I spoke to Sam from indie-pop/rock band Enfers to discuss their latest single 'Awake' and the response they received following the release of their debut single 'Haunted'. The band are set to release their debut EP 'Come When They Call Labour', a collection of songs that charts the band's formation and current work. I asked Sam about the band's musical influences and the importance of melody when it comes to structuring songs.
Hi Enfers, how are you?
Great thanks! Thrilled to be doing this with you. How are you?
I'm very well thank you! Could you tell us a bit about yourselves? We’re calling ourselves a contemporary pop band - I guess you would class us as an ‘indie’ guitar band but the music we love is really mainstream (and slightly cheesy) pop. We love the recent albums by Ava Max, Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga and we’re always striving for the polished production sound which those albums have.
How did you guys meet and form the band?
Jonny and I have known each other for about twelve years, maybe more? We met at a local council-run arts academy which brought kids together to form bands and put on small gigs around York where we grew up. We did that throughout our school years and we’ve carried on writing songs together ever since really. We met Luke and Aaron when I came to university in Leeds back in 2019 and we formed Enfers around then! It's taken us a while to get to this point where we can actually start releasing music but I think that’s been really good for us, Aaron and I live together now, and we’re all just really good mates. You released your debut single ‘Haunted’ back in April, what was it like to finally release your music into the world?
It was such a relief after having built up all this anticipation to finally get a song out. As I say, it took us a while to get there and I think we just got a massive kick out of finally having something to show for all the blood, sweat and tears! We’re dead proud of that single and just buzzing that the feedback we’ve had has been so positive too.
Were you surprised by the response to the single?
Yeah we had no idea how it was going to go. We’d obviously built up in our minds every possible way it could have been received but just the fact that our friends seemed so genuinely buzzed by it made us so happy. We definitely didn’t expect that everyone would be so kind and we can’t thank them enough. You’ve just released your second single ‘Awake’, could you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the song and the recording process?
Yeah we wrote that song I think the weekend after Sam Fender released his song ‘The Borders’ which we thought was such a tune. We wanted to have a song like that which had a really driven rhythm and beat with a hooky guitar part. We wrote and recorded the demo in one night in my parent’s garage. Most of what we recorded on the demo is what ended up on the final recording. It was pretty flooky really.
"We wanted to have a song like that which had a really driven rhythm and beat with a hooky guitar part."
I really love the vocals on both tracks, have you always wanted to create powerful vocal lines in your music?
That’s really kind, thank you. Melody is probably the most important thing for us when we’re writing. Melody doesn’t seem as prominent in modern pop music at the moment and it's maybe not as important for some artists today as say rhythm or lyrics, but for us it's the fundamental element and that's probably what defines our sound the most. Who would you consider to be your biggest musical influences? The old rock bands like Queen and Fleetwood Mac who were obviously rooted in guitar music but who made some of the best pop music of their time - that's the sort of band we want to be. The 1975 are a big influence and I think that’s quite recognisable in our sound. Early 2000s pop is another huge influence - anything from The Killers to Kylie around that time has definitely informed our songwriting and production. You’re from Leeds which has a thriving music scene, could you recommend some local artists to our readers? Aw yeah we really love Marnie Glum right now. Her voice is gorgeous and after seeing her play at Oporto the other night, safe to say her band are absolutely fantastic too. Really excited to see what else they come up with. We love Sunflower Thieves too. We’ve followed them since they played at a Come Play With Me gig a couple of years ago and their latest single ‘Don’t Mind The Weather’ is such a great track to chill to. There’s so many - Askies, Alleyways... We’re basically just waiting for them all to start gigging again so we can go see them live again!
What are your plans for the rest of 2021? Will you be playing any live gigs this summer? We’ve got the EP coming out this summer which we’re so excited about and we’d love to get gigging around the same time to support that coming out. We’ve been rehearsing and wanted to put some time into getting the set as good as it can possibly be before we get out there, but it's all starting to come together now! We’ll definitely be doing some gigs over the summer if people want to see us. You’ve also announced that you will be releasing your first EP titled ‘Come When They Call Labour’, what can you tell us about the EP? The EP is a collection of songs which represent the journey from when we started out to where we are now. Some of the songs were written a couple of years back just as we were forming the band, whilst some are brand new and written only recently. We definitely wanted to show a mixed bag which will have a bit of something for everybody. We’re just finishing up the mixing on the last track of the EP and then it's done! We’ll be announcing the release date in a few weeks if all goes to plan! Why did you name the EP ‘Come When They Call Labour’? We’ve had the title for ages and always knew that it was going to be the title of our first EP. It’s a quote from when I remember someone saying it to me in a conversation and it's just stuck with me ever since. There’s a bit of a story to it which I told Jonny about and we just thought it sounded cool as a title. What advice would you give to someone who may want to start a band but is struggling to find members? I know for us, we had to leave our hometowns where there wasn’t much of a music scene and go somewhere where there was one. Leeds is obviously great and the decision to go to university was mainly so that we could meet other musicians who liked the same music as us. Thankfully for us, that happened. What is the best advice you have received? Work as hard as you possibly can on one thing and see what happens.
Check out 'Haunted' and 'Awake' by Enfers in the links above or hear the singles on my Spotify featured artists playlist (link in bio).