Meet Junk: Atmospheric, Authentic, and Unmistakably Themselves

Photo Credits: @melania_vladu on instagram

How did the band form?

Hannah - It started with, I guess just us two (Hannah and Evelyn), we met in freshers week and we both did music so we kind of sang stuff together. Then Evelyn started hanging out with Tabitha, our drummer, and then she was doing music with Leo and then we all kind of merged together.

Evelyn – we originally wanted a girl band ahaha. But Leo is just a brilliant musician, and we would do music one and one and it all kind of grew naturally.

Is there a story behind the name?

Evelyn – there is actually! I kind of hated it at first, but basically you know The Washington, (a pub in Sheffield), we were there. I guess it was like two in the morning, we were drunk and on the table there was lots of writing, and I saw the name Julie which is my mums name. I was super excited and went to take a picture of the word Julie on the table to send to her and say thinking of you mum. It actually said Junk! So, I had just sent my mum a picture of the word Junk and said, ‘thinking of you’. I found it really funny, and I was telling them about it, and I think we were at rehearsal, and they were like well that’s our band name then!   

Photo Credits @spinozas.bf on instagram

How do you approach songwriting?

Leo – we all write our own part, but usually I’ll play a little something on the guitar in between songs for example. Then we tend to build from there, so I’ll play a riff or a chord or something, then Tabitha can just fill in whenever with the drums, Hannah will always find the right pedals, and then Evelyn just improvises the lyrics after we throw out a word.

Evelyn – it’s really easy as a group for some reason, I don’t think it’s ever been this easy for any of us before. As a group it is so nice!

We loved seeing you at Sidney & Matilda! What’s your favourite venue or place you have played in the past?

Tabitha – Obviously Sidney & Matilda we really like because we go there a lot anyway to go see people as well and we always get a good crowd. We recently played a gig in London, at Next Door Records, which was really nice! That was really cool, and we got a bigger crowd than we normally would there.

Evelyn – it was in this basement bit, and it was packed it was so fun!

Tabitha – then last week we were in Manchester, where we did a little stripped back shoegaze set in the shoegaze café which was a really nice kind of change in pace.

How do you figure that out then, how do you decide where you’re going to go next?

Photo Credits @ameliepearsonphotos on instagram

Evelyn – I mean we have a kind of manager. Our friend Mel, she does events management at Hallam, recently she has started covering our emails and doing all the bigger stuff. People kind of reach out to us more which is really satisfying now because at the beginning obviously you have to book a few in. All the venues here and beyond the city are super welcoming and really wanting to put on young mostly female bands. But yeah we don’t go with convenience for sure, we go with what looks exciting I guess. It seems to work!

Leo – I will say I’m really really excited to play The Washington, because we’ve got that one in a couple of weeks and I just want to have a mosh pit ahahha and watch the chaos unfold.

I know you said you’ve got people reaching out to you, but what inspired you in the first place to start looking, if you know what I mean?

Hannah – well when we first started I had done music before, but I had never really played live or done gigs. Leo and Evelyn were so forward thinking on it, and I was there terrified because I had never done it. We got to our first Sidney & Matilda gig, and it was great so now suddenly gigging is actually really exciting and it has been such a fun opportunity. It has definitely grown our confidence too!

Leo – I think it helps as well because I’ve been doing gigs, like acoustic solo stuff, so I had tried out all the venues in Sheffield. So, I got to tell everyone ‘this one’s worth going to, this one’s not ahaha’.

Evelyn – yeah he’s quite the networker! So, we get a lot of little contacts here and there. I say we don’t reach out, we do, but it is quite random. I think we’re very impulsive as a band.

Who are some of your musical influences?

Tabitha - I would say I feel like it’s very different for all of us because we each come from really different musical backgrounds. So, for me I listen to a lot of Latin stuff which I think is what comes through in my drumming. Hopefully!

Hannah – The biggest kind of influence for me is a band called Sorry from London. They kind of like fuse a lot of genres together and they’re very emotive in their lyricism. I’m also very into soundscapes, I try to get the ambient music through with the use of pedals. I like bringing something to the band that makes it feel more electric.

Evelyn – I love Cocteau Twins, they’re my favourite band ever. I feel like that’s always been my main thing and we get compared quite a lot to them which is really quite satisfying. But, I have also been told that I have ‘quite the Midwest emo vocal’! Which probably is because I love Midwest emo music. I didn’t exactly choose the path, but the path chose me ahhaha.

Photo Credits @melania_vladu on instagram

Leo - I grew up doing a lot of folk music, I feel like that always plays a part with trying to find weird and different ways to play chords. I like trying out a lot of different tunings.

Evelyn – Oh god he has to retune between every song! Obviously it’s worth it.

Leo – I guess main inspirations are probably King Krule, DIIV, and Pinegrove.

What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced starting out as an independent band?

Leo – There has been so many venue closures. The grassroots scene is struggling so much and then it obviously has a knock-on effect because you can’t really blame venues when they can’t pay you but obviously you want to get paid. I don’t know about everyone else but to me it is like a job! As much as it’s really enjoyable it is a job because it’s on your mind all the time. So, we’ve been trying to handle the money. We recorded at Make Noise Studios which has since shut down, The Harley which shut down, we’re in cahoots with the Leadmill people and they’re obviously having a tough time. So, yeah I feel like that’s the most difficult part of it!

What’s next for Junk?

Evelyn – I mean we have loads of gigs, an exhausting number but it’s also very exciting obviously! Our next one is in like eleven days. We also really want to record more, we have a lot of songs that people who keep coming to our gigs, our little following, really want out and we want to get them out! Yeah I guess just normal band activities. We’ve been discussing doing a little bit of a stripped back, live sound EP, because our studio set that Tab was talking about was received really well. We’re talking about doing a little in house, literally in our house, gig of that ahaha!

Leo – I was so set on that idea because I’m obsessed with when artists do really long YouTube videos and you get to see little interviews with mates in between and you get to hear the songs under a completely different light. We did spend a lot of time and effort writing all of these songs for this Shoegaze café one, so it feels like a bit of a shame to leave it at that.

Evelyn – we weren’t allowed to use drums! Tabitha is obviously the drummer, but she was first and foremost a pianist which is a funny combo, but amazing for us. When they didn’t want drums though it was then fine because we could do keys.

If you could build a festival line-up with three acts that you get to play alongside, who are you picking and why?

Evelyn – so we thought we would go with a band that is kind of on the rise to begin with!

Leo – who we really want to be friends with! So, the rising artist that we picked was Westside Cowboy! Really cool coming out of Manchester, they’ve got like one single out but it’s really really good. I really like their live performances even though I’m yet to see them live but I always see videos. They all gather round one microphone, and the drummer will pick up one of his drums and they all just sing with an acoustic guitar it is so cool. They’re definitely ones to watch!

Evelyn – Then we went with like a bigger artist, more for me to be honest. Massive Attack, I just love them, and I feel like we take a lot of influence with little quirky bits. Obviously they are a huge band and very activist, so they’re just super cool timeless band. So, that was our big band that we went with, our unrealistic band ahaha. Oh although… we had a wildcard. We were in cahoots between Drake and Dolly Parton, but naturally we went with Dolly Parton!

Leo – that’s the queen on one hand and then Drake sooo.

Finally, where are you each from?

Hannah – Brighton

Tabitha – Warwickshire, West Midlands

Evelyn – Hertfordshire (Stevenage area)

Leo – Rochdale, Greater Manchester