White Clouds and Gunfire: ‘We’re going to be performing in venues we’ve only dreamed of’
With an album under their belts and air time on Radio 1, it is no surprise that this five-piece Peterborough Rock band are excited for this year. Ellie Roddy caught up with the female front of the band, Evey Verdegaal, ahead of their first UK tour of 2015.
How has the band changed since you started 8 years ago?
To be honest I think the band is nearly unrecognisable from when we first started 8 years ago. Life happens, we’ve grown up a bit, we’ve had to learn a lot from our mistakes and we’re still learning now. Instead of letting it slow us down, we use it to fuel us.
How would you describe your music and who influences you?
We all listen to different genres and are inspired by a wide variety of music. It definitely helps us when we song write. I love Halestorm, then there’s Byron who loves Stone Sour and Rob who loves American pop punk. Ultimately, we just want to write music we believe in and hope that people can relate to.
As the female front of a band, what effect do you think this has?
I think the main difference is that our tour van smells nicer than other tour vans!
The last couple of years have been pretty exciting for you, including releasing an album and then having your music played on Scuzz TV and more recently Huw Stephens Radio 1 show. How did it feel to see/hear that for the first time?
It was absolutely unreal. It finally started to feel like we were getting somewhere. I think the best thing about the Radio 1 play was the response we had from our friends and fans. We’ve had so much support and amazing feedback from people, it’s a bit overwhelming.
Now you are writing and recording your next single and EP?
So far we’ve recorded one song which we are releasing at the start of April. It sounds amazing and we’re so excited to let people hear what we’ve been working on.
You are also set to release ‘Chaos’ to coincide with the start of your UK tour. Can you tell us a bit about the tour, where is it taking you?
We’re going on the road with two other bands called In Hindsight and Tides. We’ll be playing in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and London. We’re so excited! We’re going to be performing in venues we’ve only dreamed of playing in and Manchester has already sold out!
For someone who has never been to see you before, what could they expect from the night?
A lot of fun! The boys and I love what we do and we have such a great time on stage, that we hope our enthusiasm is contagious. My favourite thing people say to us over and over again is “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that!”.
The tour ends in Stamford. Being from Peterborough how important is it for you to perform in your local area and is there a different vibe to those gigs?
We always try and end with a hometown show and usually they are our favourite gigs. It’s amazing how many people are still coming out to our shows after all these years, and people singing back the words to your songs will never get old.
What’s next for the band in 2015?
Hopefully more tours, more shows, more songs and more laughs. The start of this year has already been amazing so I can’t wait to see what could be round the corner for us.
White Clouds and Gunfire’s first UK tour of 2015 kicks off on Saturday 4th April and ends in Mama Liz’s in Stamford on Friday 10th April. Tickets are £6 in advance, with doors open to over 14’s accompanied by an adult. To find out more check the band out on Twitter or visit wcaguk.bigcartel.com to see their tour go out with a bang!
