Sam - Blast Reporter

Linda's Nephew @ Aloud 2b Loud, Huntingdon - Sat 14th August 2004

"Finally, the band Linda’s Nephew! I have watched these guys many a time before, and have always found them amazing on stage. Jaime and I have exactly the same taste of music, however when they are on stage each song sounds different to the las - which is an amazing achievement for a band to do.

"They guys, all aged 16 just finishing their GCSE’s have been around for about a year and getting the gigs in. They approached the stage really well, and definitely had a crowd going. They had a good little image going on with Matt the drummer and Jaime wearing funny jackets with big buttons on (forgotten what they are called…) and Tom on the bass as the laid back kinda guy with jeans and a top.

"They played their own music and some favourites for the crowd and Jaime as the front guy really got the crowd going. I managed to get through the crowd to take some photos and then after their set grabbed the lead singer and managed to get an interview…

The band are: Jaime – Lead guitar and vocals, James – Guitar, Tom – Bass and Matt on Drums.

Sitting on the green with Jaime, the interview began…

Who thought of the name Linda’s Nephew and why?
"The story behind the name is this... James's aunt Linda took a copy of "Blank Page EP" in to her work and played it to her mates. Whilst it was playing her boss came in and asked "Who's this song by?" And someone else who was in the room at the time said "Oh, that's Linda's nephew." (James being Linda’s nephew). Her boss, for some unknown reason thought that Linda’s Nephew was the name of the band playing. After being told this story by his aunt, James told the rest of the band about it and as we were looking for a new name at the time it stuck!"

Have you got an image?
"Well I always like to rock the jacket and jeans look which Matt and James have caught on to lately, but Tom just wears what he wants to be honest, I mean what other teenager will be wearing a £100 t-shirt his dad has bought him to one band practise then a hi-tech t-shirt the next?"

Who are your inspirations?
"We definitely have a lot of inspirations. I'm more into band like the Libertines and Ben Kweller. Thinking about it - we like so very different bands Matt has been known to buy techno chill-out CDs, to put in his collection with his 'Best of Dire Straights'.

"But we have inspirations that aren’t just musical, I wouldn’t really call them inspirations but a local band called 9foldpunch have shown us what can be done at our age and in a short space of time. Which I think has helped us with keeping our mind on track."

What genre would you call your music?
"Ahhh we get asked this a lot, alongside "who do you sound like" but to be honest you're not gonna find a band that we sound a lot like, our songs differ so much it's crazy, you can really tell the difference between the old songs and the new ones. But I suppose you could call us Indie rock, we have been likened to bands like Idlewild and Placebo, I laughed when I heard about us sounding like Pplacebo, but Ideawild is a fair comparison."

How did you all join as a band?
"Well we all did GCSE music together and just made sense to try and get some sort of band going. And that’s about it really."

Can you see yourself doing this in ten years?
"Definitely with the way we are making better and better songs, and the way our gigs are better each time. Also with all the help and confidence we are getting from friends and family it's just down to getting a contract I suppose, but I think we are the best we can be and we all put 100% in every time we make new songs or gigs so we're confident we will eventually get signed to some label."

Do you want a career in music?
"At first we were not too bothered about it cause we all had other things on our mind, like Matt was going to join the RAF, but after meeting everyone on the local scene and seeing how they don’t do the same thing day in day out like a "normal" job would have them doing, I’m pretty sure we would choose music."

Do you have an E.P/CD? If so what can be expected?
"We have just recorded our new single "time has come". It has two very good b-sides also called "get some heart" and acoustic version on a fan fav "fade away". All the profits from this are going to CAMH a charity that helps teenagers with depression and who self harm. This issue has effected every band member as we have had close friends who have gone through this, and trust us it mucks you up big time with the thought of your best friend cutting themselves because they feel it's the only option left. It’s screwed up and no one should ever need to go through it, so we feel this is a good way just to help if only a little."

"We are also recording the new album about September time, but nothing has a set date yet because we are starting 6th Form in September and we just needed to get settled down in that first then we can start bunking... nah I'm only joking, 6th Form is very important to us, because it will give us something to fall back on."

What are your future plans as a band?
"Well - near future is just releasing the new single which will be out around 1st September, go on our site and check closer to the date. And we'll aslo be playing more gigs. But long term, like I said, we will be looking for a record deal and just to be playing bigger gigs and branching out."

When are your next gigs?
"At the moment we are just booking all the new gigs but the ones that are coming up are:

The Riverside, Huntingdon, 22nd August where we will be headlining.

Portland Arms, Cambridge, 18th October.

These guys definitely have potential to go far and I love them to pieces. To find out more about Linda’s Nephew check out their site on www.lindasnephew.com