Band Members: Vocals: Olivia Linley, Guitar: Dean Pinnegar, Bass: Martin Gove-Evans, Drums: Harry Bryan, Brass: William Staff, Sax: Oscar Pickerill
Youthful, energetic six piece band from Nuneaton on a mission to revamp Ska & Reggae with their own unique twist. They have been creating a buzz in the midlands and adopting a massive fan base wherever they perform. They have released their brand new debut EP entitled ‘Trip Club’ which is a mixture of soulful, Rock infused reggae with a punk twist.
As well as there own material the six piece band cover many well know Ska & Reggae classics such as hits from Madness, The Specials, The Selector, The Beat and much more. Make sure to follow the bands to keep up to date with all the latest RudeSix news,gigs & updates.
You were formally known as ‘The Press’ and performed a variety of soul, blues and RnB hits. You then changed your name to ‘Rudesix’ and revamped your sound towards ska & reggae. Why the change in name & style of music?
Liv: I personally was never really that into the music we used to play. It didn’t appeal to me and felt outdated. Once I started to explore ska/reggae music a little more, the vibes it gave me made me realise how fun it would be to perform. As for the name, we joked that “The Press” sounded a bit like “Depressed” and felt very uniform/wedding-bandy- RudeSix is a bit more casual and suits our sound well. It might get complicated if we get a seventh member, though!
Harry: I think we’d all grew bored of what we used to play and found most of us were listening to ska/reggae music more than anything anyway so it seemed to make sense.
As a youthful energetic band from Nuneaton situated next to Coventry which is the home of 2tone, who were your inspirations and did your parents or anyone else play apart in your musical influences?
Liv: We get asked a lot where our musical influence comes from and if it’s a product of our parents and I never really know what to say because my mum was a quintessential 80s teenage girl obsessed with Duran Duran and my dad was into 90s Brit-Pop mostly. Sadly, you don’t hear nearly enough about Two-Tone in Nuneaton, and even since I moved to Coventry for university, it’s surprising how many locals don’t even know anything about it. In terms of my inspirations, I think my musical “journey” has been more of a personal one, encouraged by friends like Harry (because he literally knows every band, ever) and my own curiosity.
Harry: I grew up in Nuneaton with a lot of family based in Coventry which I think helped me discover The Specials and The Selecter. My family helped me become aware of these bands but I was brought up mostly listening to Rockabilly & Country and Western music which my parents played.
Will: I’ve always had a massively wide range of music that I listen to, so I’d say the really well known stuff has always been there for me, like The Specials, and The Beat for example, but I never used to dive deep into the genre like I do now, and I have to say I do have Harry to thank for a lot of it; he seems to somehow know every band in existence and is always suggesting new bands/songs to listen to.
Martin: I have to admit ska and reggae was not something that was played in my house when I was growing up… My Dad was into Zeppelin and Deep Purple… But I have always been open minded in music.Dean: My Dad plays guitar so I’ve always been into “guitar music”. Bands and artists like Jimi Hendrix, Pantera, Steve Vai and Lenny Kravitz were my influences. I never even listened to ska before I joined the band.
Growing up what type of music did you listen to and does this reflect your individual style and the influence you bring to the band?
Liv: Not at all- I was a big One Direction fan when I was 13. As I got into my early teens I got more into pop-punk and emo bands like Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. It wasn’t until I was about 16 that I started to get into indie music and fell in love with big bands like Arctic Monkeys and The Stone Roses. Then I began to go to more gigs and found smaller bands like The King Blues, Stiff Joints, Spunge, and some-how I ended up becoming immersed in the genre of reggae/ska. In terms of reggae, at the moment I’m absolutely loving Hollie Cook- daughter of Paul Cook from Sex Pistols. I’ve been through a lot of phases- but I guess it gives us quite a diverse selection of influences. We’re all into very different stuff.
Oscar: My favourite band has always been The Cat Empire which is an Australian ska/latin/jazz band. They inspired me to start playing the saxophone and from there it has influenced how I think about my own musical performance.
Harry: The first music I really got into when I was younger was punk after being introduced by my dad, I started listening to bands like Stiff Little Fingers, Sham 69 and The Clash. Then I discovered the 2-Tone era and from here started exploring Jamaican ska, reggae and dub music like The Upsetters, The Skatalites, Ken Boothe, King Tubby and all the new waves of it to come since. I think all of this has influenced my part in the band as well as some modern bands including Gentleman’s Dub Club, The Skints and Dub Pistols.
Will: Pretty much since I knew what music was I have had a huge range of stuff that I listen to, it can stretch from old “big band” stuff, which I got from playing in brass bands and orchestras when I was younger, all the way through to heavy metal, and various “Electronic” genres. I’d say now that the majority of music I listen to is reggae or reggae influenced, my favourite groups at the moment have to be Mungo’s HiFi, Gentlemans Dub Club and The Skints.
Martin: I can’t not speak about The Specials with their influence on the creative, punchy bass lines and songs that you can’t get out of your head. They really pushed me towards that 2-Tone sound.
