It’s an exciting time for Lancashire guitar-poppers Lottery Winners. Currently working their way towards their self-titled debut album – due for release on 13th March via Modern Sky UK, ‘FYI’ – they’ve got a spring-summer packed with headline shows and festival sets. Before all that, they’re celebrating staying young, careless and free with new single ’21’, and an accompanying video that gives a glimpse into the future… Thom Rylance (“lead singer, heartthrob and all-around gentle lover”) fills us in.
Hey Thom, how’s it going?
Hello Dork, it’s going good, actually. Much better than it’s been going for a long time. I feel sated and warm, and I feel a lot of hope for the future. There’s a lot to wake up for. How are you?
Who are you all, and how did you meet?
We’re just four little idiots from a crap little town in the North West called Leigh. We met because we were bored and we wanted to make something happen in our lives. Leigh is like an annoying uncle, you don’t particularly like to be around it, but you kinda love it, because it’s part of you, and you’d be terribly sad if it died.
When did you first realise you wanted to be a musician? Did you have a musical upbringing?
I used to obsess over Queen from an incredibly young age. I remember seeing Queen: Live at Wembley on the TV as a nipper and just being completely encapsulated by the power Freddie had on stage. All those people in his hands, all of those eyes on him. I wanted that. Later I found the prestige of Nirvana, the dauntless attitude of Oasis and the acute lyricism of The Smiths. That’s when I knew music was the most important thing on our planet.
I begged my parents for a guitar for years, but I don’t think they were into the idea of me screeching and scraping upstairs for hours every night. It wasn’t until the first year of high school when the music teacher, Mr Asbury, threw the school bass guitar at me and told me I was in the school band whether I liked it or not. That changed my life. He was the only teacher that liked me. Big up Mr Asbury.
What’s it like being a new band in Lancashire, are there many opportunities? Is it a tight-knit scene?
I’m not sure there particularly is a scene. If there is, we’re not cool enough to know about it.
I will say, though, all of my friends are absolutely unbelievable musicians. Like, honestly. We do these open mic jam nights for a laugh, and the standard of musicianship, for a tiny town, would blow your willy off. There are so many amazing players. I think it’s because there was nothing else to do growing up. Everyone just got fucking brilliant on guitar.
What’s your new song ’21’ about?
Never growing up.
The video’s fun, who came up with the concept? What was the recording like?
Thanks, I did. Filming was fun, my Grandad played me, and he’s one of my heroes, and I love hanging with him. We only decided on the concept two days before we filmed it, so it was a bit of a scramble to get everything ready, including actors that looked like us, and an elderly lady that was happy to wash a car in a bikini. Surprisingly, there’s quite a lot of websites for that.
How did you find all your older counterparts?
We just walked around in Leigh and approached people that we thought kind of looked like us and asked them to do it. (We didn’t, we used the internet.)
Tell us about your debut album – was it a long time in the works?
Years and years. But it was worth it, we’re really proud. There were so many setbacks and changes and so much bullshit, but now it’s finally coming out, and we can finally start being a proper band.
How would you describe the record’s vibe?
Fucking excellent.
Anything else we should know?
Did you know that scuba is an acronym? It stands for Self Contained Underwater Breather Apparatus.
Lottery Winners’ self-titled debut album is due 13th March.
