Interview with Boxteles: ‘A lot of love songs aren’t very realistic, are they?’

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire-based band, Boxteles, of the hard hitting riffs and singalong choruses, will bring out their debut EP – break-ups, bevs & thinking ahead – in July, a title that neatly sums them up.

Formed in 2018 in Huddersfield by Tom Bedford (vocals and guitar), Brad Mack (lead guitar), Alex ‘Rex’ Richardson (bass) and Ryan Smith (drums), they began their musical journey in front of a sound-tech and an elderly couple in Keighley. Following the departure of Mack in 2020 to go solo, drummer Will Hirst joined the band with Smith moving back to guitar duties. Richardson’s ‘Rex’ nickname is a reference to rocking up one time in a purple t-shirt looking like a dinosaur, according to Bedford. Their name alludes being kids of the 90’s: ‘When you had a little TV in your room with a VHS player, the good ol’ days,’ Bedford said. Bedford and Richardson met aged 16 playing in former bands, Bedford and Smith met at university and Bedford saw a video of Hirst playing the drums and invited him to audition for the band. Smith is also the lead singer for another local band, Palmes.

Bedford described the EP title as ‘very them’ and joked that the ‘thinking ahead’ is all part of their plan for world domination. The EP will feature an intro plus five tracks, including their recently released single, ‘Do You Mind’, and their next single, ‘Let Him Go’. Bedford, who wrote ‘Do You Mind’, describes it as being about ‘being single and dating like you do at uni’: ‘I wanted to write a more realistic approach to it, based on my experiences,’ he said. ‘A lot of love songs aren’t very realistic, are they? This one is a bit comical and sad but in a fun way.’ It’s actually both sweet and funny, as the lyrics attest to: ‘We like the same things sometimes. We like to sit and drink wine. I like to swear, d’you mind? I hope you don’t, I hope you don’t.’

‘We’d like to do the whole of the new EP acoustic, it’d be a different answer to the question’

They say there’s always been something about ‘a group of Northern lads, guitars, drums, a desire to take over the world and make their mams proud that can produce musical fireworks’ and that’s evident in all their tracks to date. ‘You Can’t Fall In Love For The Sake Of It’, which they also released as a single earlier this year, is testament to that, launching straight into the song with some heavy riffs. Richardson said the track has a similar feel to ‘Do You Mind’: ‘It’s that mindset where you feel you should feel something but you can’t force it.’ Amazingly, the first version of the song didn’t have any notable riffs in it: ‘I wrote the riffs in the end,’ Smith said. ‘After I’d had a play with it and put a riff on it. It’s very catchy, the lick, isn’t it? (I say that it is.) I think it was just chords until then.’ Bedford is nodding: ‘I’ve done it acoustic, it’s more melancholy without the riffs, it has a different feel. We’d like to do the whole of the new EP acoustic, it’d be a different answer to the question.’ ‘Yeah,’ Smith said. ‘You see the songs in a different context.’

They’re not averse to drawing on trends in their songs, either, as seen by their single ‘Il mio Nemico’ (My Enemy), which they brought out in 2019. I ask if it’s actually based on an Italian enemy and they laugh: ‘No, I wrote it when I was 16,’ Bedford said. ‘At the time, it was cool to use different languages in your songs, so I googled it. it’s very sing songey, the title. I’ve played it in four different bands, it’s changed so much over the years, although the hook has stayed the same. It’s a bit faster than the original. It’s about mental health and being your own worst enemy.’

One characteristic of their songs is the dominance of the guitar parts, which is intentional: ‘A lot of the songs are very simple in the structure,’ Richardson said. ‘They’re built around the guitar idea,’ Smith said. ‘We rarely come straight in with a line.’ Bedford is nodding: ‘I like starting with nothing and building it up slowly.’ Smith joins in: ‘It’s like climbing a band mountain, with the peaks and the troughs and you smash it in the chorus!’

‘I fell out of love with music a few years ago and I discovered him and rediscovered my love of music’

The upcoming EP was recorded at home, a task made easier by all of them having a background in music production: ‘It’ll make us think twice to shell out for a studio next time,’ Bedford said. They heap high praise on their former guitarist, Brad Mack, who has gone solo as a singer-songwriter, as well as another local psychedelic indie band, Bravado Cartel. If they could go to a gig tonight by anyone dead or alive, Richardson goes with Tom Petty: ‘He was just one of my favourites. I fell out of love with music a few years ago and I discovered him and rediscovered my love of music,’ he said. The others are thinking. ‘I’d love to see The Beatles,’ said Bedford. Smith is still trying to decide: ‘Can I make my own supergroup?,’ he asked. ‘Can I have John B on drums, Chris Cornell singing and Rex on bass?’ Hirst’s lost audio, so we can’t hear what he says but Bedford steps in: ‘Will picked Weezer last time he was asked this. Weezer again, Will?’ Hirst nods.

I ask them if they could put on a gig and sell out their local football stadium, John Smith’s, or Elland Road in Leeds, which would they pick? Smith says Elland Road and laughs: ‘I said it by mistake and now I’m disgusted with myself! My dad would not come if I did Elland.’ Bedford says John Smith’s: ‘I’ve always wanted to play there for 20,000 people, just to walk out there,’ he said. Richardson bravely says Selhurst Park in London and the others look distinctly unimpressed. ‘You’ve got an exclusive,’ Bedford quips. ‘Alex gets kicked out of the band!’

Bedford’s earworms of the day are ‘Can’t Be Mine’ and ‘Baby Drummer’ by the ferociously fast London rock ‘n’ rollers, Bad Nerves, who describe themselves as ‘the bastard child of a Ramones/Strokes one night stand’: ‘I had them on a loop today!’ Smith said Royal Blood: ‘Their new album is solid.’ I say that sounds like faint praise and he laughs. ‘That song ‘Boilermaker’ on there is really good,’ Richardson said. ‘What’s that other one? ‘Typhoons’? That’s good,’ Bedford said.

As a child, Hirst was ‘obsessed’ with Canadian rock band, Sum 41. ‘Are you saying Tom Petty again, Alex?,’ Bedford laughed. Richardson grinned. ‘Yeah but also Biffy (Clyro).’ I ask them who they’d like to tour with: ‘That’s a tough one that,’ Bedford pondered. ‘Post Malone, back with a big band.’ ‘Yeah,’ Richardson joked. ‘Post Malone…and then us!’ Bedford wants to add to his line up: ‘Right, Kanye West would open for us, then us, then Post Malone. It would make history that!’ Hirst says Sum 41: ‘I love them and they love touring.’ Richardson has his dream line-up: ‘Us opening, then Biffy and Tom Petty headlining. That’d be perfect.’

Photo: front row, Alex and Ryan. Back row, Will and Tom)