We started playing when we were 11.
Not playing in bedrooms or garages, although we did that as well. playing in front of people in Valleys Workingmen's and Rugby clubs. An after-school club called Rock-Factory was run by Rob Payne , the guitarist of a local band, with the idea of getting kids playing music. It's a good idea.
It wasn't about teaching you an instrument, we had to learn that ourselves. it was all about getting you playing. This was when The Pitchforks came about. Singer William had been teaching himself Guitar when Santa brought his younger brother Alex a set of Drums one Christmas. Ethan was in the same class as Alex and fancied a crack. From murdering covers, to playing half-decent covers, to starting to write our own songs, the band recorded a first set of demos that we put onto CD's and quite literally sold in the playground. A second EP of songs was completed and hopefully forgotten by anyone who bought it.
It's important for a band to know that what they are doing is actually any good. So when long deleted song Nothing Left made it onto David Owen's WalesOnline playlist it meant the world to us.
We had the chance to record a video, so the day before we asked Callum to join us on Bass and we wrote Headlock which became the first song to make it outside the garage. It's still a live favorite and was the reason why we got asked to be a part of the Forte Project 2016 (even though we were still 15). Forte put a small but important light on us, showed us all the things we didn't know we needed to learn and gave us the chance to record another song, Afflictions.
Afflictions was another example, like Headlock, of giving inspiration the opportunity to strike. The studio time was booked alongwith the brilliant Stefan Pringle (ESTRONS), but Afflictions was only written the night before recording.
Afflictions was championed by BBC Radio Wales on shows by Bethan Elfyn and Adam Walton and also played by actual legend Huw Stephens several times on BBC Radio One. We had a further surprise when Huw picked us as one of his Ones to Watch for 2018.
Playing live got bigger and bigger for us in 2018 after a sold-out headline show in Pontypridd's Clwb-y-Bont attended by most of our school all trying to unsuccessfully get served at the bar. This was followed by our first Cardiff shows including our first headline show at Clwb Ifor Bach which was again sold-out.
2018 brought us a nomination at the Cardiff Music Awards for Best Single which we won. None of the band were old enough to accept the free tequila and Ethan was away on a Geography trip. We went back into the studio to record next single Waste of a Day with the excellent Gethin Pearson in a very snowy Ebbw Vale. We released it in May.
Huge support followed, from Radio Wales, Radio One, as well as making John Kennedy's record of the week on RadioX.
Support slots for Pretty Vicious, Anteros, Trampoline, Redfaces showed that we were making the right steps forward. We were also asked to be part of BBC Horizons and played Festival Number 6 which was huge. This was followed by a killer set at Cardiff's Hoyfest and Swn festival.
We rounded off the year after recording with legendary Producer Charlie Francis and being picked as one of This Feeling's 'Best of 2019.'
2019 doesn't know what's coming for it.
