Interview with The New Republic: ‘The stage presence, that’s the biggest thing’

Hull-based indie rock band, The New Republic, brought out ‘Rose Marie’ last month, a track that will get people dancing with its infectious energy, punchy riffs and groovy licks.

They have been playing together for around five years and comprise Sam Waites (vocals, guitar), Michael Hebdon (lead guitar), Tom Harteveld (bass) and Sam Evans (drums), who all know each other from school. Harteveld and Waites played in band together as kids and also knew each other from drum lessons. Waites is currently at university in Birmingham, Evans is studying in Leeds, Harteveld is working in Harrogate and Hebdon is working in Hull. ‘When we have a practice, it’s two days long!,’ Waites said, laughing.

‘Rose Marie’ is not about a particular girl but, rather, a particular type of girl, according to Waites: ‘Everyone has known Rose Maries, where you think there’s a spark, a connection but as days go on, you sort of see that she’s not as interested in you as you first thought.’

He wrote ‘Rose Marie’ during the first lockdown and said it was one of the first songs where the lyrics came first. ‘I was reading a book with a character called Rose Marie. I didn’t want to be really specific, it might mean something to me and not to someone else. We’ve all been there, so I think people will connect to it.’

As the song goes: ‘But what you thinking ’bout when you’re out there drinking, I doubt it’s me. Rose Marie, face the facts, you paint it black, you’ve got a ticket but you can’t get back. Isn’t that bad luck, Rose Marie.’ 

He tells me that there’s actually another song called ‘Rose Marie’ by American country singer Slim Whitman from the 50’s. ‘It’s quite similar in the songwriting but we had no clue until we’d written it!’ So far, only three people have heard their ‘Rose Marie’ live when they performed it at a small barbecue last summer.

‘Potentially, there might be an EP next year’

Next up, they are hoping to release another 2-3 singles this year: ‘We’d love to get into the studio in April but it’s about when we can get out with each other without breaking the (lockdown) rules. Potentially, there might be an EP next year.’

Two of the new tracks have the working titles of ‘Crazy’ and ‘Sunset Serenade’: ”Crazy’ is about thoughts of lockdown and adjusting to the new lifestyle. With ‘Sunset Serenade’, we thought we’d do something calmer, it’s not a ballad, it’s still quite rocky, to be honest. We’re playing about with synths, it’s similar to ‘Rose Marie’. It has that sort of 80’s feeling,’ he said.

I tell him that it sounds a bit like their song ‘Roller Disco’ from 2018. ‘Yeah, that’s an 80’s song going in a soul direction. There’s a nightclub in Hull called The Welly, it’s an indie club renowned in Hull. It’s got this great big disco ball, it has this element of a roller disco to it. We’d all love to go to one at some point.’ I say I’ve been to one. ‘Oooh, have you? What was it like?’ I tell him that it was brilliant. (The Welly is the city’s oldest nightclub and also puts on gigs. It closed last summer but was reportedly acquired earlier this month by Tokyo Industries, a Manchester-based group that operates 45 music venues, restaurants and festivals in the UK and is now set to re-open.)

Lockdown and their geographical separation has forced them to think of new ways to compose songs together: ‘Usually, I do the lyrics, that’s my main job in the song,’ Waites said. ‘I also come up with some riffs for Mikey. Before COVID, we’d jam and shape around the jam but when the pandemic hit, I’d create a rhythm guitar track, write some lyrics and send it to drummer Sam and he’d put his part in and pass it round, which has worked quite well. We’ve all tried to write full songs on our own but we admitted to each other after that everyone’s better on their individual instruments. A person can become defensive about their song, it’s like a child!,’ he laughed.

They won the Battle of the Bands as part of the Cash for Kids charity event in Hull in 2016 at the former Fruit venue that has since had a huge revamp and rebranded as Social. ‘We went in as kids with a couple of songs – ‘Into The Night’ and ‘Sunburst River’ and won, so got to play at Hull Trinity Festival in 2017,’ Waites said.

The New Republic brought out their four track debut EP, the self-titled The New Republic in 2017, before putting out their second EP, Roller Disco, in 2018 and a longer EP, Electric Love’s Rock ‘N’ Roller Disco in 2019.

‘The lyrics are almost orientated around dancing, we wanted to get people up on their feet’

‘Sunburst River’, their debut single, had one main aim, according to Waites: to get people dancing. ‘We had the “oh, kick it” at the beginning, the lyrics are almost orientated around dancing, we wanted to get people up on their feet. I’d just watched Dirty Dancing, so we mention Patrick Swayze in the song! It echoes into ‘Roller Disco’, in a way, with the dancing.’ Essentially, the track is about ‘teenage boys’ emotions about girls at the time’, he said.

On social media, they have posted some interesting photos of gigs, two of which in particular caught my eye. In one photo, it looks as if they’re playing in a saloon in the US and, in the other photo, they have a backdrop behind them where ‘Sløtface’ is painted in big, punky letters (They’re a Norwegian pop punk band from Stavanger of whom I’m a big fan.) When I ask him about them, it turns out that the saloon style gig was at a pub in the village of Laxton, not far from Hull, where they’ve performed a few times. ‘We were Sløtface’s support for one night at The Adelphi in Hull in 2017 or 2018,’ he said. ‘After we won Battle of the Bands, we were put in touch with local promoters. We’d heard of Sløtface, I think it might have been their first headlining tour in the UK. We got in touch and said we’d love to do their support if they’d like us to and we got the job. Their energy is infectious! We’re energetic but we couldn’t compete with them. They’re funny, too!’

He’s a big fan of local indie/new wave band Brosnan – ‘they’re doing really great’ – as well as Low Hummer, Avalanche Party, Counting Coins, Fire (TUF) and The Froot, who he describes as ‘kind of psychedelic soft rock’.

If he could hear their music on any TV show, he goes for Peaky Blinders: ‘I think I’d go with our song ‘Into the Night’ or ‘Raindance’, that’d be phenomenal. I’m going to email a few people after this!’ If he could tour with anyone, he picks Oxford-based rock band, Foals. ‘That would be really good, the stage presence, that’s the biggest thing.’ I tell him that I was chatting to a friend about that recently who described Richard Ashcroft as having ‘the stage presence of a corpse’. He starts laughing. ‘That’s not what you want, is it?!’ I ask him if he’s seen him live. ‘No,’ he said, still laughing. ‘And I’ll stay clear now!’

(Photo from left to right: Tom, Sam Waites, Sam Evans, Michael)