THE REYTONS INTERVIEW – NEIGHBOURHOOD WEEKENDER 2023

When we last spoke with The Reytons in 2021, the band had just opened Neighbourhood Weekender’s main stage, completing their set on a wing and a prayer as two band members had tested positive for Covid on the eve of the festival. Despite the setback the band took the set in their stride and drew a sizable crowd of dedicated fans despite the early slot.

Two years, a sold our tour and a number one album later, we got the chance to catch up with the band again at the very same festival.

NE: We’re here at Neighbourhood Weekender 2023, you’ve just played The Big Top Stage, how do you think it went?

Jonny: Yeah great, this is the third time that we’ve played here, and you don’t want to expect it to be good, because it’s arrogant to think that it’s going to be amazing, but every time it’s just blown us away. It’s a great festival, we always get a great response, it’s just a great atmosphere every time. And in terms of the festival itself, it’s fantastic and really well run.

NE: We came down to see you here two years ago and two of you had Covid, so a lot has changed since that performance.

Joe: Yeah, that was me and him (points to Lee). So, we’ve only actually played here twice.

Lee: I was on my sofa at home feeling right sorry for mi’sen watching it on a live stream.

Jonny: The fans were amazing, they really came out for us that day, they were like the 12^th man at football singing along.

NE: Your fans seem to always come out to support you, we saw a lot of Reytons shirts in the crowd today.

Lee: Yeah, you always see the people in the front going mad, but I always look past that to see who is catching in on the wings. There’s always a lot of loyal fans in the middle, but there’s also a mad crowd of people on the outside who are just intrigued to see what we’re about which is great. It’s a diverse crowd here but we seemed to go down really well today.

NE: Have you had time to watch any other bands?

Jonny: Yeah, the Lottery Winners are our mates so we watched them.

Joe: Corella are playing as well on the Viola Beach Stage so we’re gonna head over and catch them. Obviously Pulp too.

Lee: Yeah, Pulp will be amazing, the drummer came round earlier and I was like (mimes hyperventilating). What do you say to them? They’re absolute legends aren’t they!

NE: You’ve had a busy few months, what have you been up to?

Lee: Yeah we’ve been travelling about, jetting around. It’s been absolutely breathtaking, hasn’t it?

Jonny: I don’t think we’ve even had time to look up really and reflect on what’s happened. At the end of last year we had an amazing sold out tour, our album campaign, then in January our Number 1 album. Then we were off to Australia, we came back and before we knew it, it was festival season again.

Joe: Yeah, we didn’t even really get a break after Australia. It was basically straight off the plane; 14 hours sleep and then back on the road again.

NE: Sounds like hard work, but worth it?

Jonny: You feel like you can’t even call it work, you feel like you’re nicking a living. I say it every time we’re on stage, I feel like we’re winging it, so we’re just so grateful for every opportunity that we’ve had and that we are getting. If this is as good as it gets then, fucking hell we’re happy with that, this is more than we ever even expected.

NE: How did it feel when your album What’s Rock and Roll? went to number 1?

Jonny: It’s weird, when you put that much passion, energy and effort into something, when you finally get to that point your body just shuts down. We’ve all got our own trophies, mine sits next to the telly, and sometimes I look at it and start laughing like “What the fuck is that doing in here”. But we’ve definitely worked for it, we’ve gotta keep grafting, the sky is the limit now.

Joe: Yeah it’s kinda like when a dog is chasing its tail and finally catches it, it doesn’t know what to do with it.

Lee: I think we had about 12 hours sleep all week on the run up to it. It’s weird cause as soon as you’ve got it you want to hold it up, you want the world to kinda stop and celebrate it. But it doesn’t, you win on the Friday and then wake up on the Monday and it’s like right what’s next. All that being said, getting a number 1 album is as magical as you think it is. It’s amazing, I took it straight home to my mum and cried.

Jonny: It’s like when we do big shows, we did Sheffield 02 academy and it was the first time that we had sold out the big room, we were walking off stage and all your friends and family are there and buzzing, wanting to have an after party. Which is great obviously, but sometimes you wish that you could pause it, go to sleep for a little bit and then the next morning be like: “Right I’m ready to be excited today”.

NE: Can you tell me more about the album, I know you released it independently?

Jonny: Well like every young band, the dream is to sign for a major label, you imagine tour busses and travelling the world. But it came to a point when we realized that knocking on the door wasn’t going to work, so we thought we’ll just have to kick the door down ourselves and do it independently. From a business point of view, we’ve always been savvy with what we’re doing. We’ve got to this point by grafting and working other jobs, and now we’ve been lucky enough to go full time with the band. We sold out Magna, a 4500-capacity venue in Rotherham which was an amazing event, then we had a sold-out tour. We took the money from that and invested it back into this album which felt really special but it was a gamble.

Joe: It was red or black to be fair.

Lee: Even the money we earn from festivals, we take it and re-invest it in the band. Putting on arena shows and stuff you know, somebody has to pay for that. I’d like to tell you we have nice cars but we don’t. I say this as we’re all sat here wearing Raybans – we’ve all got nice sunglasses but that’s it. (Laughing)

NE: What’s Rock and Roll? feels like a very 2023 album with references to algorithms and ‘Turkey teeth’, was that intentional?

Jonny: Yeah, I feel like our style has always been social commentary. When it comes down to the content of the lyrics, we just observe things around us and it almost writes itself. We’re not naive it will date, but I feel like the people listening to us today, especially the younger ones, they’re gonna remember this time as a special time for them and we’ve hopefully captured some of that in the lyrics.

Joe: It’s a nice contrast to our older stuff, because we were talking about 3210’s. We’ve modernized and gone, what’s actually happening right now? The album is a kind of time capsule.

NE: What can we expect from The Reytons for the rest of the year?

Jonny: After this we’re flying out to the Czech Republic, then we’re playing Norway, Italy, Belgium, France and some Spanish festivals. We’re playing places that we never thought we would, it’s crazy.

The Reytons will play a range of festivals across Europe before returning to the UK for their headline tour in September 2023. Head to https://thereytons.com/ for tour dates and tickets.