Interview: Lonely The Brave

If you had looked at a list of all of Lonely the Brave’s achievements, you would be surprised to know that they have only been around for five years; jumping from tour to tour with people like The Marmozets and Deaf Havana, and now this year their own headline tour. It has also just been announced that they will perform for the third time in three years at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2015; however, this time they get the amazing and surreal chance to perform on the main stage.

“Yeah, God, it’s a bit mental,” Mo starts with. “I’m so nervous and so, so excited!” he elaborates further, with the fact Reading and Leeds is one of the biggest and most recognized festivals, and that it doesn’t really get much better than the fact that they are now recognized, and get the chance to perform on this kind of scale.

Mr Edgeley, being an avid music lover, begins to reminisce about his memories of Reading festival. He informs me that he’s been nine or ten times now and that “the only thing that will stop [him] going was death.” Likewise, the whole band all love the festival experience and have been to such a range of them, with other favourites such as Download, etc. However, he clarifies that reading will always “have a special place in their hearts.”

If you could create your own festival, who would you pick to play as your headliners? “Oh my god, that’s so hard, there’s a million bands I could choose from; the first comes to mind is Deaf Tones, then maybe Pianos Become the Teeth and then, maybe… I know this would be a little unrealistic, but I would probably pick Kenny Rogers.”

Another big success for Lonely the Brave this year already has been the fact that they have been chosen to be one of the lucky few on a new BBC Introducing compilation album—amongst massive names such as Ed Sheeran and Twin Atlantic, who will also be appearing on the album. “Oh my goodness, when you put it like that it sounds pretty crazy, especially when you’re being put on the same album as Ed Sheeran. I mean he’s massive at the moment.” Lonely the Brave first played on the BBC Introducing stage three years ago at their first set at Reading and Leeds in 2012.

If you couldn’t tell already, Lonely the Brave are doing something really right here. If you have ever watched them perform before or spoken to someone who has, you will know that the frontman David Jakes doesn’t stand at the forefront of the stage, as you would expect. He congregates between the drums and the guitars near the back, an unusual and unconventional way to perform. Mo goes on to describe how when they first started playing in pubs and small bars, there wasn’t really a lot of room to move around. “So it just kind of stuck like that we’re not the kind of band to jump around a lot on stage anyway. Also when we were ‘found’ they told us not to change at all… so we just didn’t,” he laughs off.

Their headline tour kicks off on the 4th of March for a massive sixteen-date run. Surely there must be some last minute preparation for this tour? Not Mo—he informs me that he’d got a few days off still before they leave and that he’s just finished watching a documentary on the worlds ugliest animals. We go into conversation about the viral picture of pig with the penis on its face, which circulated on Facebook a few weeks ago, to which he then laughs “I have a friend who looks like that pig.” (I’m sure he would be delighted to hear about you telling me that he reminds you of a pig, Gavin…)

Finally with the ever-frustrating question, ready to nearly divide the Internet into ‘White and Gold’ versus ‘Blue and Black’; where do you stand on the situation? Mo pauses and then answers that he saw white and gold, “but… I don’t really understand what’s happening.”

I wish I knew how to answer you Mo, but neither do I. Neither do I.