Cruz: ‘People have said my voice is a bit Kelly Jones-esque, it’s a little bit raspy’

Sheffielfd-based indie rock band Cruz are gearing up to release their next single ‘Hold On’ on 1 August.

The band consists of Sam Thatcher (lead singer and rhythm guitar), Tom Cox (lead guitar), Ethan Mockford (drums), and Jamie Scholes. The band formed in 2020 when Thatcher and Cox started writing music together at university in Sheffield. They later added Mockford and Scholes to complete the four-piece lineup: ‘We had the same friendship group,’ Thatcher said. ‘We happened to see that we had a common taste in music and it just went from there, really, didn’t it?’, he said, looking at Cox, who nods: ‘It really did. I’m from Macclesfield, Sam’s from Lymm and so it happened that I had a friend that I went to sixth form with that was in Sam’s flat. We became one big group.’

Scholes became something of a serendipitous addition to the group: ‘One of my housemates had a mate through his girlfriend at the time, and basically we went to the pub,’ Cox said. ‘I moved back home during lockdown and he had all these new mates, including Jamie. I got speaking to Jamie, and he said: “Oh, I play a bit of bass”. And I turned to my mate Joe and said: “Why have you never said that he plays bass? We’ve been looking for a bass player for three months!”‘

Now, Thatcher and Cox live together and their other band mates also live together elsewhere in Sheffield. I ask if their band name is a reference to the actor Tom Cruise and they laugh: ‘I had a sticker on my laptop, I have quite a few stickers over my laptop,and one of them had the word “Cruz” on there,’ Thatcher said. ‘I thought it was quite cool, especially with the “z” at the end, it caught my eye. We wanted it to be one word that would catch people’s eye. We just went with it because we needed a name and we were running out of time, and thought, that’ll do. Glad that we’ve kept it to that!’

‘It’s about trying to keep hold of what you’ve got and not let it get away from you’

‘Hold On’ is one of their most impassioned songs to date, peppered with driving, jangly guitars and Thatcher’s warm vocals that are extoling the listening to indeed hold on and not give up: ‘I had the idea on an acoustic guitar, the words and the melody and the way the chords were and brought it to the lads,’ Thatcher said. ‘We’d been playing around with it for a few months, hadn’t we, before we really took it to the next step.’ Cox agrees: ‘I was playing the main chorus riff, I was doing that for the verse to start off with and then Ethan said it was so catchy, we should shift it to the chorus, so then I had to find something else for the verse (laughs).’ Thatcher interjects: ‘We brought it to the room and elevated from there. We were adding bits in, and little middle eights and things like that. We were really happy with how it came out. The song is about essentially not giving up. I try and take my songs from the perspective of other people instead of myself, I find that quite easy to do. For this song, I’ve seen a lot of situations where one half of the relationship is a bit stronger than the other, or someone’s giving a bit more than the other party. It’s about trying to keep hold of what you’ve got and not let it get away from you. If it’s worth keeping, keep it, hold onto it, essentially.’

Thatcher cites Oasis as one of the bands that he and Cox initially bonded over seven years ago ‘and anything guitar-related’. Cox agrees: ‘We had a lot of Last Shadow Puppets, The Strokes, The Libertines and bands like that. We just bonded and it was nice because there weren’t really many other people who shared the same sort of music taste, so we just started jamming.’ Thatcher jumps back in: ‘It’s great when you actually do make friends where you’ve got really, really similar taste in music. It helps as well because you can talk to them about things like that and when you start playing music together, you’ve got the same sort of vision at the beginning, so it makes things a lot easier.’

