Loz Campbell: ‘I’d love to one day end up being the female Slash!’

Wakefield-based rock band Loz Campbell have released their gloriously riffed up single ‘Can’t Get Enough’.

The band comprises Loz Campbell (vocals and guitar), Steve Pickles (bass) and Tom Kirby (drums): ‘I actually met Tom when he was about 13 and I was 15, I was on the judging panel for Battle of the Bands for his band,’ she said. ‘Years later, maybe five years on from there, I was looking for a drummer and somebody recommended him. He came to one of our gigs and he said: “Don’t you remember me? I was in the Battle of the Bands thing.” And I said: “Oh my God, yeah!” Steve was recommended to us, he’s got lots of good ideas and he looks so cool on and off stage!’

‘Can’t Get Enough’ is a huge, hooky rock song with chunky, soaring guitars. It’s sexy, cheeky and defiant and features a stunning guitar solo from Campbell. ‘I started off with the chorus for this one, which is something I tend to do, and I think that’s why a lot of our choruses end up being so big,’ she said. ‘All the energy into the choruses, and then it’s like: “Oh, what am I going to do about the verses?!” Initially, I wanted a call and response thing, which we’d never worked on before, and at the gig this weekend just gone, we had that and the audience actually sung it back. The song is about being in love and that lust feeling that you get initially, that’s where the inspiration for it came from.’

‘Previous guitar solos, I feel, have been building up to this one’

I tell her that I love her guitar solo in it and she grins: ‘I’m super proud of it, to be honest. Previous guitar solos, I feel, have been building up to this one. I really did have to push myself (laughs). I wrote it in the studio, on the spot, with help of the producer. It was awesome and I remember after we’d tracked it, I literally collapsed on the sofa and watched him mixing it all. I was listening to it back, I was kind of in awe that I’d actually just played it!’

She acknowledges that budget plays a huge role in what a band can do: ‘Time is money, as we all know. Studios are expensive, so basically the way we usually work is that I go in with a pre-made solo and the producer goes: “Well, I like this bit and I like this bit, but you need to build the first part or you need to put something in the middle or it needs to have a really good ending” (laughs). So there’s always some element that gets lost and we rework. Usually, we spend quite a lot of time crafting the journey of the solo, so that you hear the different sections of it. Once we’ve got a framework, he says to me: “Go outside and get used to it now, you know where you’re going.” It’s a beautiful surrounding where the studio is, it’s in the middle of Warwickshire, I love it. And when I feel like I’m ready to track it, I come back in.’

‘Beautiful Liar’ (2022) opens with a fiery guitar line that builds and builds and vocals from Campbell that match it with a chorus that is every bit as big as in ‘Can’t Get Enough’: ‘It’s funny you say that because the choruses and the riffs, I kind of come up with those two elements of the song first, so that’s what inspires the rest of the song. It is based on a specific person and I’m actually engaged to my partner now, but it was early days in our relationship when I wrote this. It’s putting across that element of lust and how you feel when you first start getting into a relationship. Something we wanted to do was to make it a journey from ‘Bad Girl’ and keep some of those cheeky lyrics and that sexy feel. Actually, the opening line was changed in the studio. I can’t remember what the original lyrics were now, but we changed it to “Hey, you sweet thing”, it’s got that “I’m on the prowl, bad girl” lyrics. It’s kind of linking that, I’m Loz Campbell, I’m still sort of on the prowl, which is like that wink but we wanted to not make it too soppy. It needed to have the edge to it.’

