The Rogues - Live at Mascara Bar

There are some fantastic new bands coming out of Newport at the moment, and Heddon Press’ new favourite is undoubtedly The Rogues. From playing sold-out shows at some of South Wales’ most beloved venues such as Clwb Ifor Bach and Le Pub, to recording at Rockfield Studios (yes, that Rockfield Studios) in Monmouthshire, they’re quickly garnering acclaim in the Welsh indie-rock scene.

And now it seems they have their sights set on London - if Saturday’s excellent gig at the Mascara Bar in Dalston is anything to go by. The band brought a dose of that famous Welsh vibrancy to the tiny East London venue, which was packed to the rafters. The energy among the audience was palpable, and you could hear people mumbling to each other about how good the band was - and that was before they’d even started. When they did start, the crowd loudly sang along to all of their songs, danced, shouted their support for the members, and, of course, demanded another song when their set ended - a far cry from the often stale trappings of indie-rock audiences.

The Rogues aren’t just a great live band, though. Their discography is just as impressive. We’ve already mentioned that they recently recorded at Rockfield Studios (of Queen and Oasis fame), and the result was their appropriately titled four-track EP Live at Rockfield Studios. 

The EP includes 1963 - which is currently one of our favourites. It’s an anthemic hit with punching, The Clash-esque guitars, overlaid with the singer’s laments about how ‘it’s only rock and roll’ and how he ‘hasn’t seen the silver screen since 1963’ - it has a nostalgic quality to it, and allows itself to fully revel in the accoutrements of the real rock and roll of the sixties.

The highlight of Live at Rockfield Studios has to be Chemical Dream - which was undeniably a crowd favourite at Mascara Bar, too. It has a coming-of-age sound to it; a dreamy sound, but never allows itself to wallow in self-pity. It has an honest, almost innocent quality to it, which is genuinely refreshing to hear. If you’re only going to listen to one song from this EP, this is the one we’d recommend. 

The EP is a brilliant introduction to The Rogues as a band, and displays their range and capacity for mixing styles and genres. We would recommend you give it a listen if you haven’t already. 

When we asked the band about their inspirations (both for this EP and the rest of their music) they were naturally reluctant to tie their sound to any specific artists, but Oasis and the brilliance of British music in the nineties generally came up as a shared love of theirs. But they made it clear that, as a band, they can’t be pinned to a particular artist or era - mainly because their own interests are wide-reaching and differ a lot from one another’s. They did offer to take us through every decade of music history to uncover an answer, but sadly we didn’t have quite enough time to indulge in that conversation (Zoom only lets you have forty-five minutes for free, apparently!)

It’s clear that The Rogues are establishing themselves as an exciting new talent with an earnest appreciation for the legendary music of the past, and an obvious drive to create exceptional music of their own.

Of course, the EP is the most important element of their time at Rockfield, but we couldn’t resist asking them about their experience at the studio. They told us primarily of the effect that being in a place of such musical renown had on them - and of the famous sites they were shown on their initial tour of the place. From the spot where Freddie Mercury supposedly penned the words ‘any way the wind blows’ to the old stone wall that nNoel Gallagher composed Wonderwall while sat on top of. “You could just feel it in the walls,” they told us.

Heddon Press spoke to the band before their show with Underground Sound about their tracks, how growing up in Newport has impacted their music, and Goldie Lookin’ Chain - read the full interview below!

Heddon Press: How did you guys come together? What’s your origin story?

Ben: I saw an advert on Facebook for a bass player and thought I’d take a chance on that, see what comes of it - ended up meeting Andrew, James, and Rhod. That was November 2021, and Alex joined us in April 2022. It was about a month before our first gig, and Andrew broke his arm, so -

James: He got run over by an Uber Eats motorbike! But, yeah, me and Rhod went to school with Alex, and we knew he was half-decent at guitar, and then roped him in.

Heddon Press: The Uber Eats bike is a bit unfortunate. But other than that great origin story.

Alex: I could never play barre chords, anyway.

Heddon Press: And how do you find you all work together? Is it quite natural, or is it hard work?

Alex: It’s never really hard work. But it’s better for us if we have gigs all the time, because that’s when we’re better.

Ben: Yeah, stuff sort of flows a bit more.

James: We’ve been in the studio a couple of times, now, and it does work well. It works better the longer we spend together. But we haven’t done a gig as a full five-piece since about January, because Andy went to visit his sister in Australia, so we had a gig in February as a four-piece and Rhod sang, and we’ve never done that before. And the boys did an acoustic gig the other week, so it feels like ages since we’ve played together. And now we’ve got this gig on Saturday, and it sort of feels like the first gig, you know?

Heddon Press: How do you typically approach the creative process? Do you have a primary songwriter, or do you all pitch in?

Andrew: Well, you could say the primary songwriter is moreso bringing the ideas to the band. We’ve done it a couple of different ways - we’re not strict on how we do it. It’s really natural.

James: We don’t like to stress about it too much. But 1963, on our last EP, that was the one that took ages, wasn’t it? It was almost a completely different song, and it was getting to the point that we were getting nowhere with it, so we changed it completely. And some songs are like that - they sort of fall out of the sky. You just have to see what happens, and play it by ear.

