Phil Etheridge

Relatively unknown until last year, now it seems you can’t tune into a radio station that doesn’t have The Twang’s new single Either Way on repeat!

After endless gigging in the Midlands area, things really began to take off for these five Brummie lads once they became a discussion subject within the pages of the NME!

Soon record labels were fighting to sign them and organisers were itching to book this unique set of friends to play live in their venue.According to vocalist Phil Etheridge, success was inevitable.

Firstly, congratulations on your achievements within the last year. Was there a specific moment when you knew it was all going to come together?
When we got management really, that's when it started to get serious. John and I have been writing for seven years, yet The Twang only formed about two and half years ago.

You never thought about giving it all up over the years?
I know it sounds arrogant, but we always knew that we'd get a deal. We knew we had the tunes, and we were always writing new stuff. It’s kind of karma as well, if you put the hard work in, you get it don't you? There was no point giving up, because we believed in what we were doing, we knew there was a place for us, and we were right!

So what is it that’s unique about your band?
We're just a group of friends that wanted to do something, it's real cliche rock and roll isn't it? Get your gang and do your thing and I guess we were that group of lads.

If you're just sitting in houses getting high, you might as well big yourselves up and think you can do something. If other lads are doing it, you might as well go and try and do it yourselves.

Was the decision to have two vocalists partly based on originality?
Not at all. My mate, Martin Saunders, wanted to join the band, so he did. When we began, it was open to everyone out of our group. If one of the other lads had come down and wanted to join, then he could have. They couldn't now obviously, because this is the finished band!

You’re touring loads, what with support slots, tons of festivals and your very own nationwide tour beginning in October. How do you keep it fresh for the audience?
We change our set list all the time you know, every night really. We've got a massive back catalogue of tunes to be fair, so just pick some on the day and play what we want.

You must get annoyed with one another, spending so much time in a tour bus?
I think that's one of the bonuses of being in a band with people you’ve been friends for a long time beforehand. Because if you wake up and you can see that one of your mates is in a mood, I know them all well enough to just leave them be.

I mean if I wanted to wind any of them up, I could easily do it, I could drive them to despair, but you just don’t do you?

What's on your iPod at the moment?
I've been listening to the National’s album, Boxer a lot recently.

What band did you last see live?
The Coral at the Astoria.

Who would you support, if you could support anyone?
I'd say The Streets, but we've recently done a video with him, so we've kind of fulfilled that dream. So I think The Coral, they're top lads and a genius band.
Has there been one moment where you’ve thought, ‘ Wow, we’ve made it’?
Not really, we've got loads to do! Although, when we supported James and walked out in front of around 10,000 people I realized it was on. It’s amazing, but we want it, you know. We're having it and we're going to carry on.

The Twang will be at a venue close to you very soon, make sure you check out Birmingham’s newest export!

Molly Wilson

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