Interview with Tiderays: ‘We wanted something hopeful to cheer people up’

Dumfries, Scotland-based indie/alt rock band, Tiderays, brought out their rousing, pick-me-up song, ‘Hope’, last month and are working on their next single, ‘Sing’.

The band comprises Eddie Oakes (vocals and guitar), Trevor Newport (drums), Jane Eastham-Buckley (guitar and keyboard) and Grant McCrone (vocals and bass).

Newport and Oakes have known each other for years, via rugby, although Newport didn’t grow up in Scotland. ‘I mentioned to him that I play drums, he didn’t believe me, he was like “yeah, sure you do” but eventually in 2014 we started playing together.’ Initially, they called themselves The Abstracts, changing it to Tiderays in 2017. ‘We’re big Justin Vernon fans and Volcano Choir, one of his projects, has a song called ‘Tiderays’, Trevor explained.

‘We wanted something hopeful to cheer people up’

‘Hope’ was written by Oakes and Newport as a tribute to their partners: ‘Eddie’s partner works in the NHS and my wife is also the frontline in the NHS,’ Newport said. ‘Last summer, Eddie was furloughed and had some time on his hands. I texted him that he’d played enough Xbox and why doesn’t he write a song? He said, “Actually, I have one, it has a different sound, a different message.” I tell him that the song’s a real pick-me-up and he’s pleased: ‘That’s what we wanted, I think his partner was struggling at the time. We wanted something hopeful to cheer people up.’

They recorded the first version of ‘Hope’ in August but ended up scrapping it: ‘I was in the car with my wife, listening to it over and over,’ Newport said. ‘I could tell that it wasn’t right and I knew the others weren’t going to be pleased with me. We re-recorded it in October, the new version is 4 bpm faster, the drums are bigger, they drive the song now. I said we needed strings and a choir.’

Oakes is the main songwriter in the band: ‘He’s a brilliant songwriter,’ Newport said. ‘We’ve got another song in production called ‘Sing’ at the moment. Eddie’s got three-to-four new ideas, we work better together.’

‘Sing’ ‘captures the zeitgeist’, according to Newport. ‘It was written during the first lockdown and the Black Lives Matter protests. It was written by Eddie based on an idea I had. It’s almost a protest song. It’s different to ‘Hope’, it’s heavier and rockier. We’ve got bigger drums in this.’

‘It’s about Eddie, he’s a blabbermouth’

His favourite song to play live is ‘Blabbermouth’ from last year’s album, Moving On: ‘I don’t think it got the reaction it deserved, it deserves another life,’ he said. ‘It’s about Eddie, he’s a blabbermouth, he blabs about everything! He wrote it.’

Newport is a big fan of Scottish Americana/pop crossover singer, Kate Kyle, as well as Cumbrian band The Reptilians and Alex Maxwell. He grew up on early 90’s grunge and is a huge Pearl Jam, Dave Grohl and Matt Sorum fan (drummer in Guns N’ Roses): ‘They’ve been my biggest influences. I saw Foo Fighters in ’95 at the Borderline (London) when Dave Grohl played all the instruments, it was a special experience. There were just 500 people, so to see them in a stadium afterwards is hard. I saw Pearl Jam in a club as well. The bigger shows have bigger bands but you also get to hear some great support acts, you might have heard of them but never really listened to them before.’

If he could tour with anyone, he is quick to say Justin Vernon: ‘We’d pay our own money to tour the world with him! Even if he says I can only play the triangle on one song, I’d do it, no question!’

(Photo: Eddie Oakes)