Interview with The Rosadocs: ‘Say Something is about talking to people you’re close to’

‘Say Something’, the latest single by Sheffield-based band, The Rosadocs, which comes out tomorrow (22 August) is a lockdown song about the importance of staying close to people, according to frontman and guitarist, Keelan Grany.

‘It’s about supporting people, particularly during lockdown, ‘ he said. ‘It’s about the importance of talking to people you’re close to.’

As the lyrics go: ‘But I don’t care if you don’t like my friends, they’re much more than a family to me, yeah, they’re strange but we’re always on the same page, and it’s more than good enough for me.’

Grany wrote around 10 songs during lockdown. ‘We’ve decided to do a staggered EP (‘Say Something’, ‘Run Away Instead’, ‘Settle Down’, ‘Where You’re Supposed To Be’ and ‘These People’). We’ll create a separate project for each song, so you’ll be seeing a lot of us this year! [laughs].’

Another track from their Two Wrongs Make A Riot EP – which will be released later this year – will be ‘Run Away Instead’, according to Grany. ‘That one’s about rebelling, about having enough of society and life in general. like the last straw. I wrote it a while ago but we’ve reworked it since.’

New lockdown measures are worrying

New lockdown measures in pockets of West Yorkshire, including Bradford, are worrying Grany, who calls them ‘too close to home’: ‘We’ve only practiced together three times since February. Normally, we’d practice two-to-three times a week. It would be a shame if we went into another lockdown when we’re just getting started again.’

He acknowledges that he and the other three band members Adam Sleight (bass), Joe Egan (lead guitar) and Callum Raynor (drums) have very different musical influences. ‘Adam likes mod, our drummer likes Guns ‘N’ Roses. I like bands like Oasis, Arctic Monkeys and Eminem. I think you can hear the different tastes in our songs, it gives us more of an experimental platform to try new things.’

‘It’s such a working class song but everyone no matter what their class can identify with it’

Grany is the songwriter in the group: ‘I write the words and melodies, so I have ‘skeleton’ songs for the lads. Sometimes the songs will go in a totally different direction afterwards, though! I wrote No. 54 when I was 16. It started off as a ballad but they gave it some bass and now it’s much more dancey. It’s our most popular song.’

He attributes the song’s success to its univeral theme of a big night out: ‘It’s such a working class song but everyone no matter what their class can identify with it. No. 54 is a reference to the bus stop that goes past my house, it’s the bus I always catch with a hangover!’

If he could have collaborated with anyone he would ‘100% say John Lennon’: ‘The melodies he came up with were insane,’ he said. ‘Adam would probably say Paul Weller or Bruce Foxton (The Jam) and our drummer would probably say Freddie Mercury or Queen.’

The Rosadocs are planning to do a double tour of their Two Wrongs Make A Riot EP next year. ‘We’d like to do a tour of that in the UK, starting with Sheffield. That’d be our biggest one yet,’ Grany said.