Since the early days of alternative music, the city of Sheffield has been where many of the country’s most interesting bands have forged their careers. In this series, Mad Sounds with Jake Bollington, I document the independent music scene in and around this beautiful city by speaking to all the bands that you need to know.
This week, I spoke with vocalist/guitarist Alfie and bassist Tom of Wet Skeleton, a four-piece alternative rock band from Barnsley, who are headlining The Washington later this month. We sat down to discuss recent developments in their career, and their electric new single ‘Falling Apart.’
Our conversation covered many topics, from Weezer to analogue recording, but we began with the group’s early days, in and around Barnsley.
TOM: When we first started doing it, it was actually quite good because there was a few different venues around but unfortunately since then a lot of them have closed down. There was this place, a pub called the White Bear where we had our first gig. They used to do ‘White Bear Wednesdays’ where they’d just have three live bands every Wednesday… It was always packed every week and then they stopped doing it… And there was also Barnsley Live, the festival… Everyone would just have bands on all day, every day.
ALFIE: It were a massive thing. Everyone in the town used to come out for it for f—ing years and years, but that just stopped out of thin air. But there are still good venues. In the ashes of all this, a place called Vault 27 opened. That is a place literally made for live music and that’s not something you see in many places anymore.
The group have been together for three years now, since their early days in Barnsley, having released their initial demos in late 2023. Three years is a long time in rock music, and no band stays the same over such a long period. It was important to me to get a sense of how the band has developed over time.
TOM: I think we’ve found our sound more now… We had a heavier side… a more surf rock-y side… I feel like now, especially with ‘Falling Apart’ we’ve kind of found middle ground.
ALFIE: The process is different. It would initially be me and Ben [the group’s other guitarist/vocalist] bringing a song… but I think now it’s a lot more collaborative and there’s a lot more input from everybody else on how things should go and we’ve all gotten better as musicians from playing with each other.
Alongside changing their songwriting process, the group have also leaned into some of their more varied influences as of late. Rather than some of the more conventional British indie bands, the pair spoke to their love of nineties stateside college rock like Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins.
ALFIE: There’s something about that era of music for us, and I think for me as well there’s something about the way it’s recorded. It’s the last leg of before things went really digital in music recording… Guitars and drums just sound more natural and hit harder from around that kind of time.
TOM: We all like the same music, like different bands of the same genre. But, especially with Weezer…
ALFIE: The best thing someone ever said to us was ‘Weezer on steroids…’ We keep jamming and ballsing up ‘Undone [The Sweater Song]’ but it’s the most fun song.
TOM: We’ve been fighting the Weezer allegations but… we just randomly started playing ‘The Sweater Song’ and we were all like ‘This is the best thing we’ve ever done!’
ALFIE: We can’t fight it anymore! (laughs)
As well as coming into their own sonically, the group have also been moving toward a more cohesive group aesthetic. With the help of visual artists and photographers in their circle, they’ve managed to create a consistent visual language across their cover art, merchandising and music videos. This is no easy task for an emerging band, and we discussed where they find inspiration in this respect.
ALFIE: Typically, a lot of this stuff that we have done, where we’ve recorded and we’ve asked people to help us out with little things here and there, we stick to a circle of people that we know and are familiar with… I have always really liked bands with really strong visual images who put a lot of effort into that. There’s a band from Leeds called Static Dress, a post-hardcore kind of band and their singer is a f—ing wizard with photography and videography… They create such a distinct visual image that carries into everything they do.
TOM: It is something we’ve actively tried to keep, isn’t it? Probably since the last three songs we’ve released especially, we’ve locked it down.
As our conversation drew to a close, I wanted to know the band’s ambitions for the next few months. The pair spoke about new music, and their touring plans for the future.
ALFIE: Musically, we’ve got another song that we recorded around the same time as ‘Falling Apart.’ [We’d like] to put that out and maybe try and make a slightly more beefed out project, really, some kind of EP.
TOM: I think an EP is the next step, isn’t it?
ALFIE: Most of our gigs have been South Yorkshire based, and the occasional Manchester one. To actually get about and see a bit more of the country, really, that’d keep it fun as well.
Overall, what came through in my conversation with Alfie and Tom was their profound understanding of what makes rock music important to people. Rock bands are anarchic units of rebellion, designed to liberate individuals from the narrow and often frustrating constraints of modern life. Rock is, as Alfie so eloquently put it, about people ‘f—ing around.’
For me, a comparison to Weezer is about the highest praise I could bestow on an emerging rock band, and yet I wholeheartedly agree with the unknown person who described the band as ‘Weezer on steroids.’ Their songwriting abilities are up there alongside their stateside heroes, and their recent efforts set them well apart from their peers. I thank them for sitting down with me.
The group’s new single ‘Falling Apart’ is out now, and the group will be performing at the Washington on the 23rd of September.
Image Credits: @theohughesdp