Dean: I listen to everything from Slipknot to Bruno Mars. I think that whatever you listen to affects a lot of things- even down to your performance and dress style, and how you write music.
Who writes your original material. Is it just one individual or does everyone play a part in the writing of the lyrics and music?
Liv: I wrote all the lyrics on our first EP. Musically we tend to all chip in together at band practices- when we can actually manage to organise one. Oscar: Each song varies, however our most successful songs tend to be ones where we all chip in random little bits which gives it our own identity
Harry: One of us usually start it off with an idea and then we’ll build on it together until it sounds like a song, pretty much. Although we leave basically leave Liv to it regarding anything lyrical. ‘Reality of War’ was actually taken from my college coursework and we reworked it to suit us.Will: it usually starts from a short, simple idea and we develop it from there, everyone chips in with ideas until we have something that we’re happy with, except for the lyrics which aside from the odd few words is down to Liv.Martin: It’s definitely a whole band effort we all get involved with the new material but Liv does take her lead with the lyrics.
Dean: Usually someone has an idea and we just keep adding to it until we get something we like.
As a band you cover a variety of Ska, Reggae & 2-Tone classic artists such as The Specials, The Selecter and The Toots & The Maytals to name a few. What is your individual favourite covers to perform as a band?
Liv: I like playing the reggae stuff more because I feel like I can really get into it and people always look very surprised when they see me performing that stuff. I don’t think I can decide on a favourite between Bam Bam (Sister Nancy) and 54-46 Was my Number (Toots & The Maytals).
Oscar: Personally, my favourite cover to perform is either Night boat to Cairo by Madness or Do rocksteady by The Bodysnatchers Harry: my favourites to play would probably be Chase The Devil, You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No) and You’re Wondering Now. Although it’s usually songs like Nightboat to Cairo and Gangsters that really get the crowd going and that can give you quite a buzz.
Will: I enjoy playing pretty much all of our set, but I’d have to say I prefer the faster songs that get everyone in the crowd going, for me it’s as much about the audience reaction as it is about the song itself.
Martin: Got to be “Nightboat to Cairo” and “Hey Little Rich Girl”. The way the crowed just light up is a mad buzz!Dean: I love the tunes that get everyone dancing. Songs like Hey Little Rich Girl- The Specials , One Step Beyond- Madness and Bam Bam- Sister Nancy are my favourite covers to play.
Are there any covers that you would like to perform as a band that you haven’t done yet?
Liv: I personally want to venture away from covers as much as we can. I want to be a proper band haha. However, I’ve been saying for ages I’d love to cover 1865 (96 Degrees in the Shade) by Third World. I love that song. I want to experiment more with reggae/dub.
Harry: I want to focus on originals more than covers too but I wouldn’t mind trying restyling some old reggae tracks.
Martin: LIP UP FATTY, gotta’ listen to the people!Liv: I’d like to add that we probably get asked to play that song at least 5 times at every gig.Dean: I watched an interview with Ariana Grande on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and they do a ska version of Shape of You by Ed Sheeran- we could definitely do something like that. I like the idea of combining styles considering we all have such a varied taste.
You were previously called The Press. Why the name change & how was the band formed?
Liv: As I said, it’s just way too formal for a band like us, and it seemed irrelevant. The band, prior to a few line-up changes including different brass sections, guitarists and singers, began when we were all at secondary school. It started as a soul/blues concert band which performed in school shows and stuff- our school was quite encouraging of art and music at the time which was nice. I think it actually started the best part of 7 years ago now- I would have been 12 if I’d joined the band then but I didn’t get involved until about 3 years ago.
Oscar: I joined the band about 2 years ago when I started going to college in Nuneaton. I live in Worcester and was determined to play saxophone with a band again that wasn’t a boring read-line-by-line orchestra. It was almost a coincidence that I stumbled across the band and from there we developed it into who we are today.
Will: It all started from our school band, which, when the older members left to go to college we decided to try and keep it
going outside of school. We started rehearsals nearly 7 years ago as a 7 piece soul/blues/Motown band, although this changed to a 6 piece within a few months. We continued with this line up as “The Press” for 3-4 years. When the time came for some members to go to uni, we realised that for some of us it wasn’t going to be practical to continue due to the long distance, so I asked Liv to join as our new singer and we continued as a 5 piece for just over a year with myself as the only horn player. The biggest change for us came around 2 years ago when our guitarist told us that he was going to leave within 2 months time, so I suggested Dean, who was on the same Music Technology course as me at college, and the decision was made to ask him if he was interested, and luckily for us he was. Within a few weeks of this Oscar also got in touch with us about joining, admittedly I was hesitant at first due to “not so great” experiences with other horn players in the past, and the already high workload for us of getting a new guitarist gig ready in only 6 weeks, but I’m so glad that we went through with it as he has played a massive part in the making of what we are today.
