Rolling Thunder to play EP release gig at Black Prince

Rolling Thunder returned with their new EP Know No Different last month and after a quick trek across the country to play a series of gigs, the band will play a hometown show in Northampton next week.

Know No Different follows 2020’s EP The Nightshop and sees the band further refining and developing their guitar driven indie rock sound.

“I think it’s definitely a step up,” explains guitarist Ryan Kelly, “especially if you compare it to our last EP.

“We’ve become more confident in knowing what we want. I think we came into the recording session with more idea about how we wanted tracks to sound, asking ‘can we change this, can we experiment with that’.

“In the studio, we banged out the tracks because we’d played them so many times and it gave us much more time to experiment with vocal effects or adding overdubs, things like that.

“We felt more like a recording band, not just a live band.”

Know No Different features the tracks Sunny’s Song, Schmaltz, Not For Me, Come Back Again, Tell Me Where The Time Went and Druids.

Ahead of its release, all of the tracks on the EP had made their way into the band’s live set, besides Tell Me Where The Time Went. Like its predecessor, it’s also receiving a physical release via Eight Limb Entertainment.

Talking about the EP, singer Charlie Smith says: “It’s maybe a bit poppier, but it’s still very indie rock, maybe a little bit darker and mysterious.

“When we recorded The Nightshop, we were young, we wanted to play everything as fast as we possibly could, but I think this time we were trying to move on a bit, grow with our song structures and dynamics.

“We’d done a lot of ‘verse chorus, verse chorus, break, chorus’ previously, whereas this time I think the songs are more diverse and intelligent.”

Smith and Kelly are joined in Rolling Thunder by guitarist Harry Clayton, bassist Joel Sweet and drummer Josh Green.

The band decamped to Thorpe Recording Studio in Rothersthorpe to record Know No Different with Jon Martin.

“I think a major difference with the songs are the dynamics,” adds Kelly, “The songs are a lot more interesting, a lot more up and down.”

Frontman Smith explains as a collection of songs, there’s more “hope and optimism” on Know No Different.

He said: “Schmaltz is about being at university, right at the end and knowing it’s finishing and being upset about that, thinking it was the best times of our lives while trying to exist on no money.

“Now we may be working, but we’ve got a few quid in our pockets at the end of the week and still able to have a good time.

“It’s the same on Come Back Again – it’s about relationship troubles but it’s about saying it will be alright.

“Not For Me was about work and not enjoying it at one stage, but knowing it’ll be alright in the end.

“It’s quite nostalgic but also optimistic.”

Across Know No Different, Kelly explains he made a conscious move to expand his guitar playing, joking he “got rid of the four chords” he knew.

“I was expanding my ability and learning more,” he says.

“On Schmaltz, there's some chorus on the second verse where everything else drops out.

“There’s also a really long middle-eight in there where Charlie’s doing a spoken word part and it became one of the more interesting things we’ve done.

“I really enjoyed making this record, we were a little apprehensive at times but we kept pushing it and I’m really happy with the result.”

While Know No Different was released in February, the accompanying vinyl is released this month and will be available when Rolling Thunder headline The Black Prince.

Talking about working again with Eight Limb Entertainment, singer Smith said: “We still sometimes forget how lucky we are to be working with them, having your own music on record is amazing.

“This time we went into the process knowing exactly what we wanted, like the music - it’s a much better finished product.

“What Eight Limb are doing is fantastic because we couldn’t afford this ourselves.”

Kelly adds: “They’ve helped so many local bands, Sarpa Salpa, Baby Lung, Phantom Isle, all knowing they might not turn a profit but rather doing it out of the love of the scene. That’s the way to propel it forward.”

Rolling Thunder headline The Black Prince in Abington Square, Northampton, on Friday, April 14.

Support is by Parking On Pavements and Big Whup.

Tickets cost £6 in advance before fees via https://www.skiddle.com/e/36264702. Doors open at 7.30pm.

For more information, visit https://linktr.ee/rollingthunderbanduk

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