W: Gracie King. I: Ella Calver
Latitude – despite its perception as a middle-class, middle-aged, family-friendly festival- it shows signs of promise if you know where to look for it.
Into the woods, and you can find the smaller stages, with lots of hidden gems.
Chest. Stage: Alcove Names (L to R): Teo (Drums), Russell (Guitar), Joel (Vocals), Will (Bass), Stan (Guitar) Festival Do’s: Drink, bring camping chairs, and get a big enough tent. Festival Don’ts: Talk about the tent situation, think you can get anywhere in 10 minutes, ring me and ask where I am (I don’t know either)
Chest – a band from Norwich via London and a previous feature of our website were the first to open up the Alcove stage on Friday afternoon.
“I was a bit nervous before we went on stage, thinking there would be like 3 people in the audience, but it was pretty full – it felt great,” says frontman Joel…
Their new single ‘Machine’ is fresh out of the studio, and it's already gaining a great response from listeners.
“It’s a song we’ve been working on for nearly two years, and it took us a while to get it right, but I think it's been quite a popular one live,” Stan tells me.
“For us, that feels like the peak of what we want the ‘Chest sound’ to be – so to have it out now feels like quite the accomplishment”
And that’s not the only accomplishment that’s going to be blessing our ears in the not-so-distant future…
“We’ve got two new singles coming out this year (potentially)…and then we’re hopefully…wait.. are we leaking everything?
“And then we’ve got an EP to build up towards next year – that’s exclusive!”
Radio Free Alice. Stage: Alcove,. Names (L to R): Micheal (Bass/ Saxophone), Lochie (Drums), Jules (Guitar), Noah (Vocals/ Guitar). Festival Do’s: Bring deodorant and a smile. Festival Don’ts: F*ck around (you only have 15 minutes for sound check)
Radio Free Alice’s reception into the UK scene has meant continuously selling out shows and a move to London this Autumn.
“It’s surreal that over this side of the world, people know our stuff… it's weird,” says Noah.
Their two new singles recently released, “Empty Words” and “Toyota Camry” have done nothing but add to their acclaim.
Micheal says, “We’re very proud of [Toyota Camry], we didn’t play it today, but it's one we’ve been playing live for a little while.
“It’s the next single for our upcoming EP.” Jules tells me, “The writing process is pretty collaborative, we jam nearly every day – so we’re just constantly trying to churn out songs all the time… most of it… not great, but you
freakslug. Stage: Alcove Name: Xenya (Vocals/ Guitar). Festival Do’s: Bring fairy lights for your tent. Festival Don’ts: Slide around in the mud (the queues for showers are crazy)
freakslug, aka Xenya, headlined the Alcove on Friday night, not her first Latitude but her first as a performer.
“I’ve been here before but for fun, maybe 8 years ago, so it’s nice to be back and playing.”
freakslug has been touring America and Europe with her debut album, ‘I Blow Out Big Candles’, and kicked off festival season at Latitude.
“I think [IBOBC] has gone down really well, I’m excited to get more stuff out, we’re playing some new songs that are on the EP that I’m releasing and I’m already writing the next album.
“I’m always writing new stuff, always excited, that’s my favourite thing to do on earth thus far!”
Honeyglaze. Stage: Trailer Park and Sunrise. Names (L to R): Tim (Bass), Anoushka (Vocals/ Guitar), Yuri (Drums). Festival Do’s: Eat salad, drink water. Festival Don’ts: Be stingy on yourself, have more beers than hours of sleep
We chatted to Honeyglaze behind a secret après-ski party – a sentence no one expected from a field in Suffolk – but a great way to kick off festival season, I'm sure.
“This is our third festival so far”, says Anoushka
“But our first weekend of festivals”, adds Yuri
Their second album ‘Real Deal’ is coming up to its first birthday, and with no new music released as of yet – what the band has o the way was kept ever elusive…
Anoushka tells me, “We’re cooking up some schemes, we’re mixing some… soups”
On how these schemes and soups are created, she says, “It's kind of a mixture of things, I don’t really have a specific process,
“I write a lot of stuff in my notes, all the time of like snippets of things that might be good ideas.”
“Anoushka writes the bare bones of it, and we come to kind of jam it together.
“That’s the process in a nutshell,” Yuri says.
HotWax. Stage: Trailer Park. Names (L to R): Alfie (Drums), Lola (Bass), Tallulah (Vocals/ Guitar). Festival Do’s: Get to the bar early, give into the mud. Festival Don’ts: Forget swimming shorts
We settled on bean bags with HotWax – but the unorthodox atmosphere was far from relaxing – a giant mirrored crucifix was plonked behind them while we set up. The band had performed here last year after just finishing production on their debut album, now 12 months on what's new with the band?
“We played here last year on the Sunrise stage on the Thursday, just as things were getting started, and now we’re here on the Sunday when all the toilets are overflown… they’re not actually, they're really hygienic,” Tallulah says – fighting the sound of the band currently on stage.
“Probably some more people know us now, since releasing ‘Hot Shock’
“We just released a new single called ‘Tell me everything is all right’,
“and we’re going to be releasing singles… more singles… in the future…”
So, as festival season draws to a close, you may be regretting not seeing any one of these five great acts, just so you could go and watch a big stage headline (why are you here?)
I can only recommend you keep an ear out for their new stuff, to avoid missing out again!