“We really appreciate you all turning out tonight,” confessed Deaf Havana frontman James Veck-Gilodi in front of a packed out HMV Picture House. “The last time we came to Edinburgh I think there were about 30 fans there.”

Certainly, a lot has changed for rock six-piece Deaf Havana since they last travelled to the Scottish capital in 200?. The band transfigured their early post-hardcore sound into an alt-rock set up with Worthless Fools and Liars in 2010, and followed that transition with the release of new record Old Souls, a smash success sampling everything from rock and blues to soul and jazz.

The evolution of the group’s sound has seen them become definitively defined as one of the most musically pure artists around, and this organic nature translated effervescently onto the live stage in Edinburgh.

Opening with Old Souls' lead single Boston Square, the band set off to a storming start. With their natural sound tag so important to the group, a certain sentiment of pressure can arise on the Englishmen to shine on the stage, and they did not disappoint. Striking guitar chords launched the opener with an extended intro before Veck-Gilodi introduced his trademark vocals; rough and raw with a tentative touch.

A generous selection of songs from the group’s latest two albums followed, with upbeat Old Souls tracks Everybody’s Dancing And I Want to Die and Tuesday People wedged between past favourites Little White Lies and I Will Try. The former couplet worked again to promote the smart development and versatility of their recent release, the latter two cuing mass sing-a-longs with progressive rock beats featuring irresistible hooks, quick string work and a big shift from drummer Tom Ogden.

What would follow though would be a further match up of new and old tracks to emphasise beyond all doubt the perfectly unpolluted personality in the work of Deaf Havana. First, hit classic The Past Six Years was sounded, with sweet acoustic guitar melodies meeting meaningful lyrics and veracious vocals to sing them. Next, Saved – a top trump Old Souls – was floated around the venue, with lead guitarist Chris Pennells caressing the strings of his instrument in a manner many would have thought lost to the likes of Phil Lynott. There should never have been any doubt regarding the ability of Deaf Havana, but if there was, this dynamic double could have convinced the most sceptical of critics of the group’s pure innovative brilliance. It is at times like this that the group are at their best.

An interesting final third of the hour plus set followed, with a heavy rendition of Anaemophobia preceding a cool cover of The Cure’s Friday I’m In Love and the anthemic Hunstanton Pier closing out the regular concert. Aging favourite I’m A Bore Mostly set the crowd alight on the encore, with the well known riffs and lyrics rebounding back to the stage as the audience put their lungs into use.

A superbly memorable set which lived up to every expectation accompanying the natural styling tag of Deaf Havana.

An abundance of critical praise awaited the release of Old Souls, the third studio album released from difficult-to-define English six-piece Deaf Havana.

The once pop-punk outfit have been persistently progressing their sound ever since dropping Meet Me Halfway, At Least, their debut album, in 2009. After adding an indie-folk edge to their music in the wonderful Fools and Worthless Liars two years later, the group came back with the organic awe of Old Souls in September, a magnificent mix of musical purity that features nods to the rock, indie, blues, folk and even jazz genres by the end of the twelve song tracklist.

With a bold movement made to a reel packed with untested material, some may have expected a subsequent jumble of half-hearted, ungenre specific songs to make up the bulk of the band’s latest release, yet this ignorant statement could not be further from the truth. Old Souls is rather a brilliant blend of styles connected with the signaturely autobiographical lyrics of the group and irresistibly organic nature of their matured production.

For James Veck-Gilodi, the front man of what is now of the biggest bands on the British rock scene, the recently released album is the result of a sound evolution goal set long ago.

“It was a sound that we’ve always wanted to go for,” he said. “I guess after ‘Meet Me Halfway, At Least’ we couldn’t just change our sound that much, so it has been a progression. Saying that though, it’s all pretty natural. It’s not as though we sat down and said ‘I want this album to sound exactly like this’, it just naturally happened.

“When me and my brother [Matt Veck-Gilodi, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist] were writing it we were coming up with all these different sounding songs, but we didn’t exactly say ‘that song doesn’t fit in let’s not use it’, we just put it in anyway. It is kind of an experiment but I think it worked.