The talk turns to early songwriting and I say that I think the first song of theirs that I heard was their beautiful acoustic track ‘The Most’ (2022) and they tell me that it almost didn’t get recorded: ‘That’s quite a funny one, that one, isn’t it?,’ Thatcher said to Cox. ‘We only had about half an hour left in the studio and thought: Did we have any more songs? I had ‘The Most’ written down and I played it to them all and they said we should record that as a little B-side for something extra. Tom had never heard that song before (laughs). I told him that we were going to need a bit of a solo on it, so he sat there for 10 minutes and then came up with the one that’s on there!’ Cox is laughing: ‘We finished a bit earlier in the day, so we had a good half hour or so to get something down. So I said: “Sam, right, just sit there, do whatever you can on the acoustic guitar” and I plugged in a little solo over the top.’ Movingly, Thatcher’s grandad had died recently so whilst he describes the song as being based on ‘an amalgamation of feelings’ that ‘definitely played a big factor’.

‘That’s mad for me, how I’ve written something without really thinking about anything else apart from mapping my own feelings but it’s resonated with other people’

It’s a track that goes down particularly well live, according to Thatcher: ‘It’s nice to have that sort of acoustic break in a set as well, it’s sometimes nice to take the audience on a bit of a journey, to go fast-paced, then go slow.’ I tell them that I could imagine it in a scene in a Netflix show during an emotional scene and they agree: ‘I was speaking to people at our gig on Saturday, and they said they saw people getting a bit emotional when we were playing it in Leeds,’ Thatcher said, sounding delighted. ‘That’s mad for me, how I’ve written something without really thinking about anything else apart from mapping my own feelings but it’s resonated with other people.’

‘Play The Game’, which they released as a single in January, marks a new milestone for the band, dialling up their sound with a drum beat that shifts and twists throughout the song, pulling the listener along with it: ‘We’d been playing it for over a year live but when we took it into Kempston Street Studios, our producer Quinn suggested turning it on its head, so we totally changed the way we played it,’ said Cox. ‘We put this new riff over the top, just to make it more catchy. We had to come out and basically relearn it (laughs), you’re trying to reprogram your brain from not doing what you’re used to doing. We ended up putting the hook at the start to grab your attention.’ Thatcher agrees: ‘We were playing the same parts but in different places in the song, so you’ve got to quickly get used to that!’

Typically, Thatcher writes the lyrics or Cox will come up with a starting riff: ‘He’ll give that to me, and I’ll learn the chords for the riff and then turn it into a song with some lyrics and melody,’ Thatcher said. ‘Or I’ll have an idea on my acoustic, which I’ll take to the lads, and they’ll all add their own bit.’ Thatcher describes a Fender acoustic as being his workhorse guitar as well as his electric Epiphone Dot: ‘It’s nice and red. I did have an Epiphone Les Paul but I prefer an acoustic, because I learnt on acoustic, I feel most comfortable with it.’ Cox, for his part, started off on the same Epiphone Les Paul but has moved onto a Fender Telecaster: ‘I quite like the variation in it,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘It comes up with so many different sounds especially for the riffs because I do quite a bit of the higher, triad-y stuff over Sam’s chords and I like the tone and the twang I can get off it because I can change the pickups quite easily, where the Les Paul was a bit more heavy-driven, it was used on songs like ‘Take Off The Pressure’.’

‘Sam sent me through a tune today and I thought that was very Stereophonics-ey’

Between them, they bring an eclectic yet similar mix of influences to the band: ‘I think for me, personally, it’d be The Smiths, Oasis, The Strokes and The Libertines, and Arctic Monkeys, I know, it’s one of them cliché ones!’ Cox’s list is very similar: ‘I’m trying to think how I write and what tunes I listen to to write to,’ he said. ‘Sam sent me through a tune today and I thought that was very Stereophonics-ey.’ Thatcher agrees: ‘I think the melody is a bit ‘Thousand Trees-y’, isn’t it? People have said my voice is a bit Kelly Jones-esque, it’s a little bit raspy.’ I say that I’ve heard them cover Stereophonics before and he nods: ‘We have, we did ‘Handbags and Gladrags’.’

