We spoke to indie pop five piece St. Buryan about their debut single, upcoming shows and what the rest of 2017 holds.
Ride Music: For those that don’t know, who are St.Buryan?
St. Buryan: We’re a five-piece band from Newcastle and Sunderland. We’ve always described our music as an “inconsistent blend” of pop-punk, indie and rock. We formed in 2013 as a group of best friends that just fancied piecing a band together while at school. We put together a few original tracks, played a few shows around Newcastle, and we had a few people tell us that we weren’t too bad, so we began to take things gradually more seriously.
We released an EP in 2015, with a launch show at the Tyne Bar. We were supported by Twist Helix, Afnan Prince and Analogues. We had such an amazing night, but since then we all started different university courses in different cities, so we’ve been really inactive since then. We’re buzzing to be back with new material and new shows!
RM: Who would you say are you main musical influences?
St. B: Musically, our closest inspirations are the likes of Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Deaf Havana, Canterbury; those sorts of feel-good pop/rock bands. We try to write songs that have hooks of their own, are catchy, and get people moving. If people listening to us are enjoying themselves, so are we! We also adore the local music scene, and we take a lot of encouragement from bands on our doorstep. Little Comets, Shields, The Pale White, The Old Pink House, Picnic, there is so much talent in our region and it’s an inspiration in itself to be a part of this scene, however small we may be!
RM: Where does the name ‘St. Buryan’ come from?
St. B: It’s the street name where our singer, Ben, lives. ‘St. Buryan Crescent’ to be exact. We all used to go round Ben’s a lot when we were kids, playing on the PlayStation, annoying his parents. So it’s a house we’re all fond of and it holds a decent meaning for us! At the same time, it was also the first name we came up with and we didn’t want to stress a lot or spend too much time coming up with a name, so we stuck with it. Though the more we played as ‘St. Buryan’ the more we grew to like the name. It’s a little bit different, and we always hear different pronunciations for it too.
RM: Your debut single, ‘Everything I Said’, is out now. Tell us what the inspiration is behind that song.
St. B: The song was written by Ben around the time we all went to university. Lyrically it centres around the idea of a relationship becoming long-distance, and how people will be able to deal with that. Musically, we’re all really happy with the single as it’s the first track that we’ve put together where we’ve nailed a particular sound. I mentioned the “inconsistency” earlier, but this track has taken all of those different elements from past songs, morphed them together to make a ‘St. Buryan’ sound. We’ve found a direction we want to go in with the new music, and we’re excited to see where it takes us.
RM: You’ve got a few shows coming up very soon, what can we expect from a St. Buryan show?
St. B: We’re really excited for our upcoming shows. First up, we’re supporting the incredible Flyte at Tynemouth’s Surf Café on May 27th. In particular, I’m (Rhys) a huge fan of Flyte and it’ll be amazing to share a stage with them, especially at one the North East’s most-loved venues. Afterwards we have the new single’s launch show on June 27th, at Jumpin’ Jacks in Newcastle.
We’ve got a fantastic line-up of support acts with Alba Nights, Peace Frog and Great Waves all joining us. Our last headline show was such a memorable night for us all, and we’re hoping this one will be even better.
Live, I’d say we’re a lot of fun. We always enjoy ourselves on stage and the happier we are, the better we play. It’s a great feeling just playing music with some of your best mates, when you’re on a stage with people singing along with the songs you’ve written, it’s an amazing feeling! There’ll be a few nerves on the night, but we’re going to give it absolutely everything. Those paying the tickets to see us deserve the best show we can offer.
RM: What’s been the highlight of 2017 for you lot so far?
St. B: So far, I’d say getting the new single out there has been the highlight. Our first single to go on the likes of Spotify, iTunes etc. To have such a wait between the 2015 EP and the new single, there was a lot of anxiety ahead of its release. But the reaction has been so positive from those who have heard it.
We’ve had our first ever magazine reviews, further radio play, and it even made it into a nightclub’s Playlist in Crewe. It’s been fantastic! Hopefully the next single goes down even better. If we can get a few more plays on SoundCloud, a few more streams of Spotify, and if we can make ourselves another couple of fans from it, that’ll do us!
RM: What does the rest of 2017 hold for St. Buryan?
St. B: Who knows! We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. We’re focusing all of our attention on the next couple of shows for now, once they’re done, we’ll see where we go from there. We want to be busy with gigs over the summer, and we have a few shows “in progress” but haven’t been confirmed yet. Hopefully we can make some announcements soon. We’ll keep writing, keep recording, hopefully get a few more singles out before the end of 2017, and hopefully people like what they hear!
RIDE MUSIC 