“The reception has been ridiculous – I never expected it to be as good as it has been. I was pretty worried about how it would be received because it is quite different but the response has been amazing.”

A defining factor of the Deaf Havana experience is the anti-autotune attitude that has established the band as one of the most musically pure, natural artists currently on the scene. Veck-Gilodi was keen to emphasise that this, along with the deeply personal nature of his lyrics, is indeed among the most important components that goes into any new work from the group.

“I think there’s too many bands around that are doing it for the wrong reasons and too much music around that is just awful,” continued the vocalist. “We’re trying to be as honest and natural as we possibly can and hopefully people will take notice of that.”

“[The autobiographical style] is just naturally how I write songs, but also I like people to be able to understand exactly what the song is about without having to look into too much. I always like to keep it quite literal and plain... well not plain, but you know what I mean! It’s just the natural way for me to write lyrics though – a lot of bands that I listened to and admire have the same kind of style.

“This time around me and brother wrote the songs in my house and just start off with an acoustic guitar, and then we’d do a really crap demo of it on his laptop. After that’d we’d send it off and when we went into the studio to actually record it everybody would put their own spin on it and turn it into the actual song. It’s pretty simple, natural writing.”

With a new album comes the announcement of the biggest British headline tour to date for the group who have gone from promising potentials to proven critical hits in recent years. After supporting Bruce Springsteen and Muse in the past few months the band will certainly not be rusty for their live stage return, and Veck-Gilodi admits he is relishing the prospect of getting back on the road.

He continued: “[Springsteen and Muse] were both ridiculous. It was pretty weird because we’re not used to playing to such huge crowds like that, so it was pretty scary. It was awesome though too, because the people there weren’t fans of our band so we had to win them over and it was a challenge but really enjoyable.”

“I can’t wait to get going on the tour. We’ve had the new songs for quite a while so to be able to play them live will be so good. We haven’t really done a tour in ages so it’ll be nice to get back out and play. We can’t wait.”

Stuart Kenny

As published originally at: www.brignewspaper.com

Sleeping With Sirens arrived to what was no doubt a comparatively small crowd for the American rock outfit on the Edinburgh leg of their British Feel tour last weekend, but there was nothing remotely undersized about their live performance.

Although the Edinburgh support did not quite pack the spacey HMV Picture House in the same way many of the other sell out cities will have crowded their venues, there was still a decent show-out, and those present were treated to a shredding showing of breakdowns and rattling riffs, not to mention the impressively versatile vocals of Kellin Quinn.

This referred to front man arrived on stage to a predictable chorus of deafening screams before kicking off the set with the appropriately named Here We Go.

The opener spared no time in unleashing heavy guitar and bass backings that would become a recurring theme of the concert, really bringing out an instrumental prominence in recently released album Feel that was more notably subdued in the studio recording.

Indeed, if sections of the group’s support had lamented the Americans’ transition from a post-hardcore past to a more radio-rock sound in their latest album, the band quickly moved to dispel any concerns that they had moved away from their roots.

Matty Mullins feature Congratulations followed on the set list, further highlighting the musical purity of the band with a string-splitting solo from lead guitarist Jack Fowler, and heavier tracks The Best There Ever Was and These Things I’ve Done saw the band play hard on beats which perfectly progressed to banging breakdowns.

Quinn’s vocals were particularly memorable throughout meanwhile, and will have left the biggest impression on the minds of those in attendance. The adaptability of the artist really is remarkable; his sweet tuning shown off in soft renditions of If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn and other features from the band’s 2012 acoustic EP, and the raw range of the vocalist unleashed in various other efforts, most prominently past favourite A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son, in which Quinn switches effortlessly from tuneful tones to a stylish scream at the flick of a switch.

Fans may have been disappointed with the group’s decision to omit big singles Feel and Alone from the set list, but an encore calling of signature song If You Can’t Hang was enough to appease anyone in that mindset and cap off an impressive performance with a mass rock out.

A successful showing made predominantly pleasing by the versatility of the five-piece outfit and their captivating lead singer in particular.

Stuart Kenny

As published originally at: www.brignewspaper.com