Dean: I studied Music Technology in college and Will was in my class. One day he told me his guitarist was leaving his band and asked me to join. RudeSix definitely fits the ska and reggae style better than The Press.
You have performed at a variety of events across the Midlands and elsewhere. What is next for RudeSix and where would you like to see yourself and the band in 5 years?
Liv: We’re fully booked for 2019 now and the diary is even starting to fill up for 2020 which is amazing. We hope to get a bit further a-field, hopefully venturing up north and down south more. I’d love to play some smaller festivals- I’ve just got back from Bearded Theory which was so incredible and I hope we can play there soon. A mini-tour would be wicked, to take our music outside of the UK. Of course, we need to release more music first- but stay tuned for that!Oscar: I just enjoy playing to good crowds of people who genuinely enjoy our music. Being big or famous has never been a priority for me and I play because I enjoy playing.
Harry: We’re starting to get shows booked in loads of new areas further out from the midlands which is cool, I’d love for us to be able to play some shows abroad in the future. I’d also love to get in to more festivals.
Will: This year has seen our gigs spread much further than we have been used to in the past, with more and more people turning up to watch us play, at the moment we are fully booked for the remainder of this year and I’d just like to see this continue into the future, I’d love to get on the line up for some festivals and I think some gigs abroad are a nice thing for us to aim for.
Martin: I love playing because for those few hours nothing else matters just you and the music. I just want to give the audience the same feeling.
Dean: The next thing for us is getting in the studio and bringing out some more bangers! We’re all about writing and performing good music and as long as we continue to do that, I’ll be happy.
You released your debut EP in the summer of 2018 called ‘Trip Club’, are you currently working on new material at the moment and if so when will it be released & where?
Liv: We’ve got a few things that we’ve started on but our busy lives with uni/work/other commitments makes it difficult for us to co-ordinate times where we can all meet for writing sessions so I have no idea when it’ll be finished- hopefully by the end of the year. It’ll be released everywhere just the same as the first EP. We like to make our stuff as accessible as possible. I’d love to release some vinyls too eventually.
Will: I currently have 3 unfinished project files on my mac of new music that we have started writing, but due to our busy gig schedule and the fact that we all lead pretty busy lives outside of the band as well, finding rehearsal time has been difficult. Hopefully we can get a something out by the end of the year.
Dean: We are working on new material that we can hopefully get out by the end of the year on all platforms.
I would describe your sound as a fresh new feel with an original reggae sound. How would you describe the band’s sound?
Liv: I’d say it’s almost comparable in style to Lily Allen’s early stuff- her first album “Alright, Still” has proper two-tone and reggae vibes. I like the emphasis on sassy female vocals. Oscar: Music genres evolve all the time and I think we’re just forming our own interpretation of what we like as a starting point and then going from there.Harry: Punky reggae!Martin: Reggae with an attitude.Dean: I don’t think we sound like any other band right now, we definitely have a unique sound.
It’s very exciting news that you have been announced to perform at ‘Skamouth’ 2019. What can we expect from your performance?
Liv: You can expect a mixture of covers and originals- hopefully we may even have some new stuff of our own by then but it’s hard to know! You can definitely expect to see me quite drunk later on in the evening. It’ll be fun, though. I am very excited.
Harry: New music!! (But don’t hold me to that)
Martin: Energy, beer, sweat and more beer.
What are your individual interests when you are not performing as a band and what do you get up to in your spare time?
Liv: I’m doing a BA in Theatre at the moment. I enjoy acting and writing plays and of-course I love to go to gigs and festivals too. I’m starting a little vocal duo with a female friend from uni, we hope to perform mostly reggae music so that’s fun too.
Oscar: I’m a robotics engineer by trade and the band is my spare time haha.
Harry: I enjoy any spontaneous adventures and going to gigs/festivals/raves but in most of my free time you’ll probably find me chilling with my cat listening to a record (check the pub if not)
Will: I run my own business specialising in live sound, and as a freelance sound engineer alongside it, in the winter months I play rugby for Earlsdon RFC and Warwickshire. I’m also training to be a pilot and am hoping to have gained my licence by the end of this year so spare time is a precious commodity for me.
Martin: Spare time?! This is my spare time!
Dean: I work in retail at the minute and I’m heading to Coventry University in September to do the same course as Liv (BA Theatre & Professional Practice). I enjoy MMA training.
Do you each have anything you would like to share with Mods Of Your Generation & DJ Moldie and what can fans look forward to from the band in the future?
Liv: All we ask is that everyone continues to support us the way they have been. We’re a young band (our age range is 18-21) so it really means so much when people come out and watch our gigs and take us seriously. We hope to create a sound which is unique, sophisticated and fun, and continue making music for as long as we can. We’re lucky that the ska scene is a very friendly and welcoming community; showing support to small bands like us is so important for keeping live music local and alive so we encourage everyone to continue doing so as much as they can.
Facebook – www.facebook.com/rudesix
Twitter – @RudeSix
Instagram – @RudeSixBand
Mods Of Your Generation 2019