Hailing from the breakwater towns of South East England, Our Propaganda is Jack Denton, Charlie Denton, Joe Newman and Harvey Groom. The guys took some time out to answer our Band of the Day questions so you can get to know them a little better. Sample their latest offering on Spotify at the end of the feature…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Varying towns on the south coast of Hampshire, England. We base ourselves in and around Southampton.
How did you meet?
Completely by chance really, we all met at through mutual friends and playing with each others bands on the local circuit. We all knew of one another and it kind of just slowly morphed into what you see today.
How long have you been playing as a band?
It’ll be five years in August; seems like a long time but it’s honestly just flown by!
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
The band came about through watching our videos and then dubbing them Our Propaganda, the name just stuck and we all still dig it. It represents what we’re trying to do with our music, spread it into the mass consciousness of modern day society.
What are your influences?
It varies heavily between each member which helps make our sound unique to us, the influences are endless really! It ranges from oriental folk music, world music in general to contemporary pop music and a heavy dose of rock music from the 60s onwards. Bands we like include Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys and so on…
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We are a rock band but we’re not afraid to push the boundaries, we have a strong pop sensibility. We can delve from the highest octane rock n roll into spaced out melodic pieces which add a different flavour to every song. We never restrict our sound to just one thing, we always like to see where we can take a song and then go with the vibe that creates. It makes for some pretty interesting rock songs.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Every lyric is relevant to our lives, topics range from: politics, environmental issues, the modern world we live in, love and every lyric has to be real to us. We’d never write anything that we didn’t believe in or that wasn’t a reality to us. There’s no point in writing about something that you’ve never done, unless it’s fantasy you just can’t fake it.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Pretty loud and energetic, we really enjoy ourselves and it definitely shows. Our performance has many different moods, we don’t have just one dynamic. You never know what can happen at an Our Propaganda show, it’s rock music with an edge. We’ve played over 100 shows easily, including trips to Europe and Russia where we played to an audience of over 40,000. It was an incredible experience and they loved us out there.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We’ll break this question down between each member:
Jack: Mine is quite tame but it’s got to be just playing in front of those 40,000 people, that’s as wild as it gets for me. As a frontman it’s my dream to play to audiences that are so willing to be entertained. It was incredible.
Harvey: I was at a Motörhead show in Southampton a few years back and in the moshpit was this sweaty naked man running around the entire show going absolutely crazy. I’ll never forget that. I think he might have puked too.
Charlie: Every show is wild, none more wild than the next.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Once again we’ll break it between each member:
Jack: Simple really, all I need is an SM58 and a sturdy upright micstand.
Harvey: Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with matching 4×12 Cab, Schecter Blackjack atx C8 is my main guitar, use a Big Tree by audio kitchen which can also double as an amp, MXR carbon copy delay, Dimebag wah and that’s it at the moment. Pretty bare bones.
Joe: Schecter bass, peavy cab, bheringer head, 10 band EQ, overdrive pedal, signal splitter and a four track mini mixer. Line 6 wireless guitar unit.
Charlie: Simple, Gretsch Drums and Zildjian Cymbals.
What are your plans for 2017?
To get ourselves in front of as many people as possible, we want people to see us. To make sure it’s better than last year on all s and to finally get more opportunities coming our way. We’d love to be able to say 2017 was the year it all started to happen.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We’ve all got our own spin on who we’d like so I’ll put them down here:
Jack: Aerosmith with Hollowstar opening.
Harvey: Guns N’ Roses with Hollowstar opening.
Joe: Pearl Jam with Shoot The Duke opening.
Charlie: Foo Fighters with Shoot The Duke opening. You should check out both Shoot The Duke and Hollowstar, great bands!
Header Image by Helen Bradley Owers Photography
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