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Tewkesbury band on their song-a-month challenge

All Areas > Entertainment > Music

Author: Thomas Hadfield, Posted: Tuesday, 24th March 2020, 09:00

Feed Me Milk (Left to Right) Callum Bennetts, Ryan Nottingham and Craig Sipek Feed Me Milk (Left to Right) Callum Bennetts, Ryan Nottingham and Craig Sipek

Coming up with a name for your band is obviously a very important but often notoriously difficult task.

Some of history’s greatest groups go through name changes – The Beatles were famously once ‘The Quarrymen’, Queen were originally called ‘Smile’, and Chris Martin’s band was called ‘Pectoralz’ and then ‘Starfish’ before they eventually settled on Coldplay.

And whilst Tewkesbury band Feed Me Milk aren’t quite at the same level as those groups just yet, it’s fair to say they’ve chosen a suitably unique title.

“Yeah, we get asked a lot about the name,” said vocalist and bassist Craig Sipek.

“We were originally going to have a fourth member on vocals. He said to us one day that his friend suggested we should call ourselves ‘Feed Me Milk’ as a joke.

“The three of us quite liked the name and it sort of just stuck. I think it's quite a memorable name as it's a bit obscure. I interpret the name as a ‘suggestive demanding joke’. Calcium is key!”

Completing the trio alongside Craig is drummer Callum Bennetts and guitarist and vocalist Ryan Nottingham.

Based in and around Tewkesbury, the band formed in late 2018 after Ryan’s dad saw Craig performing an original song at a local open mic night.

They started writing and performing soon after, and Craig says that since first starting out their sound has changed significantly.

He continued: “Our newer music is a lot different to our first few tracks, which was quite punky and rough.

“I can fit our new style somewhere between dance-rock, hip-hop and funk. Lyrically we are all over the place, but we like to touch on social issues every now and then.”

For 2020, the boys have set themselves the challenge of releasing at least one new track a month.

“The idea came about as a result of us not putting any new music out last year, aside from our EP at the start,” said Craig.

“We were so busy gigging everywhere that we never found the time to record any new songs and we felt that we neglected our audience that don't like to go out to gigs.”

On paper, a song a month may seem like an easy task.

But ask anyone who’s ever written and produced an original song and they’ll tell you it can be a long process.

Craig is confident however that Feed Me Milk can rise to the challenge.

He said: “We try and write the songs a couple of months before they come out, which can be quite challenging, particularly since we want every song to be of high quality.

“We usually start the songwriting process with a bassline or an unusual drum pattern and gradually add a vocal melody and structure to it. We add the guitar parts last as for a song to be ‘dancey’, there needs to be a strong emphasis on the rhythm section.”

Craig says that for the moment, the boys are concentrating on writing and recording new tracks and as a result won’t be gigging as much as last year.

But he admits that performing in front of a crowd is an experience like no other.

“Seeing the audience engage with a song we wrote is pure bliss,” he added. “It's like a confirmation that we've written a solid track.

“Going to new venues is also great fun as they're all so different from each other. You never know what to expect.”

To keep up with Feed Me Milk visit www.facebook.com/feedmemilkband or follow them on Instagram @feedmemilk

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