The Riff Goes Into Chatter About Singles, Music, and More!


Indie alternative rockers The Riff, have a handful of singles out there, with more coming soon. But for the mean while, the band goes into chatter about how they came to be, what music it is they create and why, to everything else in-between.


1.Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.

We’re a four piece band made up of two school friends and a set of twins. Ben (frontman/guitarist), Sam (keys), Chris (bass) and myself Tommy on drums. The twins were in a covers band with other members and so were me and Chris, I’d heard their band had come to an end and so did ours. About two weeks later a sent Ben a text asking If he fancied filling in for a few gigs but it seemed to all go a lot better than I expected. It ended up as a permanent thing with Sam joining shortly after, this all happened at the perfect time.

2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?

We came up with the name a couple of days before our first gig, really last minute. We originally wanted to call the band "The Riv" for some reason but we thought The Riff stick in people’s heads a lot more. It’s just a name that’s stuck with us really.

3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

We all come from Swansea, recently the original music scene has flourished a lot more in comparison to a few years ago. There’s always been a heavy metal vibe in Swansea but we’ve noticed there’s loads more variety in bands and genres now. The Indie/rock scene is coming to life now which we’re proud to be part of. Pastel and The Zinvandels are smashing there gigs lately, their good mates of ours. Check out the Swansea music hub on social media, all bands and acts on their are well worth a watch in the future.

4. How would you describe your style?

We’d like to label ourselves as Indie/rock, we’ve tried to develop a sort of raw sound to our singles especially our hooks on the keys. We take influence from bands from the mid 90’s to early 2000’s, that’s what we’ve grown up with so it’s all we know I suppose.

5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?

So far we’ve released 4 singles ( Jezebel, Show Me, Weekend Schemes, Nothing Lasts Forever) with "Jezebel" featuring a bonus track called "better than that". What should people expect? Depends on the track! Some of our tunes are uptempo and in your face like Jezebel and others you could describe as a bit more melodic and pop-ish like "show me". All in all something exciting to get behind and believe in!

6. Do you have any new music in the works?

We’re focusing on releasing a new single in the next couple of months called "Lonely". It’s currently being mastered at the moment but hopefully we can plug it out there ASAP along with a music video.

7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?

Of course, we’ve got some festivals to play this coming summer which we really look forward to. One of them being welsh fest in Cardiff on the 26th of July along with some great bands. We’re taking on as much as we can gig wise... we love it.

8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?

We’re trying our best to work towards a record deal, that’s the dream. And obviously to keep on writing and gigging to make out set as dynamic as it can be.

9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?

All our stuff is shown on social media but you can check us out on Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud and the rest of it. We also bring hard copies of all our singles to gigs which you can get from us at any time really.

10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?

People who have already been to our gigs will understand that we try and be a energetic as we can both through performance and the music itself. If someone gets a hint of that energy just by listening to one of our tracks then we’re happy.

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