Young Warrington band ‘FREIGHT’ are on track

By Glen Screeton

WHEN you write a voluntary music column you sometimes have to remind yourself why you do it? Meeting interesting people, visiting new venues, listening to many genres of music and of course meeting musicians is par for the course!

Tuesday 28th Nov was one of those moments, when I was invited to interview the young band FREIGHT at their own rehearsal studios near Lymm.

I am familiar with the band management team – namely Nick Quirk and Paul Baker who organised the successful Pickfest in Summer, so the usual moments of awkwardness were avoided when I was greeted by two confident and polite young men – 15 year old frontman and rhythm guitarist Luka Gunes (yes you read it correctly …15!) and 17 year old lead guitarist and backing vocalist Jacob Allison.
Following a short walk to a superb garden studio which was fully sound proofed and equipped with the bands equipment I found the remaining pair of the band, equally polite 15 year old drummer Ted Baker and 17 year old bass player Anton Schmitt and after brief introductions the lads asked me which tracks I wanted to hear!  Now, I’m not certain if I was being confused with a ruthless A&R man but I told them I wanted to hear their hopes, dreams and ambitions first and get to know them a bit better during the short time we had. So, having found out who does what in the band, just who are FREIGHT?

The band formed in May 23 after following the well – trodden path of private parties which is the usual catalyst for many a band , and Luka and Ted currently attend Bridgewater High School in Stockton Heath while Jacob and Anton both study Music Production at Priestley College. It is probably fair to say that their musical inspiration comes from Indie-Rock and 90’s Britpop, although Jacob quickly states they don’t like to limit their musical genre to labels. In fact Jacob has a penchant for ‘bedroom pop’ and if the reader was to Google that term it would be described as ‘lo-fi music’ that sounds like it was made in a low-quality environment, such as a musician’s bedroom. It defines a genre of music that is self-made and low-quality in sound and production but high quality in every other sense ‘ .For the uninitiated many successful musicians continue to use this approach without the pressure of a record label and it is positively endorsed by the likes of Billie Eilish amongst others.
Freight’s songwriting is described as a ‘group approach’ with melody and lyrics being roughly penned first and the drum and bass added later by the rhythm section. Again fairly typical of the music industry today with no single band leader and the joint effort brings bands closer together whilst avoiding bitter rivalries. The band recently played a support slot to Sister Envy and Riverstone at The Salty Dog in Northwich and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and if you visit their Instagram page @freight_band you can view some short videos before their next gig at Peggy McCools in Warrington on the 10th Dec – tickets are on sale now.  Having established the band facts, the lads then continued with 5 songs , namely 2 covers (so I could gain a yardstick) and 3 of their own numbers which I thought were very promising indeed. Luka is already a good looking front man with very able backing and lead guitar from Jacob, and the rhythm section of Ed on drums ( who has only been playing for 8 months ) has the very ‘ quick hands’ that suit the band at present with Anton playing bass with considerable maturity.

These lads have their heads ‘screwed on’, they seek direction and listen which is refreshing and I’m certain that their short term ambition of an E.P in 12 months with some smaller music festivals, or even ‘Band on the Wall’ will be forthcoming once they develop that ‘ internal band metronome’ and the vocals fully develop. From a musicians perspective that is fairly typical of young bands and will only come with experience gained from the hard slog of gigging . However, they have massive confidence and I like them, but most important of all …… they are enjoying the ride, which are important factors for a 5 year ambition of playing a set at Glastonbury and a spot on BBC Introducing!

Why not check them out yourself, and if you are a band or artist and write your own material get in touch. Warrington Worldwide want to hear from you at [email protected].