By Charlotte Bainton
FREIGHT, an up-and-coming indie rock/pop band from Warrington, formed in March last year, is a band composed of four very talented musicians aiming to make a name for themselves at music festivals.
The band consists of Luka Gunes on lead vocals, Ted Baker on guitar Anton Schmitt on drums and Jacob Allison, on bass guitar and backing vocals. They’re a group of best mates trying to have a good time and to encourage others to have a good time alongside them through the music they produce.
Every band has its own list of different inspirations that give them a jumpstart into finding their own sound and Freight is no different. They all have their own different inspirations from other bands and musicians. For Luka his inspirations come from bands such as The Vaccines and Declan McKenna. For Jacob, it is The Strokes and the Fratellis, as well as trying to capture the essence of being young and reckless. Ted is inspired by bands and artists such as Foo Fighters and Matt Helders. Anton’s inspirations include The Killers, Joy Division and the Post Punk genre. While these artists have inspired Freight, they have developed their own unique sound, showcasing their skills.
Originally, Freight formed with just Ted and Luka, two mates with a drum kit and a guitar initially doing different covers, for bands such as Arctic Monkeys. After Luka played for a crowd, demonstrating his skill, an offer, should he get a band together, was given to him to play a gig in August. He and Ted then got Jacob on board, originally on bass guitar until moving to guitar once Anton joined, on bass in April of 2023. Ultimately, it was due to a shared love of music that led to Freight forming.
Speaking of Freight forming, does it ever cross your mind how bands get their name? Well, at least with Freight I can give an answer and anecdote of how the band got its iconic name. While discussing a trip, and trampolining, Ted said “We’re going with the French” and Luka misheard thinking he’d said “We’re going with the Freight”. The name ‘The Freight’ was later floated and changed to just simply being Freight. And that’s how the name came to be, an incident of mishearing gave the band its iconic name.
Freight, unlike many modern bands, write music for the love of music and for the fun of playing together. Their goal is to bring people together to have fun at live gigs and to allow people to enjoy something together as a community. The band wants to make their audience and themselves happy through their playing and through their songs and this is especially evident in how they write music, but more on that later. Freight aims for their music to give people a break from the world and to give people somewhere to have fun together, away from everything else.
While some bands write their lyrics and later add melodies and riffs to those lyrics, Freight prefers the method of producing riffs and melodies before layering on lyrics. This is done to avoid being forced into writing to fit lyrics and to allow the riffs and melodies to describe a story to add lyrics to. Each member will contribute something to their songs, truly making it a collaboration between all of the members. Luka, who is the main lyricist of the band, creates stories as he’s coming up with his lyrics. These stories are mainly inspired by other people’s stories and experiences, rather than his own personal experiences. Another key aspect of Freight’s writing process is the inclusion of their audience, they take into account how the audience feels about their music and aspects of it, allowing their audience to give feedback. While they write what they enjoy, they also recognise the audience’s crucial participation in the making of a successful band, a now unique quality in bands.
Evidence of their audience’s enjoyment of their music is the turnout received in their latest gig. If you’ve been to Manchester’s northern quarter recently you may have seen Freight stickers dotted about. Apart from the band’s released demo ‘Place’ on SoundCloud, they currently do not have any music on streaming services. However, despite this, they received an amazing turnout on their latest gig, with the crowd singing along to the sections of the song they’ve heard from different clips from Freight’s social media. It was at this gig that Freight distributed stickers to their fans, stickers that would later find themselves throughout the northern quarter in a unique method of advertisement.
Discussions of the future can be tense, especially for bands. Will their music stay the same? Or will their music become experimental and develop alongside the band? Luckily for Freight fans, they plan to experiment with their music and to write what they and their audience enjoy. Short-term goals for Freight include playing a variety of festivals, such as Neighbourhood Weekender, Isle of White festival, and a load more gigs to get their name out there, so if you haven’t managed to catch them live just yet, you’ll have plenty of opportunity soon!
If you’re new to Freight or have been a fan for a while, you may wonder how best you can support them. Well, they say that the best way that you can support Freight is by following their instagram (@freight_band), going to their incredible gigs and spreading the word. While, at the time of writing, much of their music can only be heard through clips and live gigs, they’re a band well worth the wait for music to be released and there should be some released soon.
