Sheffield’s got some big new players on the music scene. Ex-The Blinders frontman Thomas Haywood returned to his home county from Manchester a little over a year ago and rounded up a stellar group of lads for his next adventure. Tom, along with Bobby Glaister, John McCullagh, Nathan Keeble and James Keith, forms Whitehorse – a dynamic new collaboration blending deep bass, mellow guitars and punchy lyrics.
Their new track ‘Red Riptide’ is released on 2 September, with the band next performing at Float Along Festival on 27 September alongside the likes of Big Special, Jane Weaver and Antony Szmierek. Exposed’s Ruby Deakin sat down with lead vocalist Tom to discuss getting started in Sheffield, their musical journey so far and plans for the future.
What’s it like being back in the South Yorkshire music scene? How does it compare to creating a new band in Manchester?
You’re a little bit more on your own, in a way – I think because of the nature of how we’ve approached it with the band. But then once you begin to make an impression on the people who are putting gigs on, that’s when it becomes really cool and you realise how much is actually going on in Sheffield. It doesn’t really take long for people to start throwing some weight your way.
It does feel like starting again, and I can only see that as a good thing – to be able to get the ball rolling off your own back. It’s your own merits, then. It’s what you are now, as opposed to anything you were riding before, which is always good for the self-esteem.
You played at Yellow Arch and Sidney & Matilda recently – how have local gig-goers reacted to the new project?
We’re kind of playing to full rooms already and we’ve not really even been a band for nine months, so it’s cool. There’s not actually that many Blinders fans knocking about in those crowds, but the ones that are, we’re hugely grateful to.
The pressure is good – to have to build that up again.
You can be quite connected to the music community here, it goes without saying, just because of the nature of the gaff. I think it reflects more on the kind of people that come to this place. Being from Donny, when you hear that Yorkshire accent again, it’s like a strong drink – it’s a good feeling.
How was it getting this new project off the ground?
We moved pretty fast after a period of inactivity. I was wandering around various woods, just not really knowing who I was or what I was doing – but I definitely had that burning desire to get going. I think I went into this knowing that I had to surround myself with lads who could think quickly and be accepting of needing to stay true to that initial idea.
I think personally I have this issue with honesty, which is natural for anyone who writes and sings – you can start resenting yourself and not being truthful. You don’t do it on purpose; you just get so wrapped up in various pressures. So this time it had to be straight up. I got the lads in – who I mostly knew individually – and it just started to spin. You just kind of stand back sometimes and wonder: how did five people like this manage to get something together this way and make it happen the way it’s happened? Call it fate, call it a stroke of luck, or just call it the way it’s always got to be.
How do you approach this new material, and how do songs come together?
I don’t really even know what the process is, really. I print off words and, in a structured way, we all sit down and I kind of walk them through it. Then they almost put it together as a composition. And very quickly, after those initial runs, it gets really exciting.
I think knowing who you are and what you are is so important – especially nowadays. It’s easy to get caught up in not being that. So that would essentially be the foundation for what this is. And don’t be afraid to be a bit neurotic at times – to cover that up would be a serious injustice to yourself.
Tell us about your new single, ‘Red Riptide’. You describe the track as being about determination and staying true to your own vision. What was the process of creating this one?
What you’re hearing is the first time we actually went through it together. Everything that’s coming out at the moment and over the next few months was recorded in this really tight week where we just grafted and live recorded. We overlaid very little, and we wanted it to be that way – because you can’t really hide behind anything.
It’s probably the heaviest we go at the moment. It was something I had an idea for a long time ago – as I have with most of these songs. Quite a number of the songs we’re currently doing I’ve been sat on, and I even tried a couple of them with The Blinders. It just didn’t work because we were being pulled away from our initial idea. So we went back to them.
I think ‘Red Riptide’ is essentially about not disturbing that clear path and flow. The idea of a stream and water has come into a lot of our stuff – like the name Whitehorse is like how waves look like white horses. That was a cool little thing. Also, Dylan Thomas died after being in a pub called the White Horse Tavern. So we thought: we’re having that.
What do you hope to explore going forward?
We’ve got so many ideas. I’ve never been in a place as freeing as this. Anything you hear over the next six months will be from that first batch – leading to, hopefully, a longer release. We know there’s certain hoops you’ve got to jump through, and we’re hoping to jump through them soon and share more.
We’ve got a lot of ideas already for that second batch, and we’re really excited to use the studio for a longer time in different ways. We’ve never had so many doors to choose from. So we’re writing all the time – hundreds of songs. It’s crazy, actually.
Whitehorse play Float Along Festival in Sheffield on 28 Sept. Follow their instagram for more.