I ask if they’ve ever covered The Libertines. ‘I’ve done ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’, but I think that was a while ago,’ Thatcher said. ‘And ‘What Katie Did’, we did that one as well, that’s a nice one. There’s plenty more I could do, isn’t there?! We came across Pete (Doherty, The Libertines’ frontman), actually, last year when we played Rock ‘N’ Roll Circus at Don Valley. He did his one-man act with his guitar. Me and Ethan, the drummer, were hanging around backstage, and he happened to jump out of his van and we had a nice little chat with him! It was lovely, to be fair, he was so down to earth. He was watching all the other bands as well, which I thought was cool. After he’d done his set, he just hung around. He’s had the life, hasn’t he?!’ I tell them that I interviewed another band who had been on the same line up as Doherty and on that night, he had to keep disappearing offstage to be sick in his hat and they laugh: ‘They said to us that day that they had to keep him in a hotel outside Sheffield, which is a good 40 minutes away, just so he doesn’t go out on the town,’ Thatcher said. ‘Just to keep him in the right state to play the next day!’

‘Disco Colour Beams’ (2023) is ostensibly about a night out, although the lyrics dig deeper, with memorable and hard-hitting lines such as “You’ve told me so many times I make the music you despise”: ‘It was my take on being early 20’s and everyone was going to these raves but it wasn’t really for me,’ Thatcher said. ‘I’d be sat at home writing these tunes and people would say: “What are you doing? You’re wasting your time, these are shit.” That line especially fell into place with how I was feeling.’ I tell him that when he sings it now, I hope he sings it with a wild abandon and finger up at anyone who said that to him and he laughs: ‘Oh yeah, there’s definitely a bit of venom involved when I sing that one!’

‘The Tube Screamer just gives me that little bit of lift, especially in ‘Take Off The Pressure’ and the end of ‘Get Away’ when you need a bit more noise’

Another of their standout tracks is ‘Get Away’ (2023), partly because of the jangly guitar tone on it: ‘It’s got a chorus pedal on,’ Cox said. ‘It’s actually Jamie, the bass player’s chorus pedal. I wanted a – I was going to say psychedelic feel – but it’s not really psychedelic (laughs). It’s got a jangly feel to the riff. So I’ve had it on my board and I’ve never given it him back since! I have got a Boss chorus pedal but I’ve never tried it, so I don’t know whether the tones might be slightly different. It might add something more at the higher end, it might sound totally different.’ I ask if Scholes ever asks for his pedal back and Cox grins: ‘Oh, he does, he does regularly!’ Thatcher is a fan of his own Tube Screamer pedal. ‘And my tuner pedal but the Tube Screamer just gives me that little bit of lift, especially in ‘Take Off The Pressure’ and the end of ‘Get Away’ when you need a bit more noise (laughs).’

Growing up, Thatcher listed to a lot of 70’s punk, courtesy of his dad: ‘I first started listening to The Damned. The Sex Pistols were major. That got drilled in quite early on into my car journeys, obviously, because that’s where you hear most of the music on CDs. My dad listens to anything with guitars, really, so anything that my dad played in the car, I’d listen to. My auntie plays a bit of piano, so she had a piano in the house, and I’d have a dabble with that every now and then. I’m not very good at it (laughs), but that’s where music started in my family.’ Cox’s mum plays the organ and keyboard but he says he can’t remember how he came to pick up the guitar, but that it was ‘something to do with getting out of lessons at school’: ‘Dad used to play quite a bit of Kingsley and AC/DC, so that’s where I picked it up from. I wouldn’t say he was musically inclined, he was just a big listener.’

