Tom Lillywhite and Josh Gimber have been playing music for years, but not in the same band. They’ve come together to form Sons and Lovers and the result is excellent. Tight, catchy and pulsating, they’ve recently completed a 4 week residency at Club NME at Camden’s KOKO, not a bad gig for anybody. You may also have heard their track ‘Set My Heart’ on Made In Chelsea, if you’re that way inclined. We caught up with them ahead of their next big gig: an appearance on the Festival Republic Stage at Reading & Leeds 2013:
Your band name has literary allusions… did you name yourselves after the D.H. Lawrence book or was that a coincidence?
Yeah, it was after the book. I don’t love the book particularly, I just liked the name!
Internet Land is sadly devoid of information about you as a band…how did you start playing together?
Josh and I (Tom) met in Exeter and played in a load of bands together there. We moved up to London to start S&L, we wrote a few songs which people seemed to like and put some songs online. We then got Dan and Tim involved, I’ve known Dan since I was 2 and we had a load of mutual friends with Tim. We rehearsed once and it just kind of worked!
How would you describe your sound?
Anthemic pop songs.
2013 has been a big year for you – any favourite moments?
2013 has been amazing so far. I think playing Shepherds Bush Empire was a highlight for us. This is our first summer of festivals as well which has been really fun so far.
If you could play a gig with one musician, living or dead, who would it be?
For me it would be Springsteen. That would be incredible!
Do any of you have any quirky pre-gig rituals we need to know about?
We all get kind of nervous and drink a bit too much, nothing that quirky unfortunately
There are so many brilliant bands playing at Reading/Leeds. Who are you most excited about playing alongside?
Really excited about Eminem, MO, Deap Vally, White Lies, Crystal Fighters. So many more…
Why should people come and see Sons and Lovers at the festival?
2 reasons:
1 – I’m almost 100% sure that Eminem will be joining us on stage for most of our set.
2 – We’re just ridiculously excited to be playing Reading/Leeds, will be worth coming and watching to see the stupid grins on our faces.
What does the future hold for Sons and Lovers?
We’ve got our first single coming out very soon which we’re all really excited about. Hopefully a load more shows in the autumn.
Sons and Lovers will play the Festival Republic Stage on Saturday (Reading) and Sunday (Leeds) – we’ve featured them in our festival guide. Check out their Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/sonsandlovers.