The phrase 'rail replacement bus service' is writ large on the gates of hell.
Peaness, the Chester-based indie-pop trio, spent their Sunday night on a coach nosing its way from Cardiff to Newport before catching a train north. Hours earlier, though, they had played only their sixth show to a packed downstairs room at Clwb Ifor Bach as part of Sŵn Festival.
Most bands don’t get to play shows like that ever, let alone during their early thrashings. But Peaness aren’t most bands. Their debut EP, ‘No Fun’, is a couple of months old and displays a wealth of songwriting smarts and clever melodies, while live they're sharp and together in a manner that belies their relative inexperience.
Peaness - bassist Jess, guitarist Balla and drummer Rach - formed while the three were at university in Chester. After graduating, Rach returned to Birmingham and eventually travelled for a bit. The band reconvened around 12 months ago, building their current batch of songs from the ground up during rehearsals.
The interplay between guitar and bass, and their shifting rhythms, betray the songs’ collaborative beginnings, while their lyrical focus skewers issues apparent not only to them but many other twentysomethings trying to create a life, or career, in the arts as funding cuts rage, venues drop off the map and graduates come over all Battle Royale in pursuit of scant entry level roles.
There is a sense of frustration throughout and more than a few dead ends, tied up with the day-to-day rigmarole of shitty jobs and dashed ambitions. “We’re not living, we’re just existing,” runs EP highlight Fortune Favours The Bold. “It’s all about money and we’re forever earning pennies while the rich never serve the many.”
“We all studied pop music in Chester,” Jess said. “When we got out it was straight back to work, minimum wage. We were trying to get jobs in music but it’s just impossible. In Chester, anyway. We’ve all got crappy jobs and that’s where it comes from. It’s the frustration of feeling like you’re stuck. Generally that vibe is around all creative arts with all the cuts. It’s not just music.”
Balla, just about stifling a bitter laugh, added: “The whole way through uni they were like: ‘You can do anything you want.’ You come out and you’re like: ‘Oh wait, we can’t.’”
One big positive for Peaness is that their songs are really, really good. Good enough, in fact, for BBC radio airplay thanks to Adam Walton and Bethan Elfyn and a slot at Sŵn off the back of the former’s recommendation. The end of this month, meanwhile, will find them back in the studio to track five or six new songs. Among them are the bookends to their set in Cardiff: the hook heavy Sea Foam Islands and Oh George, an “anti-love song” dedicated to our dear chancellor.
On No-one, the message is a cutting one: “You told me I could be someone, but I’m not.” Don’t bet on it staying that way.
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