Keyside: 'I write about social issues a lot'
When Dan Parker and Ben Cassidy sat jamming with guitars at an 18th birthday party in Liverpool, little did they know in years to come it would lead to them being in a band that have been hailed as one of the north west’s brightest hopes.
Eight years on from that fateful meeting their group Keyside are just about to release their debut album on Modern Sky, the Merseyside label that’s also home to Jamie Webster, Miles Kane and The Coral. A national tour is set to follow.
Recalling that first encounter with Cassidy, Parker tells The Yorkshire Post: “There were two guitars at that house party and we ended up just going upstairs with both of them and just jamming until 5am. Then I didn’t speak to him for two years because I only met him that night and just forgot about it in the morning. But then there was a space for guitar in our band and he was at the forefront of my memory for that, so I Snapchatted him.”
Cassidy, who was then studying at university, brought with him drummer Oisín McAvoy and the Keyside line-up was completed by McAvoy’s friend Max Gibson on bass and backing vocals.
Parker’s own musical influences include 80s pop and the prog rock of Pink Floyd – handed down by his mum. “I didn’t really have a choice of what was put on in the car and she used to drive around with it on unbelievable volume – honest to God, it was that loud you couldn’t think – it was Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, all 80s stuff, really.” These days he also likes Fontaines DC, Wunderhorse, Blossoms, Geese, Jamie Webster and The Royston Club, saying: “Maybe I’m biased, but I think these last two years there’s been some of the best new music I’ve heard in a while. It feels good, like the ground’s more fertile.”
Cassidy’s lecturer at Edge Hill University, Carl Hunter, who also plays bass in The Farm and is a filmmaker, has provided useful counsel for the up-and-coming band. “Ben would come back every now and again and say, ‘I’ve been speaking to Carl and shown him a few songs’...and then eventually Carl ended up working with us for a bit,” Parker explains. “He was the one who really got the ball rolling with us, and he gave us some faith, hope that what we were doing was good. Around that time you just need a bit of motivation. Obviously, he’s a Scouse legend himself. That song, Altogether Now, is so popular, everyone knows that tune, so for him to be championing us was a real motivator to us to keep on.”
A keen social observer from a working-class background, Parker focused on writing about characters in the lyrics for the songs on Keyside’s self-titled debut album. But latterly he has also begun writing in more about his own life. “It’s more about characters, I find it easier to do that, I’ve only really just started getting comfortable with writing autobiographically,” he says. “This first album, a lot of it’s about other people. In fact Heaven, a song on the album, a fan reached out to me about his story at home, his mum had issues with alcohol and I’ve had a similar experience growing up. When he reached out he requested that I write a song about his story, which I took on, but I was kind of collaborating with him from my perspective.
“From doing exercises like that I’ve got better at doing more autobiography in songs. From the next set of tunes you might see it.”
Echoes was written about his uncle. “He died from alcoholism well, it was a series of things, but the route of it was through that addiction. We’ve just put it out and it’s probably the best response we’ve had to song so far,” the singer notes.
Parker is keen to document what he sees going on around him in his songs. “As that album came together, I realised how much I do write about social issues,” he says. “I didn’t ever class myself as that kind of writer, but that’s what I write about a lot – social issues, drug issues. If you go out into the street and open your eyes what do you see the most? That’s what I see in Liverpool, and I’ve seen it everywhere...it leads to homelessness, and you see it in many cities now. I’m not saying it’s the cause for everything, and I’m not trying to say I know the cure or the solution, I’m just documenting it because that’s what’s going on. It’s what I’ve seen all my life and I’m just trying to take a picture and make sense of it.”
He is, at heart, an optimist. “There’s always a lesson,” he says. “Whenever anything goes wrong, there’s always a chance for a story to tell that could help someone else. There’s always the good and the bad anyway.”
Keyside’s album is out on Friday August 7. The band will be doing an instore at Vinyl Whistle, Leeds the same day. They support Ocean Colour Scene at Tileyard North on August 29, and are aso guests of Red Rum Club at Asylum in Hull on October 12 and O2 Academy Leeds on October 15. A headline tour of their own is due to be announced soon. https://www.keysidemusic.com/