Heddon Press: What’s a song that fell together quickly, then?

Ben: There’s a song called Fooling Around, and we started playing it last summer. And that one came quite quickly.

James: Yeah, I showed the boys a song by a band called Always, and said it would be cool to write a song that starts with a straight drumbeat and a nice big intro, which is different to what we usually do. And then that came together pretty quickly after, and we play that at all our gigs now.

Ben: We might release that soon.

Heddon Press: And do you guys have any rituals or habits when you’re writing and recording?

Ben: I think the less stress it is, the better. You could be looking for a song for ages- 

James: Oh, Rhod’s here. Come on, mate, it’s not like we’re doing an interview.

Rhod: Late to the party.

Ben: But, yeah, there’s no certain way we do it. We’ve been quite lucky, in that respect. It’s usually us finding something in the last five minutes, though.

James: Where we used to rehearse, in Newport, they could basically record your session for you, but now we just record random bits in our phones.

Heddon Press: How was recording at Rockfield? Obviously so many amazing bands have recorded there - that must have been incredible for you.

Ben: It felt very special. We went at a great time of year, and the weather was good. And there were sheep. And we had the place to ourselves. We were there for two nights, and it felt like home.

James: It was. It felt very natural.

Rhod: And the producer, Nick, he took us around to go and see the historical bits of it.

James: And we hadn’t done any recording at that point, so by the time we sat down to actually record, we’d been there for hours, and it was inspiring, after we’d seen those. There was this weathervane across from the coach house, and apparently Freddie Mercury was looking at it when he wrote ‘any way the wind blows’

Ben: There was something in the walls, in that place.

Heddon Press: How would you compare recording somewhere like that to recording somewhere busier?

Ben: Well, we’ve always recorded a bit out of the way. But we used to record near a retail park, and we just kept going to the shops.

Andrew: Yeah, it was easier to concentrate.

Ben: And the thing with Rockfield is that they haven’t got WiFi.

Heddon Press: So you were basically completely cut off?

Rhod: How it should be when you’re recording, probably.

Heddon Press: So, two of our writers actually grew up in Newport, like you, so we were wondering how that affected your music, if at all?

Ben: I think Newport is a great place to start a band. I think South Wales is, in general. You’ll never go to a gig there and think it was rubbish. I mean, Cardiff, Newport, Swansea - it’s like a hotspot.

James: Everyone’s really sound, too. Everyone’s really friendly with each other, and wants each other to do well.

Alex: There’s a good sense of community as well, I think. And you can tell because everyone supports each other.

James: Yeah, and Newport City Radio, for example, they’re really supportive of our music, and of all the bands around us.

Heddon Press: Are there any other South Wales-based bands you want to shout out?

James: Joe Kelly and the Royal Pharmacy.

Rhod: Yes!

Ben: And Joe’s helped us out a lot. They’re the same sort of set-up as us. But they’re quite Americana, quite folky.

Rhod: Finding Aurora - sort of like the Foo Fighters. They’re Newport lads as well. That’s like hard rock.

Heddon Press: Your music has sort of a coming-of-age vibe to it - is that intentional or does it usually fall into place that way?

Rhod: Yeah, maybe. I think that’s why Lizzy has done so well for us, because it’s the same as with any song - you can find things you relate to, and if you can, it’s just going to work.

James: I mean, Oasis is an obvious one to bring up, but I think that’s why bands like that in the nineties did so well, because everyone related to it. And it sort of just works.

Heddon Press: And who would you say your biggest influence is? Is Oasis one of them?

Ben: Yeah, Oasis and lots of nineties bands. But it’s all different for all of us.

James: We could go on for hours and hours. What decade do you want?

Ben: I mean, that’s the good thing - we all listen to different things, but we don’t impose that on the other members, so that’s another reason why the music sort of writes itself, in the end.

Andrew: But it is a shame when Rhod gets on the aux in the car.

Heddon Press: If you could open for anyone who would it be?

Ben: Oh, Sam Fender. His new album’s our favourite at the minute.

Rhod: Oh Fontaines D.C. Maybe Wunderhorse. We all went to see Wunderhorse in Cardiff, actually.

Heddon Press: And what’s your dream venue?

Ben: The Principality Stadium.

Rhod: Maybe Cardiff Castle.

Heddon Press: Anything you want to say to the Rogue Army?

James: Up the fucking Rogue Army.

Ben: I mean, if they didn’t make the noise they make -

James: There’d be no Rogues. Might be a bit cliche, but it’s true. A lot of people come to a lot of gigs, and with the London one on Saturday, we’ve got a minibus full of people coming. And it does make a massive difference, because they bring the energy to the gigs.

Heddon: And finally - thoughts on Goldie Lookin’ Chain?

Andrew: No comment.

Rhod: I love them. Got mad respect for them. They’re from Newport, and they were on Jimmy Kimmel.

James: Guns don’t kill people, rappers do!

Photography by Sarah Pruim // @sarahpruim.jpg