If you are into writing music, for any teenager your instant reference points come out as the obvious sorts, those such as Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Oasis and Blur. How do you put these into a new context though? It’s one thing taking these as influences but another thing to manipulate them and make them sound just as relevant as they did first time round. It seems Hull’s FRONTEERS by all intents and purposes have actually found a method in doing this.

Their sound is projected through their lens of melodies that deliver themselves with grace and elegance, much in the fashion of Lee Mavers, John Power and James Skelly. FRONTEERS grabbed my attention at The Great Escape when they opened the Queen’s Hotel stage early on the Thursday. I was intrigued firstly by their age and the distance they had travelled down from Hull, I was keen to get stuck into how they sounded in a live setting and see how it transposed from their recordings. What they delivered with their short set at The Great Escape was arguably one of the finer things I witnessed at the whole festival. Completely captured by their harmonies and songwriting prowess. When they were to descend upon Brighton for the second time in as many weeks, I was keen to chat to frontmen Andy and James, Ellis on bass and Lloyd on drums.

So, how did you each individually get into music?
Ellis: I grew up on everything between like, 2000 and 2010 y’know, with all the Arctic Monkeys and stuff like that really. Just hearing that on the radio and starting to get into stuff around that really, that was where it began. Arctic Monkeys for me were just one of them bands that turned me onto guitars and that really, from there it really grew my interest in music.

Lloyd: It was that and like, they were just a Northern band to relate to.

James: When I was 12, I had just a little MP3 player with like Oasis and that on and they were the obvious first band for me. It normally happens that way but then I moved on from them onto all the other big bands like Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon. It was just a bit of a natural progression.

Andy: I guess we’ve just always realised the best bands have the best choruses and it makes the songs sound much better. All these were obvious bands to go for when it came to take influence.

Lloyd: I mainly got into music just through being a drummer. From the age of seven just getting into bands and getting into gigs constantly, when I was 14 it was all about starting a band. The first gig I went to was Franz Ferdinand in Hull and they have that song ‘Take Me Out’. They played the Ice Arena and when I watched that, that was the one where it just clicked – that was it, it’s guitar music for me from now on.

Andy: I was always into music from a kid, my Dad had loads of cassettes with like 80s guitar music on. You know Appetite for Destruction by Guns ’n’ Roses? I started playing that and sort of got into the guitar aspect of it so that was why I got a guitar. Then I realised quickly that what Slash was playing was a bit mad but I was a lot more aware of other bands after that really. Just mates and that showing me songs, branching out and that.

When did you all form as a band then?
James: It was around June in 2014 I think. The first electrical gig we did was the New Year, we always used to do acoustic stuff, just covers and getting songs together then we wrote ‘Youth’.

Were there any particular songs that you boys used to cover then?
Andy: Well, me and James started playing together in school because we were both into The Last Shadow Puppets and that duo sort of thing. It was my brother that introduced me to James and said he could sing and we found out we liked the same music so we started doing that. Then, we both left school and got jobs and started doing open mic nights together, more just for a bit of fun. Then we wrote a song called ‘Youth’ and liked it so we went from there really. I used to play in a band with Lloyd and Ellis so we just started again and got James in too.

What are your stand out gigs that you have been to – those that have changed your perspective on music and your work as musicians?
Ellis: I saw Royal Blood down at Fruit in Hull with about 10 people. It made me realise how good we had to be, even in a small venue they set a high standard.

Lloyd: It was just mad how such a great band were playing in front of so few people.

Ellis: Like big gigs, we’ve all been to them, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys etc.

Andy: I think it was The Vaccines in 2011. I loved them at the time, it was one of the first gigs that I’d been to on my own so that really stands out.

Ellis: I saw The Black Keys at the Metro Arena in Newcastle, that was great.

James: My favourite gig was Arctic Monkeys at Finsbury Park in 2014 but, any gig I go to I take influence from. There’s always something to learn from each individual part or whatever. I would watch a band and there’s just something small you can always learn from.

Andy: With Temples too, there was just something really nuts about them when they first came out.

Is there anything you take influence from when at a gig, be it stage presence or whatever?
Andy: Recently we supported Pretty Vicious and they had such a great show about themselves, such a way that they put themselves about onstage that I reckon we have really learnt from. It was like the full band too, every person was just going for it.

How old are you all?

Ellis: Well, I’m 19 and them three are all 20.

Andy: Older than we look then! I nearly didn’t get in. I’m the oldest too!

How are you coping with all the driving around then as this is your second time in Brighton in two weeks?
Ellis: Yeah, this is our second time down here after playing The Great Escape the other week. It’s alright though when you’re just in a van, you forget you’re driving.

Lloyd: Yeah, you find plenty of other ways to entertain yourself.

Ellis: We’d have loved to stick around but we need to shoot back straight after the set tonight.

How did you find your time the other week at The Great Escape then?
Andy: Yeah, yeah it was sound. I think we were first on at Queen’s Hotel that Thursday, we loved it though.

Can you tell us much about your new EP, Streets We’re Born In?
Andy: You can expect good stuff [laughter]. Yeah, we feel like it is our best stuff so far that we are releasing. We like it the most of everything we have done.

Ellis: We’ve developed our sound a bit from where we first began.

James: We feel like we are coming to a point with it where we are playing the music we have always wanted to play, you know what I mean?

How would you describe your sound initially?
Andy: We get The La’s and The Coral a lot to be honest but we have never really listened to them as such so they haven’t been a direct influence. I’m not sure, we always find it so hard to describe our sound ourselves.

Lloyd: The new EP is a lot heavier I’d of said. The guitar sounds are not as jangly I suppose, it all sounds a lot bigger, a bit more ballsy. There are four tracks on it.

James: We have another single called ‘Nothing’s Ever That Simple’ coming out just before the EP release.

How are you finding the ‘This Feeling’ tour then?
Andy: Yeah, it’s great. We played Southampton’s Joiners Bar last night and then the last date of the tour is The Isle of Wight Festival next week. The whole tour has been great.

Lloyd: We’ve met some great people on it. Good bands, loads of good bands. The original bands were like Hello Operator, Paves and Rituals and then it changed last night to Mantras and a local Southampton band. It’s a long drive back to Hull straight after the gig tonight though.

How do you find Hull works with you as a band – is it an obvious point of reference or something that sits in the background?
Andy: No, we are proud of where we are from. We like people to know we are from there, especially since it’s City of Culture and stuff next year – now that we are Premier League too. We’d love to go see Hull City play more but we just seem to be gigging all the time [laughter].

Do you tend to play in Hull a lot?
Ellis: To be honest we don’t play there too much. We try to keep it to as little as possible, focusing on getting out there more. We only do it to build up our profile, to try and sell it out and that.

James: We have our EP launch at Fruit on July 9, which we are looking forward to. There’s a good band called Audio Subscene who are good mates of ours and they are going pretty strong nowadays – their gigs are always real exciting.

Lloyd: We actually did a homecoming show back in Hull recently at Adelphi which was great, we played with Audio Subscene.

Have you plans to come back down to Brighton then?
James: Yeah, we really love it down here. When we made it to The Great Escape the other week, we just really loved it. The way it’s laid out and just the general vibe around the city. We’ve got a busy festival season over summer but then, from September, I’m sure it’ll be back to touring.

Ellis: Yeah, it’s a bit warmer than it is up in Hull too.

Lloyd: I can’t imagine they get what a pattie buttie is though [laughter].

Website: fronteersband.com
Facebook: facebook.com/fronteershull
Twitter: twitter.com/Fronteersband