The Sovereigns: ‘We like to describe ourselves as “polyjamous”!’

Hull rock band The Sovereigns have released their incredibly catchy debut single ‘Do You Wanna? (Yeah, I Wanna)’, with plans to release their debut EP ‘Everything in Moderation’ next June.

The band comprises Archie Hubbard (vocals, rhythm guitar and bass), Vinnie Cooze (drums), Alex Ingram (vocals, lead guitar and bass) and Joe Dawson (vocals, bass and rhythm guitar). Hubbard and Ingram met on a school trip to Italy in their respective secondary schools when they were 15. They lost touch for a while but reconnected at university in Hull via Warren Records, where Ingram was already recording a song via his side project, Wake.

Over the years, they’ve had a few bass players and drummers before settling on Dawson, who has recently turned 17, the baby of the band compared to the others, who are 22: ‘I was chatting to my old music teacher about my struggle with trying to find a bass player and a drummer,’ Hubbard said. ‘I asked her if she knew anyone, and she said: “Well, what about Joe?” because although he plays multiple instruments, his first instrument was bass. I was working at the school as a theatre tech and I asked her if it would be ok if he came to rehearsals, safeguarding wise. He came to a couple of rehearsals and he was the perfect fit and down for sticking around!’ However, their first gig at the Polar Bear in Hull last year was put into jeopardy when their drummer at the time quit just two weeks beforehand. Luckily, Gorilla Studios in Hull knew Cooze and the rest is history: ‘It’s been nonstop fun and creativity ever since and we’re all now close mates,’ Hubbard said.

‘I’ve always said if we ever get a break or an excess amount of money, it’d be quite cool for us all to have a sovereign ring or something!’

Of their band name Hubbard says: ‘I’ve always been a fan of jewellery. From my grandad, I got a half sovereign ring for one of my birthdays. I know a lot of things are called sovereign, I think there’s a beer called Sovereign! I’ve always said if we ever get a break or an excess amount of money (laughs), it’d be quite cool for us all to have a sovereign ring or something!’

‘Do You Wanna? (Yeah, I Wanna)’ is a brilliant debut that reels you in from the cheeky string muting at the start before they burst out the jangly guitars: ‘When it came to the recording process, it was quite cool to start the song like that,’ Hubbard said enthusiastically. ‘We might add in little bits of things in songs that have happened to us personally but we also like to write more metaphorically and create relatable scenarios. This song is about being with someone and thinking it’s all well and good, the wrapping is nice, but the line that stuck with me in the sense of having that as a theme of the song is “such an ugly girl with a pretty face” – that sense of someone having an ugly personality. When you step back from the relationship, all the people latch on to it and think that it’s unhealthy. It’s also that young spirit of you going out on Friday or Saturday. You get your pay slip at the end of the Friday, spend it all the weekend and earn it again on Monday (laughs). That’s the crux of of the song, really. I live in Beverley, it can be quite wild on a Saturday in Bev!’

The gang vocals on the chorus, which also feature Ingram and Dawson, really help to pull it along, as does Hubbard’s’s sunny delivery. It turns out that he and Ingram wrote it a while back: ‘I came up with the chord progression and the chorus hook and then brought it to Alex,’ he said. ‘I think lyrically and structurally, it’s been a lot of myself and Alex’s inputs with the lead parts and what we think the bass lines should be together. We’ve shared that with whoever was playing with us at the time and coming through as the song develops.’

‘We’re all very old souls, we like that old school retro vibe!’

When Hubbard and Ingram formed the band when they were 16, they went by a different name altogether: ‘We were called Tenfoot Kids,’ he said laughing. ‘The tenfoots in Hull are the alleyways down the back of the avenues and streets. Also, Alex is 6ft 8, he’s very tall! I’m 6ft 4 and at the time we had a bass player who was 6ft 5! It had two meanings, my dad grew up in Hull, knocking around the tenfoots and we’re the Tenfoot Kids because we’re all quite tall. There’s a lot of stuff in Hull already called Tenfoot, there’s a magazine and there might be a production company, called Tenfoot Productions, so we became The Sovereigns. I’ve always wanted a band name that’s got ‘The’ in front of it because of all the greats like The Beatles. We’re all very old souls, we like that old school retro vibe!’