Interestingly, Thatcher got the acting bug before music took over: ‘I did the end-of-year production in primary school where I played The Artful Dodger in Oliver and I really enjoyed it,’ he said. ‘I sort of fancied myself going down that route because I had such a good time doing it. I went on to do Manchester Opera House and things like that – not main roles or anything but there was some singing in that, which I’ve always enjoyed. When I was 14, my voice broke, so I got a bit rubbish at singing for a while (laughs). My dad would say: “I can hear you in the shower, you need to pack it in!” And I’d think: “You’ve got to give me a chance!”‘ One of Thatcher’s mum’s friends was an opera singer who gave him some good advice: ‘When I was about 12, she said to me: “When your voice breaks, come to me and we’ll sing, because you can still carry on after your voice breaks.” I didn’t go and see her (laughs) but I remember she said that, that you can still be all right. I was constantly singing around the house, then I started playing guitar properly at about 17. I was learning to practice and writing all at the same time, so when I learned to play guitar was when I was first starting to write songs as well, it was a gradual progression. The reason I picked up a guitar was because I thought my voice wasn’t strong enough to be on its own and I needed to back it up with an instrument.’

‘I was doing six hour stints of just playing guitar casually upstairs‘

However, it wasn’t until lockdown that Thatcher started playing in earnest: ‘People didn’t really know I could play guitar but I had all this time in the day,’ he said. ‘I was doing six hour stints of just playing guitar casually upstairs. I had a list of songs I wanted to learn – lots of Oasis and also things like ‘Acrylic’ by Courteeners and ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ by The Verve. It got to the point where I’d say: “I’m just going to go upstairs – see you in six hours!”‘

We get onto the the recent close of Sheffield’s iconic and longest running music venue The Leadmill and I ask what its closure means to them and the city: ‘We were saying before that we’re all a bit gutted,’ Cox said. ‘Ethan’s the only one in the band from Sheffield, so it would have meant the world to him. We were very fortunate to get up on that main stage with The Clause. It was crazy, weren’t it?’ Thatcher agrees: ‘Hopefully, The Leadmill will get their own new place and carry on the history of bringing through new bands.’ Cox interjects: ‘It brought some big names to the city and now we haven’t got the O2 Academy either. I think that’s going to be a massive miss.’ I ask what happened to the O2: ‘The roof’s fallen in. I think it was something about the cladding, so health and safety shut it down,’ Cox explained. ‘It’s just never really had the grant or the funding but apparently next year it’s going to open again, so that’ll be good. They need to get a crack on with it!’

They’ve had some brilliantly randon funny moments along the way: ‘I feel like we’ve got loads of funny incidents since we’ve started but they’ve slipped our mind now we’ve been asked,’ Cox said. ‘Some of ours definitely are ‘this can only happen to us’ moments! The first time we played Liverpool, ‘Disco Colour Beams’ played on the venue’s playlist about a minute before we walked on. This seems to be a reoccurring theme as it happened in Leeds as well at the weekend! We turned up at a festival once due to play in about 20 minutes and the main stage was in bits around us without the roof on! We also ordered 1,000 flyers to hand out promoting our Leadmill gig then the day after Leadmill announced its closure, meaning we would have to change venue – you’ve just got to laugh really.’

If they could go out drinking with any musician dead or alive, Cox goes with Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner ‘because I feel he’s infamous’: ‘No-one knows where he is. No-one knows what he’s up to. They’d be my two questions: “What are you up to? Where have you been all this time?”‘ Thatcher is quick to say Frank Sinatra: ‘He’s a big drinker, so he’d be having a drink! What would I ask him? I’d probably ask him what it was like breaking into the scene back in the early 40’s and in the 70’s when he was in films. I’m going to ask him whether it was true that he only used to do one take? Apparently, he’d do one take and be “I’m moving on”. If I can have someone alive, it’d probably, at this moment in time, be Liam Gallagher. I’d ask him how the reunion came about. Can we know?’ They’re both going to the reunion tour, although Thatcher remembers that they almost didn’t get any tickets at all: ‘Everything crashed on the website but instead of closing everything, I just started refreshing my page.’ he said. ‘All of a sudden, Liam’s face popped up on my screen, and I panicked, and thought: “Oh, tickets!”, so I just got as many as I could! We had a gig to get to, we were just about to leave when he popped up on my phone. I’ve never been so happy in my life!’

Cruz will be playing their headline gig at Network in Sheffield on the 8^th November.

(Top photo from left to right: Sam (lying across), Ethan, Jamie and Tom.)