According to vocalist Brandyn Mahmood, the Roques top song on Spotify (Fear Me) is about “anger and desire all conveyed in controlled tones from each member of the band”. He expands on this by saying “The lyrics tell so many stories at once: ‘crying through your eyes you start to bleed. Lying face to face in the dark; let me take you back to the start.’ It ultimately shows that blend between attitude and passion that we’ve been aiming for within our music recently”. These factors are consistent themes in whatever The Roques seem to make. These guys are truly something else, and clearly many other Spotify and Facebook users agree with this statement.
In the beginning, the guys all went to the same school and all had the same passion. First, rhythm guitarist Theo and bass guitarist Cammy made a few demos together. Then, lead guitarist Jamie added a guitar riffs to one of Theo & Cammy’s demo and went on to work together. That was the beginning of a few of the Roques instrumental roots. Jamie and Brandyn were playing ever since Jamie was 16, so that filled in the vocal section of the five piece. Jamie saw drummer Blair playing the drums throughout their school years. Like the naturality of what brought them together, a lot of elements naturally influence what they write about. They generally all share the same musical taste, but it’s personal experiences, emotions, and the inspirations they draw from other bands is what drives their songwriting. “We’re always looking to be open-minded though, so who knows what may influence us most in our music in the near future” Brandyn tells me. After starting to play together about a year ago, the five have grown a strong hometown support in Dundee. But now since they are releasing more material sooner and faster, their audience have expanded and “hopefully that will keep continuing to grow with the more we continue to do as a band” Blair hopes.
“We think (Addicted) best captures our performance styles as individuals in the band out of our released material to date. Pounding drum beats, driving bass and rhythm guitar lines, transcendent lead guitar work and captivating, pulsating vocals all blend together to form ‘Addicted’. It’s full of drive and energy throughout and we’re looking forward to playing it live in the very near future.”
-Blair Nicol (drummer for the Rogues) 4.30.2019
The comparison of Arctic Monkeys and the Roques can be connected to their pulsating mix of Pop and Rock… But why are they so good? I believe this question can be answered by recognizing their acceptance of experimenting with sounds that are never something that they are not. In other words, they are just straight-up talented musicians who know exactly what they want to do with whatever they make. What Do You See? and Fear Me are both fantastic and creative tracks, and so is Addicted. They are also well written, which I give Brandyn credit for making. Not a lot of bad things can be said about good music, and this is exactly what the Rogues are releasing… Good music.
“Since starting out as a band last year, we’ve dipped into a lot of different genres/influences within our material such as Indie, psychedelic rock, darker indie rock etc. Importantly, we want to show that our music is unique to ourselves as a band and not a copy or remake of music that has been heard before so in terms of the direction we want to head in, I think it’s just a case of continuing to be ourselves within our music and not setting limitations on ourselves as a band and seeing where our future music naturally takes us.”
-Theo Middleton (Rythm Guitarist)
Cammy is looking forward to the Roques next releases, which he tells me that they’re hoping to have a debut EP recorded and released by the end of 2019. “We’ll also have a variety of gigs lined up throughout the rest of the year with our next one being a headline slot in Dundee on 10th May which we’re very excited for” Cammy tells me.
I would like to thank Brandyn Mahmood (vocalist), Theo Middleton (rhythm guitarist), Jamie Wilde (lead guitarist), Cammy Duncan (bass guitarist), and Blair Nicol (drummer) for reaching out to me for a review. If you like what you hear then keep up to date with their progress going forward on Unedited’s page on Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, please go like and follow their Facebook page and listen to their music on Spotify! Have a good night everyone!
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