England has provided us with plenty of talented bands in the past such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin—just to name a few. And now we have The Struts, who have skyrocketed into the spotlight. Formed in Bristol, England in 2009, the band have already been seen supporting The Rolling Stones, Mötley Crüe, and, most recently, Guns N’ Roses. Clearly, Luke Spiller (vocals), Adam Slack (guitars), Jed Elliott (bass), and Gethin Davies (drums) know what they’re doing.
On top of their rapidly-growing résumé, the band’s music has been gobbled-up by fans around the world. Their lead single, “Could Have Been Me,” rocketed to number one on Spotify’s Top 50 and number four on iTunes’ top rock chart in 2015. The band have only released an EP (Have You Heard) and their debut album, Everybody Wants, and a few singles. Of course, with a tight touring schedule, it can be difficult to find the time to sit down in a recording studio and jam out an entire new record.
Although, perhaps you’ve heard their newest release, a cover of The Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz”—the track was used for the feature film, The Edge Of Seventeen. This wasn’t the first time The Struts have found themselves working with film and TV during the summer of 2015, the band was seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and then played on Late Night With Seth Meyers that December.
You’d better believe the band members have been running rampant with stringent schedules and constant traveling. But I was lucky to have had the chance to talk to Luke just as their final tour of 2016 took off—and it looks like their 2017 won’t be much calmer.
You guys just started the tour. How was it?
Good. We had kind of a warm-up show, if you would. We played at a radio station in Detroit. But it was good. It was good to get the wheels back into motion.
Did you get to do any prepping for it?
No, not really (laughs). We actually packed our bags, got onto a plane very early the next morning to Detroit, we arrived late that night and then the next night, we played. So, we’re actually in rehearsals now—kind of like a day or two late for production rehearsals. I guess the tour properly starts tomorrow.
Will you keep the same set that you’d played in Detroit?
I don’t know—we hadn’t really started rehearsals yet. There may be some things we change around. Actually, we’re thinking of switching out some songs. We have a choice of five or six, so we’ll see what happens.
Well, the tour in the States is pretty short. But then you’re off to Japan?
Next year—yeah. We are. It should be fun. We went before in the summer. We were in Tokyo and we’re really looking forward to going back there. And this will be the first tour that we do after going back into the studio. But I think we’ll be itching to play by then.
Oh yeah. It’ll be good to get out. I saw you did a cover of “Ballroom Blitz” for the film The Edge Of Seventeen. How’d that come about?
I’m not entirely sure how. But I know that we had some opportunities to play the song and record it. We just got an interesting opportunity because they wanted a young band to do an original version of the song—you know, not too much but somewhat to make it a fresh, new recording. So we thought we’d be perfect for that and we recorded it in one day, we produced it ourselves, and we sent it off and they loved it. So then we got the gig, so to speak. But it was a fun process.
It sounds like it. You released an updated record back in March—Everybody Wants. Are you working on new material?
Yeah, we’ve just started working on it, so we’re gonna have it done by May. I think.
What’s the process like?
Uhm, it’s just everybody trying to make the best song possible. Fun. Stressful, tiring, exciting. You know—those usual things. But I tend to head towards fantasy, rather than actual experiences because it’s much easier to write about characters.
In August you guys went out and supported Guns N’ Roses. What was that like?
That was really cool. It was a fantastic venue. Everyone there was really nice to us. It was just a great experience and we got to see the band play after us, which was a great highlight. And it was a great day out, really.
I can imagine. You’ve supported a lot of other big bands—how do you feel about all of this?
I’m not really too sure. I guess it’s great success on some level and it’s changed our lives drastically. I think it’s actually quite amazing thinking about who we got to support, but I’d think we’re a lucky band. A very lucky band.
Well, I think there’s a lot of talent behind it, too.
Thank you so much!
When you were younger, did you know that you wanted to pursue music as a career?
Oh yeah. I always wanted to do some performing on stage and that all kept going and going and going to where I am now. But I always definitely wanted to do this in some way. So again, I’m very lucky.
What’s next for you guys, once this tour is over?
Well, we are gonna finish this tour. Obviously, the next two weeks are the ones that we’ve been looking forward to for at least six months. And then we get to go back for a little bit, say hello to family for a couple of weeks and then I’m coming back out in early January. I’m gonna do some radio stuff and then we’ll head back into the studio—we’ve got three weeks in the studio in Japan. We’ll see how that goes, if we’ve written anything decent.
Catch The Struts at WRAT’s Nutcracker Ball at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville on Dec. 15, TLA in Philadelphia on Dec. 16, and Warsaw in Brooklyn on Dec. 17. For more on these rockers, check out their site: thestruts.com.
