Andy Howells chats to Bristol Band Coasts

Conceived in 2011 in the crypt of a church, the Bristol-born 5 piece have resolutely resisted the overtures of the major record companies and embarked on a unique and independent path. Non stop touring has built a quickly growing group of fans across the country with KOKO in London already booked for their next London show in September - before they have received any mainstream media support. Citing Foals and Arctic Monkeys as their current favourite bands, COASTS' anthem Oceans has now had over 2.7 million+ plays on Soundcloud and their next step is world domination - their way!

Who are you and how did you come together?

We are Coasts, a tropical pop band from Bristol. We all met at university, a few of us did the same course and ended up living together. We were all interested in music and were in a couple of different bands and then decided to form one together and that’s how Coasts formed.

Where are you from?

We formed in Bristol, but we’re from all over the country individually.

How would you describe your music style?

We’re a guitar band at heart I guess, but we try to bring different elements to that ranging from marimbas, house pianos and electronic drums. We describe ourselves as Tropical Pop and our music definitely has a summery sound.

What’s been your best live experience?

We played at Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg last summer and it’s this great inner city festival where you get wristbands and you can go to all the shows. Our show was completely full with more people queuing outside. That was a pretty awesome experience; to be in another country and have lots of people wanting to see you.

You have a new single and album coming soon can you tell us more about that?

Yeah we’ve just released our ‘Oceans EP’ which has 4 songs as well as a couple of remixes on it. We think it’s a collection of our best songs to date, so we’re really happy with it.

We’re still finishing up our album and that should be out early next year. We can’t wait to get our debut album out there; it’s been a long time coming.

You’re touring shortly are you looking forward to that?

Yeah, I think we all enjoy life on the road and we haven’t been on tour for a while now because it’s been festival season so we’re really looking forward to it. The reason to be in a band is to play your music live so touring is great.

What can people expect from your forthcoming Bristol gig?

It’s our hometown gig, so Bristol is always special. We haven’t played at The Fleece before so that should be good fun. It’s always nice to play in your hometown and it’s the last night of tour so we intend to go out with a bang.

Will you be coming to Wales sometime in the future? Where can people hear your music?

We’re hoping to come to Wales soon, probably next year on the album tour. We’ve never been which is a shame because we’ve heard good things.

People can check us out on Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/coastsband

All of our current releases are on there, as well as Spotify and if you want to buy them they’re available on iTunes.

Catch Coasts at Bristol's Fleece on September 20