Nottingham band Just A Ride release their debut self-titled album on February 25th, a rousing, rollicking album full of soaring 90s alt-rock tuneage. Featuring Drew Lowe (ex-Inglorious) and Rod Henderson (ex-Violent Delight), Just A Ride play an album release show at 'The Black Heart' in Camden on February 25th and have a new single 'Not Enough' out now. Guitarist Drew took some time out from preparing for the band's upcoming shows and new album to answer a few questions for BBMATB on the band, the album and where they'd like to play next!
Just A Ride are Rod Henderson (Vocals), Drew Lowe (Guitarist) and Alex Bailey (Drums).
Self-titled album 'Just A Ride' is released on the 25th February 2022 and will be available from all the major digital sites and can be pre-ordered from the link below :-
Single 'Not Enough' is out now on all the major digital sites with a Youtube video to go with it.
Hi Drew, thank you for taking some time out to answer a few questions. First off, for
those readers who might not be familiar with Just A Ride, could you give a short history of the band?
Hi Simon. Yes of course. The band was formed by myself and original bass player Eddie
Hoffman. I started getting sick and tired of joining bands that weren't really what I was
looking for and there were a lot. So I wrote a bunch of songs and went on the lookout for a singer which is harder than you think. About 6 months later Rod got in touch as we'd been in a band previously and said he'd like to try. I sent him the tracks and he sang exactly what I wanted to hear. Some of those first tracks are on the album too as they were that good from the start. I found Alex the drummer through a friend. They were in a Foo Fighters tribute band and I used to watch them. I thought wow that drummer is great so I asked him and he said yes. Russ our bass player joined later when Eddie moved back to Brazil. He filmed our video 'I Wanna Know' He got in touch with Rod when Eddie left
and here we are now.
And who would you say were the main influences on Just A Ride?
We all have individual influences but as a collective Stone Temple Pilots is a big one for
us. But as a general we're huge fans of the 90s Alt Rock scene. It was a great time for
music. The industry was changing and there were all these bands playing all sorts of
beautiful melodic hard rock music. It's very much missed.
You have your debut self-titled album being released on the 25th February - how
was it recording and putting the album together - did COVID intrude at all in getting the album recorded and released?
Yes, Covid has certainly changed the way we work now. The great thing is you can
communicate easily through Zoom. Half the album was written before Covid and the other half during. I would write a song and send it to Rod or myself and Russ would write over Zoom. I have a home studio so can easily write and record. Same as Rod. Then there was a gap around August 2020 when the rules changed and we could be in the same room so we took the opportunity to record it around October. The main thing are the live gigs which stopped but that's starting to open up now, but it meant we could focus solely on the writing and recording.
Where did you record the album? Somewhere you've recorded before? And did you
have help with the production or is the album self-produced?
We recorded the drums and bass at a Studio in Pershore with a producer called Dave
Draper. He recently produced the new Wildhearts album. Dave's great and I've worked
with him lots before. We did start the guitars there and had finished them but I wasn't
happy with the takes so I redid them all at a friends studio near where I live. The vocals
were done mainly at the studio but again any extras stuff was done at Rod's house. We
had a few mixing issues at first but we managed to get Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, Biffy
Clyro, Feeder) on board.
Any tracks that didn't make the cut for the album but that we might get to hear at a
later date?
Yeah, there's a couple. I think we wrote around 20 songs but 10 made the album. I'm sure
they'll pop up on other albums as we go. I didn't want to make a 13 - 14 track album as I
don't think that's relevant anymore. People don't listen to albums like that now. In fact
albums only ever used to be around 9 to 10 songs. The only thing we added were a couple of bonus acoustic versions of the tunes.
Do you have any favourite tracks on the album and if so why?
Personally for me I like 'I Wanna Know'. It just sets the tone of the record and its one that Rod and myself wrote. It came together so easily. I wish all our songs were that easy to write. I'm always gonna use that as a benchmark for future records.
What is the writing process within Just A Ride - does somebody come with an almost
finished song that you work on or do the songs come out of a more 'jamming' scenario?
No jamming no. I don't really like doing that. There's no direction and everyone's got an
idea of how they think the song should go. Which ends up being a mess most of the time.
Too many chefs in the kitchen as I like to say. Generally I'll come up with the song and
structure, demo it up and send it to Rod and he'll sing over it. That's how it started anyway. There's no one way. Its whatever gets us there. We'll then all learn it and then play it together and parts might change from there.
In terms of live shows, what do you have coming up in the way of gigs that people can
catch you at?
We have our album launch on the 25th Feb in London at 'The Black Heart' in Camden. Our manager is in the process of booking dates around that will lead into March time. Some kind of mini tour.
Any particular venues / festivals that you've not played yet, that would be on your 'bucket list' to play?
I've been quite fortunate and have played places like Mainstage Download, Wembley
Arena and Hammersmith Apollo as well as some major European festivals with other acts I've been involved with. As a band we've all played Download Festival with our previous bands just not collectively, but I'm sure we will at some point. I've never played Brixton Academy. That's definitely on the bucket list!
I see the band does an occasional 'New Week, New Band' feature on your
Facebook page; any particular bands who've particularly stood out for you and that you'd recommend to readers?
That's Rod's department. He loves discovering new bands and communicating with them.
It's great. It's a great way of meeting new bands in our genre and building a community.
There's so much great music out there that's not mainstream. Amongst Liars are a great
new band. We've done shows with them recently.
What are the highlights for the band so far in your career?
Everyday is a highlight so far. The fact it started off as an idea to having a physical album
in your hands is an achievement.
What plans for Just A Ride going forward in 2022?
Shows, shows and more shows. We need to play now. We need to tour and get people
talking about us. That's what it all comes down to. Playing live music in front of people.
And finally for us old rock fans (?!) - Zeppelin, Purple or Sabbath?
Truthfully I'm not really a fan of any of these. I was more of a Beatles fan but if I had to choose, it would be Zeppelin.
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