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28 October 2014

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Leicestershire's Unsigned

You are in: Leicester > Entertainment > Music > Leicestershire's Unsigned > The Squatters

The Squatters - Haydn, Joe, Ed, Henry

The Squatters

The Squatters

The Squatters are a Loughborough hardcore punk band who have been firm friends for years. They talk to Becca about life in an unsigned band, pain, hate and originality. Read on for more...

How did you first get together?

Ed - That's an interesting one.

Joe - It was at primary school, I think, in the bands show.

Henry - Yeah, I wasn't in the band then.

Haydn - I think there were creative difference at the time…

Henry - They didn't like me - that’s the trouble! They were like - "Oh we don't want Henry in the band!", until three years later when they thought "Well we're gonna have to ask him cos' he's the only person we know who plays drums!".

Who writes the lyrics?

Henry - Well Joe writes most of the songs.ÌýMe and Haydn have written a few.

"You could sing all day about some girl but at the end of the day you've heard it all before really."

Ed from The Squatters

Ed - I don't write any!

And where do the ideas come from?

Joe - People we don't like, things we don't like…

Henry - The thing is a lot of bands write songs about good things and different things that happen to them but we just choose to write about things we don't like as a kind of…

Haydn - …reality check!

Henry - Yeah, a kind of creative outlet for our pain!

Haydn - People write about the birds and the bees but we stay pessimistic, to keep people…

Henry - …on their toes!

Ed - You could sing all day about some girl but at the end of the day you've heard it all before really.

Henry - But then you might say you've heard all this hate stuff before but then… it’s fun!

Do you exaggerate it slightly? For people who aren't into hardcore they might find it a bit scary…

Henry - Well that's kind of a good thing…

Ed - Shock factor.

Henry - For people inside the "scene" it's not terribly shocking.

Joe - There's worse stuff than us.

Henry - We're not that fast or aggressive compared to a lot of stuff in hardcore.

And was that a conscious decision?

Henry - Not really…

Haydn - Personally I like being middle ground…

Joe - It's started progressing a bit - it's starting to be more aggressive.

Haydn and Joe playing live

Haydn and Joe

Ed - When we first starting writing songs they were all very different, you couldn't really pick two that were similar, but now it's down quite a bit towards a certain style but we still can't really put our finger on it.

Do you think that's going to make you stand out from the rest?

Henry - (Laughs) Probably not!

What's the hardcore scene like in Leicestershire?

Henry - Well it's pretty rubbish…

Haydn - One or two of the good bands have split up now.

Joe - There's quite a few good bands we've come past though…

Henry - Yeah like Hangover Heatattack from Leicester, Brain Dead and bands we've played with recently on this new Punk Scene thing.

Ed - There aren't really all that many...

Henry - There’s not enough - there needs to be more. We'd encourage anyone to join a band.

How do you get yourself heard as an unsigned band?

Henry - It's not about what you know - it's about who you know! To start with it's hard getting gigs, you really have to try. You have to get involved andÌýget in touch with different people, and basically you have to be decent - or at least half decent!

Haydn - You just get to know the people who organise the gigs.

Do you have much of a fan base? A lot of friends were supporting you at your release gig...

Henry - Obviously we'd like them to all be into it that would be amazing!

Ed - It's obviously not the most popular style of music though.

Haydn - I was surprised so many of them said it was good actually. The problem is they can't be bothered if it’s in Leicester or anything… so we have no dedicated fans, no one really likes us that much…

At least you like each other!

Henry - Yeah that's it - we've got each other man! (Laughter from others)

What did you think of the dancing/fighting in the pit at the release gig?

Henry - Ah it's not fighting - it's friendly wrestling! People jumping off chairs and everything like that…

Henry and Ed playing live

Henry and Ed

Joe - That's a nice response really though isn't it?

Ed - Yeah, rather than people standing round bored out of their faces.

Haydn - At least it shows a passion for our music.

Henry - In fact no, they probably just wanted to jump around - but whatever!

Finally - where do you see yourself in the future?

Henry - Personally I can't see us splitting up in the near future.

Joe - We've been together so long…

Henry - Yeah. Plus we're all best friends, I mean you see a lot of bands that you can see why they split up - cos' they're not that good friends with each other…

Ed - …or they only know each other because they're playing in the band.

Henry - Yeah we've practically known each other all our lives…

Haydn - …since we've been about five…

Henry - Okay - two thirds of our lives!

last updated: 03/07/07

You are in: Leicester > Entertainment > Music > Leicestershire's Unsigned > The Squatters



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