‘I started off playing flute, and I really enjoyed playing film music’

Campbell had an interesting musical journey to get to where she is today: ‘I’d always been surrounded by rock music and I wanted to play what I was listening to. I started off playing flute and I really enjoyed playing film music,’ she said. ‘But I also wanted to play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, and ‘Black Hole Sun’ and all these bands that I was listening to. And then I thought, actually, I wouldn’t mind starting a band! So I thought: “Well, I really need to play guitar. I can’t play flute in a band, unless I’m going to be in a folk band!”‘

Other tracks, such as ‘The World Was Made To Destroy You’, have a distinctly Garbage-like punky vibe and when I tell her this, she is delighted: ‘I love Garbage, so thank you. It is punkier, it must be about six years old. It started off grungier but has evolved into something a little bit tighter and heavier, I would say. I wrote it on the way home from work. I was driving home from work and at the time I had a really rubbish job with lyrics like “another Monday, not like every Sunday, stomping the pavement, my body’s confused”. It’s that feeling of, okay, I’ve been gigging all weekend and now I’m walking to my rubbish job and it’s Monday and I don’t want to go. It’s a very pessimistic way of looking at life (laughs).But I guess at 19, you’ve got a bit of teenage angst still. Now, I have a job that I love (she declines to say what) but going from being on stage to then going back to work, I mean, the differences are really big. For example, when I walk through a venue, people stop me and say: “Oh, Loz, how are you? Oh, Loz, can I get a picture?” And then you go to work and nobody cares (laughs). Nobody cares what you’ve been gigging. Nobody cares who you are. Nobody knows your name – it brings you right back down to earth.’ They’d have some entertaining moments at gigs, though: ‘A guy walked into a venue once and started to play spoons and dance all the way through our set!’

I ask her what her workhorse guitar is: ‘It’s between the two at the minute,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘I’ve got a 1975 Gibson Les Paul, a special edition one. It’s a little bit thinner, which is great for me on my shoulders because I’m not that big of a person. And the PRS is the guitar that I tracked with for this song.’ If money were no object, she’d love to have a PRS McCarty 594 PS Teal Black Glow: ‘But I’ll dream on, ‘cos its 12k!’

‘As a live band, Skunk Anasie really stood out for me, the energy from their set’

Next up will be a new single, although she’s keeping the details, including the title, under wraps: ‘It’s got a bit more of a bluesy feel to it, we’re playing it live at gigs,’ she said. ‘It’s about being in a band, being on the road, travelling from town to town, it’s got a bit of a nomad feel to it, you know, sort of a rough and ready. I think one of the lyrics is “jump in if you’re paying”. The intro might surprise you on this one, it’s very different to the others.’

She brings a broad set of influences to the mix: ‘As a live band, Skunk Anasie really stood out for me, the energy from their set. I love how prominent the bass parts are in those songs, which we’ve tried to do in our tracks – ‘Bad Girl’ and ‘Beautiful Lies’ both have really strong bass. And Guns N’ Roses, I’m a massive fan of Slash. I’d love to one day end up being the female Slash! I think I’ve got a bit more practising to do (laughs). It’s an open goal, though! Tori Amos, I know, is nothing like what we play, but I love her music. Garbage, obviously. I went to see Nickelback a couple of days ago, they’re a long-time favourite for me. I think it’s very good to take influences from different genres, otherwise you end up being a carbon copy of AC/DC and there are millions of bands out there doing that.’

If Campbell could write a song with anyone, she is quick to say Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale: ‘Obviously, I wouldn’t be singing because she’d just take over the lyrics (laughs) and I’m fine with that, she’s amazing! I’ve seen them probably about four or five times now, and I last saw them a couple of months back, and it was the best, they’d launched to a different level. It’s good to see the progression, because I saw them years ago when they played the Sheffield O2 Academy and it was such a small crowd, and then I saw them at Wembley Arena last year, that’s an insane jump, you know?’

I ask her if she ever covers Halestrom songs in her sets: ‘I think I need gills on the side of my neck if I was going to do that (laughs).’ If she could go for a drink with any musician, she also picks Hale: ‘I think she’d be a laugh to have a drink with and I’m going to say Jimi Hendrix as well. I would ask them sort of about their writing process and that would be quite interesting. I think I’d just want to have a bit of a drink and a laugh, just let the conversation flow!’

Loz Campbell tour dates this year:

5th July – Leicester 

13th July – Royton

14th July – Plaguefest

3rd August – Just Push Play Festival

8th August – Firevolt Festival

30th August – Stormin The Castle 

31st August – Camden

8th November – Whitby

(Live photo credit: @john27755.pics)