Backseat Juliet: ‘When the crowd’s with you, you feel on top of the world, you can do anything’

Fresh from wowing the crowd at Hard Rock Hell in Great Yarmouth last month, Kettering- based hard rock band Backseat Juliet will release their debut full-length album next year.

The band comprises Ben Cross (lead vocals, guitar), Marty Jupiter (bass/backing vocals) and brothers Robin Mitchard (lead guitar) and Harry Mitchard (drums). They describe themselves as: “Formed 30 years too late by a bunch of heavy metal maniacs, animal printed, whiskey-driven, ladies orientated, too loud and way too pretentious – fasten your seatbelt and take your bra off!’ Cross and Jupiter know each other from a former band they both played in called Unitra, where Jupiter played drums at the time. Cross and Robin Mitchard work at a vape shop together and, in Cross’ words, ‘the rest is history’.

Fascinatingly, their band name was inspired by American hard rock band Skid Row: ‘There’s a line in the Skid Row song ‘Big Guns’ that goes ‘Backseat Romeo’ and I thought: “What if we changed that to ‘Juliet’?”, Cross said.

Their latest single ‘Sweet Nothing’ is peppered with massive 70’s style riffs and flamboyant vocals from Cross, something that was even more evident when I saw them perform it live recently at Hard Rock Hell: ‘I’ve had that song written for a few years now, it’s all about how I met my wife,’ Cross explained. ‘I met her in a pub but the song depicts that she’s a stripper, which she’s not terribly happy about but I keep it rock ‘n’ roll (laughs)! The way I write songs is it’s always the riffs first, although sometimes I try and mix it up and have a good, strong lyric to base the song around. I’m a guitarist at heart anyway, so riffs always come first for me then I mold the lyrics around it.’

He would love to hear ‘Sweet Nothing on an ‘over the top action show like Starsky & Hutch’: ‘I believe it has everything that we try to portray in in our music. It’s dramatic, flamboyant and doesn’t take itself too seriously!’ I tell him that when I saw them live, it really struck me that all of their songs hit you with full-throttle riffs from the start, there’s no easing gently into them and he laughs: ‘Yeah, there’s no need to mess about, is there?!’ When they play the song live, Jupiter and Mitchard flip their guitar and bass up to show the lyrics from the chorus of ‘Sweet Nothing’ on the back of them, namely ‘Rock Your Body’ and ‘Show Me A Good Time’ and, impressively, carry on playing without skipping a beat: ‘Actually, it’s in the music video where they first did that but that idea came about, I think, before we recorded it because some of the audience was singing that back at us. We thought: “Oh, okay, maybe we could make a thing about this”. It’s hard to describe but if you don’t have the crowd on your side, it doesn’t feel as comfortable for me on stage. When the crowd’s with you, you feel on top of the world, you can do anything. Hard Rock Hell was like that, it was a different level. Everyone was just on board immediately. I thought: “Wow, normally it takes a few songs to get them going!”‘

Onstage, they dive deep into their hard rock and glam rock inspirations, breaking out the leopard print and denim jackets and super-glam cowboy boots that even Elton would want to get his hands on: ‘We got the boots from Ebay and charity shops but Marty made my jacket and his and I think he helped with Robin’s.’ I say they should start selling them as merch and he grins: ‘We’ve said that to him!’ Cross cites bands such as Poison and Ratt as influencing his own style ‘because they weren’t too over the top with the glam, keeping it tasteful with each band member following a theme of that band’s era’: ‘It could be a colour scheme or a particular style of spandex. I don’t think we are there yet with bands like Twisted Sister or Nitro but never say never and I would love to own Gene Simmons’ hair piece!’

‘Taking Over’, which they released as a single in 2023, erupts with a hynotically chuggy riff and the kind of exuberance that make it destined for a big crowd: ‘I think that’s one of the first songs I ever wrote for this band, it’s so long ago, it’s hard to find the words to describe how it goes (laughs). I think I wrote it during COVID. In the music video for that song, it’s different because we were a three-piece back then. It was when we first started to find our feet before we found Robin and Harry two years ago. It’s about life on the road. I’m not an outright vocalist – I just picked up singing the last couple of years – so writing lyrics is still quite new to me. Sometimes, I’ll do a couple of lines and I’ll go back to it in a couple of weeks and it takes its time to write itself, in a way. With ‘Taking Over’, I had the chorus and shaped the rest of the lyrics around that and that’s what we’ve got today.’

Does he have a dream guitar if money were no object? ‘My dream guitar changes every day (laughs). I would have to say an original, gold, 60’s Gibson Les Paul, although I think my next purchase will probably be a Telecaster that has to be made in Japan. That Ibanez (he points to the guitar behind him on the wall), that’s 1985, made in Japan, and I’ve got a Strat over there that’s also from ’85, again, made in Japan. The Japanese necks just feel so much better, I find they’re slimmer. The American Strats, they’re quite baseball batty (laughs). It’s weird the little preferences that people have! I’m not much of a gear nut in terms of guitars but I think the Strat is my favourite right now. I’ve been playing it so much live that half the pickups are held up by duct tape. The old paint’s chipping away but it’s got character.’

