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Band Name: Ginger of Instrument
Genre: Indie Rock
Years Active: 2008 - Present
Origin: Wymondham
Band Members: Chuck Boris, Lindsay Cohan, Geri Shalliwell
Interview
Riot recently caught up with the latest indie sensation, Ginger of Instrument. The band includes the three founding members: Chuck Boris on drums, Lindsay Cohan on Bass and Geri Shalliwell as guitarists/vocals, and as the name lets on the three band members all have the same hair colour… one guess which colour that may be. This triangle of redheads sliced through the charts with their newest single ‘Ginger Rain’, reaching number 3 in the charts. With their new found success, they decided to make time in their busy schedule for an interview with an enthusiastic Riot. Here’s how it went….
Riot: Welcome to the Riot headquarters boy and girls. Like what you see?
Chuck: It could do with a bit of decoration.
Riot: Cheers. Before we talk about your new single, let’s get a bit of background information, How’d you trio meet?
Lindsay: We all went to the same college in our local town of Melton Mowbray, it wasn’t the best place to study at
Geri: (Chuckles) We all met in a Graphics class, me and Geri came out from jamming in the music department, which was right next to the graphics. As we walked into the class, Chuck turned on the charms and started talking to us. He had heard us jamming and told us he liked what we played. Funnily enough it worked and the rest as they say is history.
Riot: So you were a bit of a player then Chuck?
Chuck: Well once we became friends it died down a little, the jams became more frequent and things moved on.
Riot: In what way?
Chuck: We became a band without becoming a band basically.
Geri: As we jammed more and more we were becoming a band however never brought up the topic of taking anything seriously
Lindsay: That was until we got our first gig…
Riot: This sounds interesting. How did you come across the first gig?
Geri: Our friend heard us jamming, and as his old man owned a pub in a village next to ours, told us he would ask him if we could play there.
Riot: And?
Chuck: We rocked the house!
Lindsay: (Laughing) It was the best first gig ever! Saturday night in a country pub, filled with heavy drinkers.
Chuck: It became a frequent thing, almost once every month
Riot: Did this help you build a fan base?
Geri: It helped quite a lot actually. As the crowd got bigger, other pubs became increasingly jealous and started to book us for gigs in various towns and villages. We were driving around the county every weekend. Our name was soon known in every town and even in the city of Leicester in various parts.
Riot: So a story of world domination then? One of these gigs included the meeting of the respected band manager Charlie Perriam didn’t it?
Chuck: I shall ignore the world domination joke. But indeed this is where we met out manager, Charlie. He was in town with another client, having drinks in the bar next to the one we were playing in, we were that loud that they came next door to check us out...
Geri: (interrupting) … and he loved us! He came backstage and spoke to us about having time in a proper studio. He especially loved the song Ginger Rain, it became our closing song as it was that upbeat that the whole audience would go crazy dancing.
Riot: And now we come to the single, So Ginger Rain was a popular song before it was released as a single?
Lindsay: It was very popular around the local village and town as we had recorded a small EP in the studio at college. We began handing them out at the small local gigs. It took a while for the single to grow on people in Leicester but it eventually got there.
Riot: And what happened with the recording session with Mr Perriam?
Geri: We re-recorded the EP as well as some new material. Charlie was very enthusiastic about every song. We spent a lot of time in the studio perfecting our sound.
Chuck: It was a little while later that we heard from Charlie again. Then out of the blue he rang us and told us to listen to one of the DJ’s shows on Radio 1. We were huddled around a radio in my lounge waiting and waiting, until Ginger Rain was introduced as the next track. Before the first verse was over we were on the phone with Charlie again, talking about playing at a local festival that had small media coverage for the radio. Next thing we know we were in the line-up.
Riot: How long did this whole period of making a name for yourselves last?
Geri: About 2 years I think?
Lindsay: Roughly that. Once we played at that festival it all kicked off. We ended up touring small venues around the country once we had finished our studies. It was becoming so surreal for us that we were playing a gig and then moving on to the next venue and doing the same again every other day. It was just like you hear with these big popular bands only smaller.
Riot: Back to the single now… it’s currently 3rd in the charts, how do you feel about that?
Lindsay: Over the moon! It’s great to have your work recognised and shows how much your music is listened to.
Chuck: We got a call from Charlie whilst at a family thing, everyone was so happy for us.
Riot: It seems like you’re all on cloud nine right now, what’s coming up in your schedule?
Geri: We’ve still got a few more dates on our small tour
Chuck: After that it’s back into the studio to work on our debut album, then its straight back on tour to support its release.
Riot: Sounds like you’ve not got a lot of time to rest then?
Lindsay: I suppose we haven’t but as it’s what we’ve been planning for it doesn’t really bother us too much.
Riot: Well I’m afraid our times up for today. It’s been great to talk to you and we hope that everything goes well for your debut album.
Ginger Of Instrument’s first EP, Ginger Rain, was released on February 17th and currently ranking 3rd in the UK Top 40 charts. Their debut album is expected to be released mid- May with a following European tour.
By Ollie
By Ollie
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