Between the Lines; Melksham’s Upcoming Teen Band

We remain in awe of the deserved success of indie-pop band The Sunnies, which has continued to flourish since winning Take the Stage at the Neeld two years ago. But is their hometown ready for the next big teen sensation? If so, I’m predicting it will be Between the Lines, because it should be Between the Lines…..

Last weekend The Sunnies headlined a town council’s 4Youth “Next Gen Gig” at The Melksham Assembly Hall. Being just a smidgen over the age limit I missed this, but a video of the support act, Between The Lines, shared on social media caught my eye, or at least, my ear!

Formed five months after The Sunnies took the Neeld’s stage, in October 2023, Between The Lines are smooth indie-rock female-fronted four-piece, consisting of bassist Belle upfront, lead guitarist George, and Ethan and Louis, who both switch between drums and guitars, the latter being the rhythm guitarist.

They put out a demo single, Fading Time earlier this year, with an irresistible classic rock riff, some nonchalant and confident vocals, and an enchanting hook. It’s raw, for sure, but a grower. Its ingredients blend wonderfully, painting a melancholic picture of adolescent romance; the tune is moreish, and blossoming to bursting point with potential.

“Fading Time was the only song we recorded in that session,” George explained, as I thought I should catch up with them, sooner rather than later, “but there are exciting new ones due to be released very soon.” I look forward to hearing them; progression feels imminent with this promising new band; you should keep an eye out for them.

With the band members currently studying music courses at either college or sixth form, I always like asking teenage groups what their music teachers thought of their band, poorly assuming it’ll break the ice! Even if referencing their education is highly unlikely to do that, I tend to stereotype teachers in retrospection of my own, wondering if they retain the doddery notion rock music is the “work of the devil,” and attempt to throw classical violin at them, or they’ve modernised, least enough to be hip to be square on a Huey Lewis level!

Louis answered this one, elucidating George’s and his music teacher had, “supported our band on multiple occasions, with gig opportunities and equipment in the past, and has always been enthusiastic about it. Fortunately, no classical violins!” Ah, got you. Our music teachers used to be funky too, though only in the archaic definition of being unpleasantly smelly!

Ethan expanded on this, and moved onto their first few gigs. “My drum teacher was always telling me to form a band and after talking with Isobel,” He said, “she was adamant to get something going. Through music GCSE, we started Between The Lines, playing songs with each other for assignments and eventually starting regular rehearsals. We’re still new to the gigging scene, and have performed at the Kings Arms in Melksham and The Queen’s Head in Box.” The latter being a fortunate venue to play so early, Ethan also went on to reveal they’re on the bills for Box Revels in May and CorFest at Corsham’s rugby club on June 21st.

George explained how they’d heard of The Sunnies before they had formed, upon me cheekily asking them if they thought they were the next big thing to come out of Melksham; you’ve got to big yourself up in the Sham, they’ve got a golden arches, and Henry Moule inventor of the dry earth toilet, as claims to fame!

“Well, hopefully!” he laughed, but remained modest. “It really was great to play with people that you’ve looked up to, in a way, and of course they bring such an energetic and fun performance which is something to be fond of. As for us, it’s exciting to see lots of new people enjoy what we do and it brings a lot of motivation for us to keep moving forward and expand as much as we can, it’s only up from here.”

Based solely on this single, I strongly hope and suspect it will be, so we moved on to the demo, Fading Time. I suggested the opening riff reminded me of the intro to Sweet Home Alabama combined with a dollop of Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn, even if it’s showing my age, it’s an accolade. I wondered if this smooth feel-good indie-pop rock was the kind of quality they were going for.

“The song itself came from a simple melody idea that I had for ages never necessarily taking any inspiration from others,” George expressed, “and we bounced back and forth from each other’s ideas until we recorded it in the short space of time we had.”

Ethan expanded on the backstory of Fading Time, in answering that cliche question I fired at them about their working process. “So far,” he clarified, “our originals have stemmed from one idea. For example, ‘Fading Time’ came from a melody idea from George and our unreleased single developed from a project I created for a college assignment. We then developed the song together to add a little bit of each other’s personality in our parts. We are fairly new to songwriting as we’re mainly a cover band but we all develop our own little ideas and send them to each other!”

Their current repertoire includes covers of The Foo Fighters, Radiohead, and Chris Isaak, among others. “We try to choose covers that are both crowd-pleasers and that reflect the same vibes as our originals,” Belle expressed.

Between The Lines’ website cites Radiohead and Matt Maltese as influences, Belle expanded on this, “as the main lyricist of the band,” she suggested she took inspiration from “very poetic artists, like Boygenius, Fiona Apple and Bon Iver. Ethan focuses on instrumentation, inspired by Big Thief and Better Oblivion Community Centre. George is all about the hooks and guitar riffs, he’s influenced by Wallows. Louis works on a strong rhythm, taking from Foo Fighters and Seal.” 

Phew, at least the last two my dilapidating database has heard of! You’ve got to love Seal, I saw him live once, but he didn’t do Kiss From a Rose nor Crazy, just balanced a beach ball on his nose and clapped his flippers. That was the last time I went to a gig at the Sea Life Centre.

As a finale, I pondered what’s in the band name, perhaps they met in a history class about WWII, you know, between enemy lines … .perhaps, ah, forget it, I’ll get my coat! When actually, Belle revealed rather than history, they did meet in GCSE music, “doing a project for the Christmas concert!” Not too far off the mark then, just the wrong lesson, which goes in line with my own schooling. I was often found in the wrong lesson, and if I was in the right one, I tended to be somewhere else mentally; kind of explains a lot.

“Choosing a name for the band was quite difficult,” Belle said, signalling her vast music knowledge supersedes her age, “everyone suggested different names every day. Ethan suggested the name In Between The Spaces, which reminded me of two things – Between The Bars by Elliot Smith and especially the album Between The Lines by Janis Ian. After numerous ideas for names we decided on Between the Lines!”

Deliberating on a band name is important, it might fatefully fade into obscurity as the competition of a tough market to break takes its toll, or it could be that name in lights for decades to come. I wish Between The Lines all the very best with their ambitious beginnings, and very much hope the result is the latter.

I advise you to support new local talent and follow their socials, TikTok, and website here, as while I’m no clairvoyant, I know what I like, and predict we will be hearing a lot more good stuff from Between The Lines in the near future…..

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