and play lots of gigs and festivals. We’re playing North Fest in Failsworth, we’re doing a charity gig at the Peer Hat on the 19TH of August for Before and After events, and we’ve got a headline gig at Gullivers on the 29th of September.

Kallum: We’ve got one in London on the 16th of September too, I love the London gigs.

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