The Sovereigns have already laid down the six tracks for their debut EP and are in the process of mixing them: ‘It’s quite difficult to navigate November and December because a lot of Christmas hits come out,’ Hubbard admitted. ‘It’s not ideal to release anything over Christmas because no-one really cares about music – unfortunately, everyone wants the Christmas hits! I volunteered for a year doing the lights at the Polar Bear and I’m learning sound engineering and I DJ there occasionally when Dan can’t be there. He told me to avoid November and December releases because it’s hard to get streams and numbers and push them because they get lost in all the Christmas plays.’

Subsequently, the next single, ‘Smoke n’ Drive’, is likely to come out towards the end of January, a track that Hubbard describes as ‘more mellow’ than ‘Do You Wanna?’ ‘A lot of our inspiration comes from our collective inspiration of Pink Floyd and blues, which shows on this track,’ he said. ‘On ‘Smoke n’ Drive’, it’s split – Alex sings the verses and I sing the chorus.’ Essentially, the song is about a road trip: ‘Not that we have been on the road as a band,’ he quipped. ‘It has that nostalgic sort of feeling. You grow up with bands touring and you hear those stories about tour buses and traveling around the world or a country. It’s about a weekend away with a really good close group of mates and smoking a bit of grass (laughs). The verses are the ‘travel’ in the journey. The chorus is more of a reflection of the present, oh god, that sounds pretentious (laughs). One of the lyrics is: “I don’t know where I’ll be ten years from now”. It’s asking: “If I’m doing what I’m doing right now, is it the right thing that I’m doing or is it not?” You know, where is it going to take me in the future? It definitely builds and it’s become more exploratory through different instruments in the studio – it’s very guitar soloing! Alex has two solos and it builds quite nicely to a more distorted tone at the end of the song.’

‘We love switching it up on stage, we get to show our talents and I feel it’s only fair to have our own spots, our own songs and our own passions to portray that on stage’

As they’re all multi-instrumentalists, they love to switch out the parts on stage, taking on a part that a different band member has traditionally played: ‘The only downside is that Vinnie is a really excellent musician, he can play bass guitar really well but he’s also an exceptional drummer. Us three are not as good as Vinnie on the drums (laughs), so we’re trying to get a drum beat for when we play live that sounds as good as the rest of our songs to get Vinnie off the drum kit. Me, Alex and Joe swap at the minute. We love switching it up on stage, we get to show our talents and I feel it’s only fair to have our own spots, our own songs and our own passions to portray that on stage. We’ll get Vinnie off that drum kit eventually, it will happen!’

Hubbard’s favourite song on the upcoming EP is ‘Lady of Lourdes’ (The name commemorates a series of 18 apparitions reported by a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in Lourdes, France, in the mid-1800’s.) ‘I can’t wait for it to come out,’ he said enthusiastically, before diving into the song’s great backstory. He found an old chord progression on his phone, which gave the location of the recording as Lady of Lourdes, despite being recorded in Hull: ‘At the time, Alex lived down Cottingham Road next to the Marist Catholic Church, it was strange that it didn’t give the location as Cottingham Road. (Although the Marist Fathers bought the property in 1925, which is commonly known as the Marist Catholic Church, it also goes by the name Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes.) We thought it sounded really cool as a lyric, so we googled the story. She was supposed to have come down from the Pyrénées in France and healed the wounded of a plague. The song is a story about that beacon of light, whether that is someone who comes into your life, or another positive influence to heal you from something emotionally or physically. The beauty of the song is that although it has religious connotations, it’s also relatable to any situation, whether you are struggling mentally or in a dark place. It’s that recognition of someone, that positive light in your life.’

He acknowledges that it’s his favourite track on the EP because it gave them a chance ‘to flesh it out so much with the equipment and the facilities that Warren Records has, which has been great’. (Warren Records is a not-for-profit independent record label and music development project in Hull, which forms part of The Warren Young People’s Project supporting young people in the city.) Interestingly, the track will take us on a new sonic journey: ‘It’s actually quite folky, to be honest! Quite Mumford and Sons-y. It’s quite jangly and upbeat, it’s definitely jolly. There are various instruments ranging from piano and extra 12-string guitars, and even a mandolin. We like being as creative as possible, we don’t really have a genre – we like to describe ourselves as “polyjamous”!’

