Last week I caught up with Dan, Louis and Alex, also known as North East indie rockers Big Romance about drawing a line under their old identity, writing a tune for South Shields Football Club and what to expect next from the band.

So the band became official and were established this year, but you guys have been writing together and playing together under different guises over the years. How did Big Romance come about? 

Dan and Louis formed Deep.Sleep around 10 years ago fresh out of high school, the band has been through many line up changes but when we parted ways with our old lead guitarist Ben, we decided to draw a line under the old moniker, since then we’ve taken some time to craft a new sound with Alex that’s more guitar driven and raw, whilst still retaining the anthemic sound we’ve harnessed over our time as Deep.Sleep.

You’ve just released your debut single ‘This Feeling’ and were actually asked to commission this for South Shields Football Club for their new walk out tune! How did all that actually happen? When did the question get asked? 

It was all a bit out of the blue really! We had a song called ‘Orange English Sun’ which was featured week after week on the match day playlist down at the ground which went down really well with the fans, we were then approached by Geoff and Stu who works closely with the club to come up with a bespoke anthem that they could call their own and be used to drum up excitement as the players were walking out. They popped the question to us back in April and we jumped at the opportunity, it seemed like such a unique idea and we can’t thank the club enough for their passion for local music which got us to this point.

Did you feel a big amount of pressure knowing that this was what your debut single was going to be used for?

We’ve had a busy summer in the studio getting our material ready but this came along and it put our workrate into overdrive- we were tasked with getting a song written, recorded and released in the space of 4 months so the pressure was well and truly on! Getting a tune together was easy but writing lyrics that would hopefully resonate with fans for years to come was a daunting task but we couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out.

You’ve worked with Andi Anderson and Pete Maher on the tune, what was that process like? 

We’ve worked with Andi and Pete on our releases for years so the process was super familiar which calmed our nerves slightly. They’re so good at what they do but we’d be stupid to not mention the work that Alex Blamire at Polestar studios did to engineer everything and also our good friend Jackson Vert of Club Paradise for helping us sculpt our sound. We have a great team behind us and couldn’t do it without them.

So SSFC walked out to the song at their first home game last week – were you there to watch it happen, and if so, how did it feel? 

We were there wearing team colours proudly! It was such a great turnout and we felt humbled to be part of something so exciting. The weather, pints and atmosphere were a pleasure to enjoy, we were on cloud 9 when our song came blasting over the tannoy. Unfortunately the sound system blew around the one minute mark, which we’ll hold as a testament to how hard the song rocked – but the fans seemed to love it and we can’t wait to hear it in its full glory at the next home fixture.

As a band, who would you say your biggest influences are? 

We love a tightly crafted indie pop tune so you’ll hear influence from The Strokes, The 1975 and Circa Waves in that respect but we’ve taken on a slightly grittier approach drawing elements from bands such as Pavement, Yuck and DIIV. We’d never want to put a label on things as we just write what comes naturally to us, but expect big choruses and a heavier sound to what people may expect from us.

Finally, what can we expect next from Big Romance? 

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes on our new EP, due sometime in the near future alongside some exciting headline shows before the year is over. We don’t want to give too much away so keep an eye on our socials for more behind the scenes content and future releases.

Huge thanks to the lads for the chat – can’t wait to see what they’ve got lined up and to catch them live at some point! If you want to see what they’re up to then make sure you follow them on the socials, and if you want to hear their brand new single – you can listen below!