Holy Coves Singer songwriter Scott Marsden sits down with Will, Jay and Callum from The Now to discuss the band’s new album, their evolution and their love and close relationship for their manager Gary. 
 
Scott – I know I’ve written about your EP but look at this as an introduction for you all to Music Scene Wales! In your own words, who are you and where are you from? 
 
Will – My name is Will, I’m from a place called Costa Del South Wales in the South Wales Valley. 
 
Callum – I’m Callum and I’m from Swansea. 
 
Jay – I’m the bassist and I’m from sunny Merthyr, rough and ready! 
 
Scott – How long have you been together in the band? 
 
Jay – The bands been together five years but the line-up we have now has been going for just over a year and we’ve actually started making a bit of noise on the music scene and stuff like that. 
 
Will – Like with all the bands when they first get formed people come in and leave, it takes a while before the right members gel and I think that’s where we are now the four of us are the right four for the band. And I think it’s been the most successful period of the band in the last year, *cough since I joined! And were going from strength to strength. 
 
Scott – I can relate to that, with Holy Coves every project I’ve done I’ve always worked with different people. It’s taken me until now to get the band I wanted for live and in the studio! 
Where you guys are at now is where it will be remembered. Whatever was before doesn’t really matter now. This is the band today, does it feel like that for you? 
 
Jay – Yes! 
 
Will – I think so, mainly because, obviously we went to Real World Studios, we did the EP, we signed to this Indie Label for a bit then we decided not to be signed to them anymore. That’s kinda the best way I can put that without going into too much detail. We’ve done tours and we’ve done some really big gigs. We’ve just recorded the album. I can’t speak for the rest, I know you did EPs but it wasn’t as serious as this? 
 
Jay – No definitely not. 
 
Scott – From the outside it definitely looks like it’s starting to work. If I like something I like to watch it develop and try to help if I see that potential early on. But at the end of the day it’s you guys that have to do it. It helps to have good people around you but it’s down to all of you. I definitely see the potential and I can see this becoming massive for you all. I love the EP, how did that come about? What was the concept behind it? 
 
Jay – It was for the label at the time, the plan was to record an EP and an album but things just didn’t go to plan then we parted ways. We went in and done the EP then released two singles! That’s how it happened. 
 
Will – We didn’t actually plan to do an EP It was on the contract for the label, It was part of the deal. There was one or two songs then that created the EP. It was one of those, I wouldn’t say rushed but it wasn’t one of them we were writing for months and months like the album. We just got in there and luckily enough it turned out decent. 
 
Scott – Sometimes it works to do things off the cuff, less time overthinking things. It does work but then again it feels like it’s taken my whole life to make this new record!  
So you were signed to this label and then you parted ways, Gary still looks after you? He’s your manager still isn’t he? 
 
Jay – Yeah Gary look after us, He’s great Gary is. 
 
Will – We were signed to a label and it was our decision to not be signed to the label which speaks volumes without getting into it and being sued! We just got to the point where we thought we didn’t want to be signed to them anymore and thought it would be better to do it on our own. To be honest I think most bands are these days because even the major labels aren’t willing to put their money where their mouths are anymore. It’s all about how big your social media presence is. 
 
Jay  – How much money you can make us! 
 
Scott – I totally understand that that’s why I have Yr Wyddfa Records, no middle men! 
If you’ve got a good relationship with your manager, it’s all you really need. This DIY thing isn’t all that bad, it works for me and it could also lead to the right deal for you. You’ve gotta have a starting point though. 
 
Jay – Yeah at the moment were just going with the flow. The plan was to get a label obviously it does help with funding. At the moment were going down the DIY route but it’s not the end goal! 
 
Will – For me it’s not just about being signed to a major label and have a pool in my back garden, which would be fantastic! 
 
Scott – In Merthyr?! 
 
Will – Ha! Yeah I’ve most probably got a pool in my back garden after the weather we’ve been having! 
Being signed to a major label gives you time doesn’t it, you don’t have to work nine to five. None of this I can’t get to a gig in Glasgow because I’ve got work at seven in the morning. It gives you that luxury of time! 
 
Scott – So what’s happening with the album? Has that been made yet? 
 
Will – The albums all done and dusted! PRs really important when it come to putting your music out there. We’ve got some decent PR lined up. With the amount of music there is music is worthless really. You can just go onto Youtube and listen to everything that’s ever been recorded and it doesn’t cost you any money. I think that’s why PR is really important to try sending a rod out into a massive ocean of people listening to music and hope you get a few bites innit! 
 
Scott – It’s definitely half the battle having the right press. That combination with a good manager could mean you do really well down the DIY route. 
 
Jay – With the album and our manager Gary, were all in. He’s spending silly money on the album, silly money on PR. The PR company we’ve got, they do the likes of Justin Bieber. 
 
Scott – Well that’s going to be expensive! That is next level PR for sure! I think your better off spending money on that rather than a label half heartedly spending on it. So you recorded the album at the famous Real World Studios. How did that go? Was it difficult? 
 
Jay – Just the studio itself is like heaven on earth really, it’s such a good environment to be in. 
 
Will – We did it in ten days. We didn’t hang about, obviously money is tight so we couldn’t stay there for a month recording because of the costs. Oli Jacobs was the producer, he worked with The 1975! We gave him free range to change anything up, which he did. All the songs he took in were just a four-piece band, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, loud! Sometimes he pulled back, sometimes he changed it completely and I think definitely for the better. 
 
