Photo: NOISY ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Raver’ Official Single Art
Maddy Oxley chats with Worthing trio NOISY ahead of their upcoming UK and Europe headline tour, and an absolutely stacked festival season.
I struggle to categorise NOISY’s sound myself, so for the benefit of readers who may not have heard of the band before, I first ask the band how they’d define themselves. Cody Matthews describes their sound as “moshpit pop” with Connor Cheetham adding on that they’re “trying to bring big beats back”, but, like me, they all agree that their sound doesn’t fit into a box, and they’ll probably keep changing their answer. They add on that they reckon fans of Kasabian and Fatboy Slim would probably like their music, with Connor saying he thinks they sound a bit like The Prodigy mixed with Twenty One Pilots.
“Brixton academy was mad, that’s a bucket list thing everyone wants to tick off as a band”
After a very busy latter half of 2021, with support slots for YUNGBLUD and Don Broco amongst others, two tracks being used for FIFA22, and single ‘Young Dumb’ featuring in an O2 ad, NOISY have a plethora of things to choose from for career highlights thus far. When asked what the highlight has been, Cody said “Brixton Academy was mad. That’s a bucket list thing everyone wants to tick off as a band“, with Connor and Spencer saying their set at Reading and Leeds last year. Cody adds on that “just being out” is a highlight in itself, he explains “we started the band in late 2019, and then it was just lockdown, so we didn’t have a chance to tour, so the past year’s been great, just being on the road…we’re itching to get back out.”
And what’s the dream for the band? “Headline Glastonbury”, Cody says without a second’s thought “Go big or go home”. “Headline Brixton academy is an immediate one”, Connor says, and they’re half-way there after supporting Don Broco there in November. He then adds, “it’s a random one but we actually want to headline this park in our hometown – Steyne Gardens in Worthing”, before Cody interrupts “We’d love to put on our own festival there, ideally next year but let’s see”.
“We’re gonna put everything into this one to show what NOISY is”
Moving on to discussions of their upcoming tour, where the band will hit Manchester’s Deaf Institute on 3rd June, Cody says “The set’s gonna be the best we’ve ever done. The energy’s gonna be insane, we’ve got a lot of ideas on how to step it up this tour. We haven’t been out on the road in 6 months, so we’ll just be putting everything into it, we want it to be NOISY in a nutshell, have people walking away like ‘fuckin’ hell’.” Connor then says “There’ll be lots of new music. We’ve done a few tours and we’ve learnt what works. We’re gonna put everything into this one to show what NOISY is.” Cody jokes, “We need to smash it so we can play Steyne Gardens, it’s all building up to that.”
When talking about their most anticipated tour spots, Cody says “Manchester’s always a great one. They have such a great music scene up there. Our hometown too, obviously that’s good for any band.” Connor adds “Sometimes you can be surprised by a little random town that you don’t know much about, but you get there and it all kicks off.” When asked about their favourite Manchester venues, the band mention The Deaf Institute, the O2 Ritz, and the sadly now demolished Sound Control, saying “Manchester has so many sick venues, it’s something that Brighton’s missing. We’ve not got many small ones, Manchester smash it on that front.”
With such a stacked festival season approaching for the band, including Neighbourhood Weekender in Warrington, the band say they’re most excited for Truck Festival in July. Cody says “We’ve got a sick spot there on the main stage. When we found out about that slot we were buzzing. We’ve got a sick festival season this year, we’re really busy, Fridays and Saturdays most weekends.” Spencer adds “I’m excited for that, it’s like right smash a set and you’re straight off for another one.”
“We’re figuring out what we want to do and it’s fucking exciting”
On the topic of new releases, Cody said “You’re always working towards a body of work, and that’s what we’ve been doing the past six months, working out what we want to do next for this band…it’s in a crucial stage for us where we need to put out our best music ever, we’re figuring out what we want to do and it’s fucking exciting. We’ve stepped it up, but in a way we didn’t think we would, we didn’t sit down and set out what we wanted to write.” Talking about the new music, Cody says “Package together everything we’ve ever done and times it by 10 and that’s what we’re gonna sound like for the next year.”
The music video for most recent single ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Raver’, shows the band using the video budget for a massive night out in Brighton, which Spencer assures me was all filmed organically over the course of one night – “the most mental day ever”, Cody adds. I ask them if the label minded them using the five grand on a night out, to which I’m told that “It was actually their idea!”
To close the interview the band urge readers to “Come down to a show, especially the Manchester one!”
NOISY play Manchester’s Deaf Institute on 3rd June (tickets here) and Neighbourhood Weekender on the 28th May.