I ask which band members are the hardest to get out of a music shop: ‘I’ll say Robin, he absolutely loves his gear, so does Marty. He’s like me, he likes the older guitars. I’m not the best in a guitar shop, either, because I’m very clumsy (laughs).’ I say that that sounds like a travesty and does that mean he’s “accidentally” had to buy one that he’s damaged? ‘What a travesty, can’t bear the thought!’

Collectively, they bring a lot of different influences and sounds to the band: ‘KISS is a massive influence for us. I had a KISS t-shirt on the day you saw us, I couldn’t resist! W.A.S.P. (a heavy metal band from LA), Mötley Crüe and Poison have also been big influences. Robin, he’s a massive Bon Jovi fan. The songs he’s writing now for the new album we’re going to go into the studio soon for are very influenced by them. Marty also likes all of those bands and he’s a big fan of Danger, Danger as well (a hard rock band from New York), so you always hear him trying to do that heavy bass line popping through! Harry, I only really hear him talking about Thunder, he loves them!’

For Cross, the lightbulb moment was when he saw a clip of Jimi Hendrix playing Woodstock: ‘I thought: “I really want to do that”, so I asked my parents to get me a Strat, the Sunburst one that Jimi had, but that was some Chinese model, so it was built like a bow and arrow! Then I discovered Metallica via my mum and lost control from there! I was lucky enough to get guitar lessons at the school when I was 10 and it developed from there. Afterwards, I started to teach myself by picking a song and trying to play it. Later on, in upper school, I was in a band called The Corrupt – we were absolutely crap! We didn’t play any gigs or anything, we were just playing songs in our bedroom. They wanted to play more modern stuff like Enter Shikari (laughs) and I was pushing Metallica and Led Zeppelin but it was really fun.’

The upcoming album will include ‘Sweet Nothing’ as as well as two new songs, ‘Sex’ and ‘Backstreet Juliet’: ‘We’ll be in the studio for it, I think, early next year. We’re aiming for 10 tracks, we’re already over halfway. We’ve got 20- 30 tracks in the computer, just as demos. We’ve got loads to choose from, but obviously, half of them are probably crap anyway, so we’ve got to sift through all the crap! Sonically, I would say it’s not going to be too dissimilar from our ‘Gimme That Poison’ EP (2024) but there’ll be a wider variety of songs on there. We’re adamant we’re going to have a nice power ballad because when you’ve got 10 tracks, you can’t have it all *he mimes heavy drumming*, so we’re going to build a story around it. We’re going to have a range of emotions, so it’s not all going to be pounding in your ear for 45 minutes!’

Cross’s favourite song on last year’s debut EP turns out to be ‘Freetown’, which deals the listener a sonic punch, with massive, distorted riffs: ‘I think it’s really grown up for us. It’s got key changes in it, it’s one of the more recent ones we’ve written.’ And although their songwriting process can vary from song to song, around half of the time, Cross takes a cool riff to the band and they jam it out at rehearsal to see what sticks. ‘Once you have the riff, you probably do a verse, chorus, a verse and then another chorus and then you have around two minutes of a nearly a finished product. When you take it to rehearsal, it is 70% done, you just need a bridge, a solo etc.’

Songwriting itself can be a gnarly beast: ‘Sometimes a song will just write itself, other times you’re just sitting there with a blank piece of paper struggling to put anything on it. With this type of music, you can’t be too heavy with your ideas, you’ve got to keep it light-hearted – sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll!’ he quipped. ‘Yet there are only so many times you can write about that. If you look at bands like Mötley Crüe and Skid Row, their lyrical content is very similar. They’re about a girl or a guy. You want to try and mix it up as much as possible but stay in your lane.’ Is there any topic that would be off-limits for him? ‘I wouldn’t touch politics because I’m not interested in it. I don’t claim to know anything about it, so I just don’t touch it. If I don’t know something about a subject, I’m not going to comment on it.’

If he could go out drinking for a night with any musician dead or alive, who would he pick? ‘You’ve stumped me there,’ he said. ‘There are lots of good people to choose from. My favourite guitarist in the world is Yngwie Malmsteen but I can imagine if you go for a drink with him, he might be a bit of a knob (laughs). I don’t think I would want to go out with the guys from KISS because they love themselves. You know what? I’ll say Sebastian Bach (the former frontman of Skid Row) because I recently read his autobiography (’18 and Life on Skid Row’). It was just a crazy amount of stories he has! Your typical 80’s rock star, that’s the life he lived. I wouldn’t ask him anything about the music, just about his antics (laughs), I think you’d have a good conversation about what he got up to back in the 80’s!’

They’ve had some weird and wonderful moments on the road, as he recounts: ‘The weirdest thing we’ve ever witnessed was were playing a show down the road from here in Kettering, there were lots of suits kicking about and one nice lady put glow sticks up her bum onstage (laughs) Why? I don’t know but everyone was having a good time! There were lots of glow sticks, that was brilliant. Honestly, there’s not a lot you can say to that, just a big cheer from the crowd. They’re like: “Okay, yeah, off you go!”‘

(Top photo from left to right: Ben, Robin, Marty and Harry. HRH photo credit: Linda McDermott)