‘It’s all about balance and I think it also reflects our multi-genre EP because we don’t want to do too much of one genre’

The EP title ‘Everything In Moderation’ also has a lovely provenance: ‘It came from my dad’s dad, my other grandad, who has since passed away,’ Hubbard said. ‘He said it to my sister on her 18th about getting drunk. He said: “Remember, Holly, everything in moderation” (laughs). It’s been a really important quote that holds with me because it’s so transferable to anything, whether you work or whether you party too hard. Don’t kill yourself over work but also then don’t do the opposite. It’s all about balance and I think it also reflects our multi-genre EP because we don’t want to do too much of one genre on it.’

In other ways, the EP title reflects Hubbard’s own personality: ‘I find I’m very outside the box, I don’t really like like trends or following things,’ he said. ‘I don’t really like self-titled debuts where the first album is the band’s name or the artist’s name. We wanted to collectively come up with something that represents us and what we believe in, so I just I pitched the quote to the lads and they loved it.’

Their ability to mash together various genres and to shake it up sonically from track to track is due in part to their brilliantly eclectic influences: Pink Floyd is their biggest collective influence, whereas Cooze also draws on heavier inspirations, such as Black Sabbath, although he is also a huge Radiohead fan. Dawson, for his part, is a big Oasis fan and of Cornish rock band Wunderhorse: ‘I’d say my top four would be Pink Floyd, Jeff Buckley, the Kooks and (Aussie) rock band Sticky Fingers,’ Hubbard said enthusiastically. ‘They’d be my writing inspirations. And I suppose dotted in there, partly with Sticky Fingers, would be Mako Road (from New Zealand), who are really good. I don’t know what genre it is, I’d say seaside fun, surf pop!’ Locally, he cites psychedelic rock band Atom of Lunar as being one to watch: ‘They’re really good, powerful vocals and exceptional drumming! We supported them for their EP release at Adelphi. Vinnie also drums for another outfit, Fragile Acts, they’re really good and supporting The Avenues (a brilliant indie rock band from Hull) at the Polar Bear next month. I love Dan Mawer’s new band O’Phantom, I think they’ve got a really unique sound, like shoegaze indie, I really enjoy watching them.’

Although he says that his parents aren’t musical, music does run in the family: ‘I was very much inspired by cousin Joshua Hubbard, who was in two well-respected bands from Hull and NYC (on guitar). The Hull band was called The Paddingtons, and the NYC band was called Skaters,’ he said.

If Hubbard could go out for a night with any musician, he is quick to say American blues maestro Stevie Ray Vaughan: ‘I’d have guitarring questions, I’d want to know what his process was for learning guitar because I think he’s got a unique, rhythmic guitar playing style. I know that he used heavier split gauge strings, which allowed him to get those low bluesey notes. How did he figure out those chord sequences or what his right hand is doing in correlation to his left hand to find those really groovy sounds? ‘Lenny’ (1983) is one of my favourite songs of all time, I’m blown away every time I listen to it at how just a guitar can say so much when there are zero lyrics. The way he manages to let the guitar speak to the audience I find fascinating, so that’d be my biggest question. I love when things are stripped back, when you take bits out, you start to appreciate the music as a whole more and how every part of the song comes together.’

We get chatting about how sometimes you can listen to a song for years without fully appreciating little details in it and he gets very animated: ‘It’s true, I’ve had a similar interaction with songs that I’ve listened to year after year so many times but when you actually listen on a decent speaker or sound system, you hear parts of the song you never knew existed for the first time, it’s so euphoric, that feeling of loving the song even more now.’ It’s clear from our chat that they’re born performers and genuinely love being up on stage together: ‘Our funniest moment with the band would have to be all of it, we have such a laugh together that there couldn’t be a single moment that would stand out!’

(Top photo from left to right: Archie, Vinnie, Joe and Alex. Photo credit: Meg Morris, IG @megmorrisphoto.)