Interview with Fossway: ‘We’re big genre hoppers!’

Alt-rock band Fossway from Newcastle brought out their latest guitar driven single ‘Live in the Fire’ last month with a new single ‘White Light Lurker’ out next.

The band comprises John Lennox (bass/vocals), Dan Mason (guitar/vocals) and Harry Lowery (drums). Their name was taken from Fosse Way, a major Roman road that traversed Britain from southwest to northeast. ‘You can have your own interpretation,’ Lowery said. ‘ ‘We’d like to be the road to the new sound.’ Previously, they were called ‘Youthful Blues’, a reference to the fact that they played blues covers.

‘I wrote ‘White Light Lurker’ at 3 a.m. in the morning,’ Mason laughed. ‘It’s about being addicted to technology. It’s quite short and simple, structurally, but it’s an energetic song.’ Lennox describes it as ‘progressive rock’. It shares many similarities with Muse songs, not least the unexpected sections, and a hooky chorus that builds. Muse has been a huge inspiration for them and they do several covers, including ‘Hysteria’ and ‘Plug in Baby’.

‘It’s about the burning desire to play shows in front of live audiences’

‘Live in the Fire’ treads the line between old-school rock vibes and modern alt rock sounds. Lennox describes the song as being about ‘the journey of the band’: ‘It’s about the burning desire to play shows in front of live audiences and travelling to different cities to reach new people.’ Mason jumps in: ‘It’s a mission statement for where we want to go as a band.’

As the chorus goes: ‘Live in the fire, breath in the flames, follow desire, feeling the same. Love to aspire, walk through the rain, coming out drier, thoughts down the drain.’

Mason calls ‘Live in the Fire’ their ‘strongest effort yet’: ‘You see our influences, like Muse and Iron Maiden coming through. The chorus is Beatlesey, Muse. It chops and changes. Lennox interjects: ‘We’re big genre hoppers!’ ‘Yeah,’ says Mason. ‘But it’s not a conscious process.’ Lowery nods and says ‘I don’t think we’re big fans of genre, we don’t want to put ourselves in a box.’

Typically, Mason comes up with the music and Lowery and Lennox write the lyrics. Another track, ‘Grey Cloud’, which came out in April, was largely written by Mason and deals with far more serious issues: ‘It’s about the feeling that you’re disconnected from your body – depersonalisation, as it’s known – you feel detached from yourself. I felt that way at the time. The music came first but I like the riffs.’

The sense of detachment is very strong in the lyrics: ‘These arms are not my arms, this skin is not my skin, this brain is not my brain. These eyes are not my own eyes, this heart is not my own heart, just a bloody, beating object.’

‘Grey Cloud’ marked their first song as a trio, having undergone four or five line up changes, according to Lowery: ‘There’s a lot of liberation in the music,’ he said. ‘For us, ‘Grey Cloud’ was a rebirth.’

‘It’s not about a specific event, it’s just about our general disdain for popular culture’

Last year, they brought out their EP, Bravest of the Pride, which consists of four songs, including ‘The Silver Screen Illusion’, a song that Lowery describes as being ‘about consumerism, it’s a social and political critique’. Or, as Mason puts it: ‘It’s about the falsehood of celebrity.’ For Lennox, it’s about his ‘disdain for commercial pop music’. ‘It’s not about a specific event, it’s just about our general disdain for popular culture,’ Mason explained.

In 2019, they played festivals such as Lindisfarne, Hook & Gun, and Long Division – sharing billing alongside Peter Hook & The Light, We Are Scientists and False Advertising.

The music scene in Newcastle is growing, Lowery acknowledges, saying that a lot of bands on their level are friendly with each other. Lowery is a big fan of four-piece local indie rock band Great Waves. Mason likes Hartlepool’s indie rock band Leopard Rays.

If they could collaborate with anyone, they’d like to go with someone very different, they all say. ‘Do you know what would be funny?,’ Lennox muses. ‘Post Malone (an American rapper), I’m a big fan.’ ‘I’ll say Father John Misty, that’s a bit of a curveball,’ Lowery says. Mason is mulling who to pick. ‘I’d have liked to collaborate with Beethoven, he’s a big hero to me.’

They’ll continue to defy categorisation going forward, they all say: ‘People said to focus on one sound but it’s worked in our favour not to do that,’ Lowrey says. ‘It has worked in our favour musically and lyrically to let our influences come through.’

(Photo from left to right: John, Dan and Harry)