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We chat to the Manchester alt-country band ahead of their tour with Westside Cowboy. |
| Words: Marty Hill | Photos: Molly Wilkinson |
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Propelled by Manchester’s revitalised grassroots music scene and a wider-cast wave of “alt-country” revivalism, Wyatt feel like one of the most ascendant bands in the country. The fact that they now have a song to their name helps. After a string of demos released only on Bandcamp and self-burned CDs, much anticipated debut single ‘Morning’ was released via Heist or Hit to much acclaim earlier this month. It served to widen the conversation about how very special this band are from local knowledge to a more national buzz. The band completed their permanent line-up last year, with Emily Mason (trumpet/guitar/vocals) joining brothers Harvey O’Toole (guitar/lead vocals), Evan O’Toole (bass/vocals) and Joe Ward (drums). Since then, a relentless gigging calendar has allowed them to establish themselves as one of the most compelling new live bands in the country. They’ll stake that claim in front of the biggest crowds they’ve ever played to when they head out on tour with Westside Cowboy next week. Before that, though, Emily and Harvey joined me in the pub for a chat. |
For anyone who might be hearing about Wyatt for the first time, could you give us a brief history of the band up to this point? |
Harvey: Of course. It’s been the four of us for just over a year now. It was around Manchester Psych Fest last year that Emily became seriously involved. Me, Evan and Joe had been doing gigs for about six months before that. It feels like a lot longer. |
When you were first getting things off the ground, was there anything specific that you were looking to get out of the project? |
Harvey: I just wanted to try writing my own songs and then see if I could put a band together who could make them sound good. I was only willing to make myself busy with it if I really believed in it. I started by getting a really good drummer, because without one of those you might as well not have a band. So I asked Joe. I then asked Evan to play bass, who else was I ever going to ask? I mean that in a good way. A little later I asked Emily to join. I knew she was really good, but we had her play a few songs at some gigs and it was like: “Okay, this is clearly a lot better.” |
Early on, it felt like you were determined to play as many shows as possible. Is that something that you’d discussed, or something that came more naturally? |
Harvey: I guess we probably did do quite a lot, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We still have the mentality of just being really excited whenever we get offered anything. The first big one we got was when Tasmin (TTSSFU) asked us to do a run with her earlier in the year. That was the first time we’d gone around the country and done the same set, which was really good. I don’t think there was a real plan to do loads of gigs, but we had stuff come through and we were excited about it. That’s probably why it took so long for us to put music out. It was nice that people liked it from the start, but it has taken at least this long for me to feel like we know what we’re trying to do. We’ve done a lot of gigs in bursts, May, for example, was kind of crazy. There’s been some bad ones in there: we played a show at Big Hands where we went on at 10:30PM as support, the sound guy didn’t show up and something broke halfway through. I’d asked my friend Seth to film it too – I took that video down a few days ago, I can’t believe it took me that long. |
In the interest of balance, tell me about some that are memorable for the right seasons. |
Emily: My favourite is a show we did at Hare and Hounds in Birmingham. That was the first night where I thought to myself, “Okay, people are really listening to what we’re doing.” You don’t always feel that in the context of a big room, so that was really nice. We have a slow song called ‘Last Waltz’ and my gauge of how well a gig is going is whether or not people talk during that. It was really quiet that night. That’s the benchmark gig for me. |
Harvey: We did No Band is an Island in June which was great. It felt like we shouldn’t really have been doing it, because we got asked quite last minute. We were obviously never going to say no, because we love what they’re doing and we love being involved. It was scary but great, those gigs are always so supportive. The Greg Freeman tour in August was amazing. Sometimes you play well as a support act but nobody is there to see it and it’s quite tough to take mentally. That tour was not like that at all, it was like four nights in a row of huge dopamine hits. It helps that Greg Freeman is great too. |
Just picking up on the No Band is an Island show, how much do you feel like Wyatt is a product of the strength of the Manchester scene at the moment? |
Harvey: We feel really, really lucky to be in the scene at this time. The success of Westside Cowboy, Dove Ellis and TTSSFU has been amazing for Manchester and has really created a platform for others. It also sets the bar and that snowballs into creating more good bands. I remember seeing Westside Cowboy at one of their first gigs and thinking to myself that they’d set the standard that I want to try to hit. It’s just a privilege to be part of it. |
Let’s talk a bit about the single. I remember seeing you quite early and texting you something like, “Good luck picking a single out of that.” I actually don’t think ‘Morning’ was even in the set back then. |
Harvey: We wrote it quite recently, around April time. We had a gig in London where we had some technical issues. When you go all that way and take time off work and the set doesn’t quite work, it feels like such a big effort wasted. We also slept in bunk beds that night. I rarely write music like this, but I woke up early and started writing to try and at least get something out of the time we’d spent going down there. Me and Evan went straight on holiday after that gig and I had my guitar still and worked on it there. I took it to Emily’s house when we got back and went through it. We supported The Slow Country a few days later and opened with it. It was probably the first time we’d played through it with all four of us; it was probably pretty different to what it became. I like that it felt like we’d gotten good at our process with that song. |
I wanted to touch on this “alt-country” wave that seems to be really in at the moment. You’re a band that has and will be spoken about in those terms, what do you make of it? |
Emily: Before joining this band, I had no real knowledge of it at all. At first when people would speak about it, I’d wonder what I was even doing being in this band. I’ve delved into it a lot more whilst playing in the band and it’s something I’m interested in now. It kind of takes everything from everything. I think some people think it’s, like, banjo music or something. Greg Freeman was the benchmark of it for me. It’s not obnoxiously American either, which is nice. A lot of my friends that have come to watch Wyatt have been like, “Oh, I didn’t think I like talk country music,” you know? |
Harvey: I never set out to start an alt-country band, really. Even now, I always just describe us as “guitar music with Emily playing trumpet” because there’s a preconception about country music or Americana. I’m a bit worried it’ll become an umbrella term like post-punk, which kind of lost all meaning. At the same time, I’m glad that this kind of music is having a bit of a moment because it is the music that I’ve listened to for most of my life. The only music you should make is the music that you like, because you can tell as soon as bands don’t do that. Sometimes the music you like happens to be the music that’s having a moment, and that can be the difference between playing a smaller room or selling out Apollo. |
You have a very busy end to the year, not least of all with the support tour with Westside Cowboy. How are you feeling about that? |
Emily: I was scared but my mum changed my perspective on it. I was worried about how I was going to wash my pants, that was all I thought about when it all first got announced. That’s what troubled me. My mum was talking about how it’s the best opportunity I’ve ever had and she’s right. It’ll be nice to play to different audiences and see different cities. Harvey was talking about how not everybody will like us the other day, and that’s true. We’re there to support. There’s less pressure. |
Harvey: Most dates had sold out before we were even added. People aren’t buying tickets for us. All we can do is do our thing and hope there’s some crossover and some people like it. It’ll just be nice to travel around and be like, “Why am I on stage in Copenhagen with my brother, why are my mum and dad watching?” We also get to watch Westside Cowboy every night if nothing else. They could’ve said we had to wear the same pants for every night of the tour and I’d have still taken it. |
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