CALM FOR THE RESTLESS – INTERVIEW

CALM FOR THE RESTLESS are back with their new album, Finish What You Started, out on 24^th August 2018. We had a talk with the Brit Alt-rockers and asked them to fill us in on their background…..

• What is the full band line-up, who plays what?
  • Leon Macauley on Vocals
  • Martin Bradford on Rhythm (primarily) guitar and backing vocals
  • Mike Westwood on Drums
  • Tom Holbrook on Lead Guitar
  • Mark Randall on Bass Guitar
• How and when did the band form?
  • Martin and I (Leon -though I was going by Don back then) first formed CFTR in 2007 but the decision to start a band together actually took place 4 years prior to that. Mart and I were at Reading watching InMe open the main stage. They were halfway through Neptune and I looked over to Mart and said “let’s start a band dude”. That Christmas I got my first electric guitar, Mart borrowed his Uncle’s acoustic and we started writing songs immediately. I had the fortune to be able to tell that story to Dave McPherson (frontman of InMe) himself. As for how the band as we know it started proper (circa 2012), we re-kidnapped our Mike (drummer) from a rival band (then awkwardly shared a stage with them), found our Mark (bass) on a dating website and Tom drunkenly persuaded us to get rid of our old lead guitarist. He won’t see this right?
• Tell us anything interesting about your hometown?
  • Stevenage, in our mind at least, seems to have a disproportionate number of successful young-ish people come out of it. Lewis Hamilton (formula 1 multiple world champion) is from Stevenage, Ed Westwick (Star of Gossip Girl) went to school with Martin and Leon, Ashley Young (England footballer) was also there for a time. Mart and Leon used to watch an early Enter Shikari in pubs up the road in Hitchin… for free (still irks that we’ve gotta pay out the nose to see them now). Maybe something about Stevenage “motivates” people to escape whatever the cost
• When and how did the band really start gelling and solidifying?
  • The band really started to gel and get a sense of direction mid to late 2013. We started getting all our songs in order and judging what material was strongest. That eventually led to the decision to record our first EP (‘We Started a Fire’). In terms of solidifying our sound, I’d say that time is right now. Our current live set we feel is the strongest we’ve ever had and has been getting the best out of the crowds.
• Who are your musical influences?
  • Inme, Foo Fighters, Incubus and Nandos (referred to as Bandos within the band – the Portuguese music they play while we were chowing down inspired one of our drumbeats but shh)
• Where did the name of the band come from?
  • Leon came up with the band name (his thought pattern was “no rest for the wicked, no calm for the restless”) a long time before we all even got together, he and Mart had been writing material together for years and Leon had randomly cobbled together a list of band names for fun while at uni. Most were god awful but Calm for the Restless stood out. It rolled off the tongue and didn’t sound like a preachy band name you see a lot of these days nor did it start with ‘the’ (but it possibly sounds like a self-help program). It stuck until the full band was formed.
• How far back does your history with each other (the band members) extend? Are you friends from school or any family relations?
  • Mart and Leon have known each other since the age of four and grew up listening to the same music in their late teens. They met Mike through a work colleague of Mart’s and Mark on a band-forming website (something we all often forget). Tom and Mike knew each other from their teens and worked together for a time. Tom replaced the original guitarist in 2013.
• In your opinion, how is your band different from all the other bands out there?
  • We try to keep our music solid riff-wise. A lot of bands nowadays water down their guitar sound somewhat, especially in the rock scene – we try to keep that going. Outside of the music, we had a promoter once tell Leon that something that sets us apart from the other bands is that it’s clear we all give a damn about each other and it’s more than just about the music with us. Cheesy but on reflection, it’s true. If we weren’t all in the band, we’d all still hang out all the time.
• If a deaf person were to ask you to describe the sound of your music, how would you describe it?
  • Good Vibrations.
• Where can we find your social media sites?
  • Twitter – https://twitter.com/restlesscalm
  • Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/calmfortherestless/
  • Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/calm-for-the-restless
  • Website – calmfortherestless.com