Baking banana bread and making music in lockdown with Panic State
WHAT INSPIRED THE SINGLE "TURN AROUND"?
There wasn’t really a single thing that inspired the song, we just wanted something that told a message about overcoming self-doubt and having some confidence in your own abilities. We had the idea of writing a ‘FIFA song’ in mind, so we tried to aim towards something we could feasibly hear on FIFA 21.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE SINGLE IN A FEW WORDS?
Catchy, energetic and fun!
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
Tom - In my early days of discovering Muse, Black Holes and Revelations really impacted the way I listened to music, and it’s still my favourite album to this day. In more recent times, Billie Eilish’s ‘When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go’ is a stunning record, I got lost in listening to it, it’s just so well crafted and delivered. Scott - Green Day’s American Idiot was my introduction to contemporary alternative music. I first heard the album
about two years after it was released and I loved it. Since then I've come to realise just how groundbreaking the album was, from a band that had been traditionally ‘pop-punk’ up to that point. I think that record inspired many people to pick up a guitar for the first time, myself included.
Daniel - During the inception of my musical journey, one integral piece for unlocking my path, and finding my calling, was ‘I’m on a Boat’ by The Lonely Island. This was a really relatable moment for me, as I too, was on a boat.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER
ARTIST?
Our favourite music video is probably the one for Turn Around! Being in lockdown meant that we couldn’t get together to make anything so we decided to use loads of clips we’d filmed as a band. It turned into sort of a celebration of the time we have spent together and how special it’s been! Some of the clips of us dancing are truly horrendous and definitely worth checking out!
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU’RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
Worrying about whether people will like our music...and baking banana bread. We’re also boycotting Greggs - but that’s a story for another day.
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
We used to very early on and when we did big shows it was a little bit nerve-wracking, but we’ve done so many shows now that we just sort of take it in our stride - we always have a pint and a half for luck though. Any nerves we do have are always gone by the end of our first song, after that we just have a blast on stage.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
Scott (guitar) and Daniel (drums) were at school together and played in a school band, but kept things going together when they left for uni. They met Tom (vocals/bass) at a uni party, got chatting about musical interests and showed Tom their demo album. He loved it and was keen to get involved, single handedly raising the average blood alcohol
level of the band. We started rehearsing together and writing a few things, and everything kicked off from there, doing regular shows around London, working with our manager, Ville, and he gave us the tools to record some great songs.
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK
TOGETHER?
We all pitch in to the songwriting process. Normally, Scott or Tom will come up with a riff or a hook and then develop this with Daniel to define a structure and groove for the song. The main hook often ends up as the base of the chorus, and we construct a verse around that. We work out the intricacies of the song in a live context to help give it a style
that is more genuine to our line up and instrumentation.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Our biggest early influence was probably Muse, we all loved their music and their live shows as well, so we drew a lot of inspiration from them. We each try and bring in some of our own influences to our songs and our shows. Tom really admires Freddie Mercury as a frontman, with that self-confident demeanour and ability to control a crowd with
such ease. Scott is constantly playing Santana licks so we assume he likes him, and Daniel is fairly ambivalent but said Dave Grohl has ‘pretty cool’ tattoos, and Matt Helders is ‘sick’.
It’s difficult to think of non-musical influences, we’re not really a band that writes massively political or philosophical songs - we write mainly on experiences really. Tom got a lot of inspiration from a trip to New Zealand, the way of life out there and the sense of escapism, so I suppose that counts. He also loves the Emperor Charlemagne, in that he
attempted to shift the date of his coronation by two hundred years so he could be crowned in exactly 1000AD.
WHAT IS NEXT?
We’ve got some new music that’s just about ready to release, and we’ve been writing some new stuff as well that we’re really excited about. We’ve focused a lot on our social media with the covers, but we’ve also got some cool ideas of videos that we can upload and release soon, so keep an eye out for those! We’ve also branched out into the world of merchandise, which we’ll properly unveil on our social media in a couple of weeks - we’ll have the standard bits like phone cases and t shirts and the like, but we’ve gone a bit left-field with
some items; Panic State bath mats and shower curtains, toothbrushes and maybe even a ladle. We wanted to have some fun.
Our music, including our brand new single ‘Turn Around’ is available on all major streaming services, our favourite is Spotify! Keep an eye out for all of that over on our Instagram @panicstateband
Follow us @photogroupiuk to get all our latest interviews and review posts
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