At the start of the year, we came across Hartlepool’s rising psychedelic rock outfit Crescent through their ambitious double-sided single ‘Milogather’. Now, we’ve reconnected with the three-piece as they continue to set the bar high with a six-track EP, titled Lamentations. Through consistent hard-work and a refusal to settle for less, this band carved out the EP from early studio sessions through to rewriting workshops through to this landmark release. As you’ll hear, Crescent move through blues-soaked riffs, off-kilter indie textures and moments of detailed storytelling; they convey a dynamic process of discovery that few bands manage to fully capture. From the aforementioned ‘Milogather Part 1’ and ‘Milogather Part 2′ to the deeply personal closer ‘Bells Palsy’, the band make a confident statement of psych-rock reinvention. For On The Record, Crescent take us deeper into their Lamentations EP. Below, they reflect on their journey from local pub sets to bigger stages, the lessons learned along the way and the creative breakthroughs that brought these songs to life.
Welcome back to Unrecorded! For those who aren’t already familiar with Crescent, can you introduce yourselves?
Hi guys! Crescent is made up of Caleb, guitar and vocals. Millie, Keys and vocals. Adam, Drums and Jake, Bass. We’re from Hartlepool (Co. Durham) and make psychedelic rock music.
Congratulations on the recent release of your EP! For those discovering you through Lamentations, how would you describe this record in three words?
Unique, Powerful, Elish!
As Hartlepool’s rising psychedelic-rock outfit, how has the North East music scene influenced you as a band?
It’s certainly helped us build our reputation to what it is now. When we first started the music scene in Hartlepool was fairly small, especially for the genres we play. But there’s been a rise in the number of venues putting on gigs in the town, which is helping build the scene. Shout out to Vixen Bar who have given the local freaks and weirdos a base to build something.
You cut your teeth playing cover sets at local pubs, so what was the most important lesson you learned from that experience?
I would say the most important lesson was that patience is a real virtue. We worked hard on getting to be as tight as we are now by playing those sets and developed our style. Taking on board what went well and what didn’t. Especially as we began to see familiar faces at our gigs, it was good to hear feedback in real time as we made adjustments and improvements.
Since then, you’ve supported The Futureheads, all before releasing your first single. Did that feel like a landmark moment for Crescent?
It absolutely is an achievement for us, playing two nights back-to-back in the Firestation to such a big crowd was nerve-racking but such a great moment. It really put into perspective how far we’ve come and where we are headed. Sharing beers with The Futureheads backstage and not having to shift our gear about were certainly some of the highlights.
The EP opens with double-sided single ‘Milogather’, which is a super bold move to start with a two-part track. How does this set the tone for the rest of the EP?
It sets the tone for the EP perfectly, as bold is all we really try to do. Both parts being such different genres really gives the sense that this EP is a journey just as it has been for us, it shows off what we are trying to achieve and that is writing some great tracks that are familiar but are completely our own sound.
‘Bells Palsy’ is inspired by Caleb’s personal experience with facial paralysis, so how was this medical condition translated into a riff-heavy closing track?
Bells palsy was wrote during a holiday I’d taken about a week after contracting it. The song looks at being uncomfortable and glad that people were sticking by my side when I was feeling quite self-conscious. It also looks at the funniness of the fact that I’d ended up at seventeen with an illness most people get in their sixtes. The riff heavy nature of the song fell into place because I was super into canned heat at the time and wanted to go down that line with something, trying to live up to the blues part of our genre title. My favourite thing with the song is the chorus acrostic for Bells palsy, that’s what made sure the song was going to stick around.
The whole EP is tied together by Jon Sevink’s mastering on vintage valve equipment. What led to that decision to emphasise the 60s/70s vibe of this record?
As soon as the idea even arose that we could have Jon master them we made sure to pursue it as we would be very stupid not too. The opportunity came from our ties with Dan Donnelly, who we are very grateful for helping us out with setting it up for us. Having those vintage tones on the tracks just totally blew it out of the water for us. It really allowed our EP to sit right where we needed it to, between the early 70s and 20th century ‘artlepool.
What else do you hope that listeners will take away from these songs?
We hope listeners enjoy the journey, end up with a new appreciation for the kind of music we are making and want to hear lots more of it.
Following the release of the EP, what will be next on the horizon for you?
We have a lot lined up for us this year, certainly expanding our reach in the local scene. We are playing The Rift festival – Middlesbrough (1st May), The Fish and Ships festival – Whitby (16th May) and Marrapalooza – Newcastle (7th June). We also have our debut gig at Vixen Bar on 5th June. We’ve got gigs booked up until July so there’ll be plenty of opportunities to catch us making some noise.
We are already working on our next EP so we certainly aren’t slowing down anytime soon. Oh yeah, we’re releasing the Lamentations on vinyl. It should hopefully be out in a few months’ time. We’ve only just put the everything in motion for this, so you’ve got an exclusive out of us! haha!
You can listen to closing track ‘Bells Palsy’ in our Indie Rockers playlist.
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