The Roves

Name, where are you from?

Luke Evans, Rhys Kempley, Tom Wing & James Wing – We are from North London (except for Luke who is from Neath Port Talbot but based here).

Describe your style in three words?
Very, very, stylish.


What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Sasami at Moth Club last year. It was so goddamn raw. I was mesmerised by everything, her singing, her guitar playing and she seemed to have this scream that penetrated straight through me. Everything she was expressing seemed real and genuine. In London, the choice of live indie music is either ennui bands who sing about how unimpressed and uninspired they are or white men shouting at you about how angry they are. So this was a welcome breath of fresh air. 

If you could be on the line up with any two bands in history?

Prince, Chas & Dave and then us at the Royal Albert Hall. It would be hilarious, so random. I think everyone would end up having a simply wonderful time.

Which subcultures have influenced you?

I’m not sure, I like all different subcultures. At school, we were these things they called ‘grungies’ or ‘grungers’. We read Kerrang magazine, listened to Nirvana and Weezer and wore baggy jeans with skate shoes and chains.


If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?

He’s still very much alive but probably David Chase who created the TV show The Sopranos. 
He seems interested and intuitive. I’d like to think the Roves and he would get on. Maybe run some theories by him from the show that we picked up on and see if he agrees.

Of all the venues you’ve played, which is your favourite?

An Art Deco ballroom called the Columbia Theatre in Berlin because it’s just a gorgeous venue and we played a good show there as I remember.


Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
A friend of mine. Dear dear Felix Holt who should be an international superstar by now. Recently his focus has shifted into the realms of musical improvisation and he’s no longer interested in carving out a career album by album which I assume he finds too constricting and rather tedious. But he exhumes a kind of charisma that god reserves only for the likes of Dylan, De Niro and an old master painter.