Born in Salford and raised on romance, The Lottery Winners can be found pottering somewhere in-between the blithe of the Beach Boys and the suffering of the Smiths.
The indie-jangle-pop quartet provide a melodramatic blend of momentous melodies, coupled with wistful and insightful lyrics. ‘The songs are the most important thing in the world to me,’ remarks Thomas Rylance, frontman and songwriting force of the band, ‘if they’re ever even a tiny fraction as important to other people, I’ll die a very happy man’.
‘I grew up listening to a lot of eighties bands,’ he adds, ‘bands like Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, Bowie, Blondie, Tears for Fears and New Order, but the ones that were always particularly close to my heart were the Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division, you know, all of the painfully miserable ones, but, if I have to be entirely honest, the reason I wanted to be on stage, that was Freddie Mercury’s fault’.
Although the band have played extensively live, supporting the likes of The Futureheads, The Charlatans and The Enemy and building up a very loyal and devoted family of fans, they have never officially released any music. When asked why, Robert Lally, guitarist and beard-barer of the band explains…
‘It’s never been the right time, and we’ve never been entirely happy with what we’ve recorded. We wanted to make sure that when we dive-bombed into the music scene, we splashed every single person around the pool. However, we’ve been very busy, working very hard, and we think, we’ve finally got it. Now it’s a just a matter of when. Soon we hope’.
The upcoming, debut EP, to which Robert refers, ‘Somebody Loved You’, release date to be announced, houses five tracks of, dare I say it, pure gold. You truly get the sense that every lyric and guitar hook has been crafted almost microscopically, with meaning and thought behind every single sound.
‘We’ve spent a lot of time on Somebody Loved You’, Katie Lloyd, bassist and token female comments, ‘it manifests everything that has happened to the band in the time we’ve been together, particularly this last year, which has been a some-what difficult, yet rewarding year, and spits them out into three minute pop chanters’.
The band formed in Leigh, Lancashire, in October 2008. Until then Thomas and Robert, best friends since Robert was elected to show Thomas around the new school he’d be attending, hadn’t met Katie. The bond would begin almost a second after a ‘Bassist Wanted’ poster was placed on the notice board of ‘Heybrook Music’, Leigh’s only guitar shop. Katie just happened to be in there at that time on that day.
The band was completed when Joe Singleton, drummer, received a phone call from Katie, high-school best friend, insisting that he became a Lottery Winner. After many declinations, he finally agreed.
‘Being in this band has completely changed my life. I’ve already met a lot of my heroes, and played shows that I’ve never imagined I would. When you’re having a beer with Zane Lowe, you know you’re doing the right thing’, Joe states, ‘I don’t think any of us could comprehend not being in this band and doing what we do, it’s what we love’.
It’s very much the beginning of the journey for The Lottery Winners, who refuse to subscribe to the fifteen minute, ramshackle, faddy band approach to making music, but it is sure to be a long and glorious one.