Jay – It suits a lot of people’s ears, It’s not just stuck in one genre which we were. There’s nothing wrong with that, rock is a good genre to be in. It’s a very versatile album. No song is the same. It’s very different to what we normally do. There’s no other album out there that sounds like that at the minute, not in an arrogant way, it’s just different, it suits everyone. 
 
Scott – So this is different than what’s to be expected? Compared to your singles and the last EP! 
 
Jay – Very different. 
 
Will – I think more like an evolution of the band, obviously when we did the EP we had only been in a band together for a few months so you just go in there with a few songs and you do what you know, but I think with this we used different influences and got to know Oli quite well because we had already worked with him on the EP. There was a lot of back and forth in the build-up to the album. It’s now evolved into our sound and I think we will move on and be stronger from here. 
 
Scott – I really want to hear this album! It sounds interesting! From where you were at which grabbed me early on was the early Manics rock sound! Proper rock music, great albums, you did it justice. That early Manics stuff really made me tick and so did yours. So it sounds like your happy with your evolution? Is it something you set out to do or was it more organically? 
 
Jay- Organically really, we didn’t try and go there. With Ollie he’s so used to producing Pop records with the 1975 that we just let him go wild on it. 
 
Will – The big thing for us is there’s a million rock bands that sound like rock bands out there, rock is done to death now. Not that that’s a bad thing but there’s a lot of generic sounding rock bands out there and that’s fine, I think we fell into that category with the EP. I like the stuff on the EP but I think with the album it’s just crossed over into the sort of modern sounding sort of genre. When we first heard it back we were a bit like is this us? Are we happy with this? Do we want to stay closer to our roots or go with this more 2022 sound, but you know, we still keep it real. 
 
Jay – Yes it’s still us, it’s still us but with a twist ha! 
 
Scott – What do you think Callum? Are you happy with the evolution? 
 
Callum – Yeah exactly what they said. Quite commercial in some ways, I think it needed a change. 
 
Scott – It’s a difficult thing the evolution of a band, it can go the opposite way and you can all fall out. Its good your happy with it, if you were to put it into a genre or a few genres how would you describe yourselves? 
 
Will – I’d say it’s sort of like Muse, more commercial sort of sounding, a little bit more poppy. It’s a rock album with a hint of electronic in there. 
 
Scott – Commercial can sometimes be looked at as a negative but your saying it in a good way like it will connect to a lot more people? 
 
Will – Yeah I think it will capture more of an audience, it’s not just going to be the rock crowd. Some of the songs on there will cast a net out into a bigger surface area to get a few more of the other fans. 
 
Scott – So has Oli mixed the album as well as produced? 

Will – Yes. 
 
Jay – Yes.
 
Scott – Has it been mixed and mastered already? 
 
Jay – Its going in for masters next week. 
 
Scott – It’s an exciting time, for me nothing beats making a record, It’s a magical process. I love it. 
So you’ve just played a gig with the band Reef in one of my favourite places in Wales, Tenby! My wife and kids love it down there. Pembrokeshire is beautiful. How did that go? 
 
Jay – Yeah it was really good, to be honest we had a better reception than Reef did! 
 
Scott – That’s probably because your Welsh and obviously phenomenal live! 
 
Jay – Reef we’re class live, they were awesome. It’s probably because we were sat at the merch stand afterwards, people tend to make more of a fuss. 
 
Scott – So what have you got planned for next year? Gigs, tours, album? 
 
Will – As far as the albums concerned obviously Gary, our Manager will put the feelers out and see where it goes. We will most probably put a single out at the beginning of the year and go from there. 
 
Jay – We’ve got massive shows coming up. 
 
Will – We can’t say because there they’re not confirmed, if I ever mention a gig that’s not been confirmed it seems to never happen, like I jinx myself and it always goes tits up! 
 
Jay – There’s one big thing that’s been confirmed, it’s a very big one but we can’t say yet! 
 
Scott – Even though it’s been confirmed you can say?! 
 
Jay – No. 
 
Will – We’ve had email confirmation, that’s about it. 
 
Scott – Are you still worried Will?! That it won’t happen and you’ve jinxed it? 
 
Jay – Until I see that poster!!! 
 
Scott – I understand that you can have it all confirmed and then it can still go wrong too. I can see what Gary is doing is doing for you as a manager. I can see the bigger picture from the outside and where I think it will go for you personally. I think you’re gonna be massive. Just because you’ve got everything in place now and it sounds like you’ve got an amazing manager too and I think that’s the key factor here. 
 
Jay  – Oh yeah! Without Gary I think we wouldn’t have done any of this, the label was no part of our success, Gary is the base of everything we’ve done so far. 
 
Will – The good thing with Gary is in previous bands I’ve had profile managers who haven’t given a shit about me as a person whereas Gary cares about us all. We know he cares about us individually and I think that’s really important as well as being in a band, knowing that the managers got your back on a personal level as well. 
 
Scott – That’s great to hear, really makes me happy to hear this a lot. Great speaking to you all today lads. It’s been awesome. I’m rooting for you, Good luck to you all, you’ve got our full support at Music Scene Wales! 
 
Will – Awesome thanks. Sounds good. Thanks Scott 
 
Jay – Oh wicked Thanks Scott 
 
Callum – Thanks Scott 

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com