we’ve got our twenty-second episode of Grain Radio for you all! ☀️
it’s been a long time in the making, but we’re back on it now 🤘 been so busy with live stuff and the such but we’ll be doing our best to catch up with these, so much amazing music to show you all. this is a top one, so many fantastic tunes on it and such a great indication of how boss the music scene is!
we’re back with our next Knead To Know interview, with the amazing Manchester-based indie rockers Cottons! 🤘
we had Cottons perform for us down at The Old Abbey Taphouse here in Manchester back in 2019, and they absolutely smashed their set, it was a brilliant gig. since then, they’ve been releasing some proper bangers, we’re massive fans of their sound and they’re lovely chaps as well. 😊 one of our favourite tunes of theirs has to be “Disregard The Times”, it’s got a lovely groove to it, proper boss songwriting and the album art is simply gorgeous.
since then, they’ve put out a load of fantastic music, most recently their new single “Time To Leave” – continuing with their calming and mellow indie signature sound, but really moulding their style to create something really unique to them. it’s a lovely tune with their usual classic songwriting, definitely one to catch if you’re a fan of indie or alternative rock. ☀️ we’re proper delighted to be able to have been able to ask them a few questions about their music, find it below!
Tell us a bit about yourselves and what you guys do!
We’re a four piece band living in Manchester, playing a familiar indie sound with melodic verses & driven chorus’. Consisting of Ricky, Jasper, Jack and Charlie, Cottons began by meeting at Uni. We’re currently working on new music that we’re pushing to release throughout the year!
We had you guys perform for us back in like 2018 over at The Old Abbey Taphouse – feels like a lifetime ago now! How has it been over the years in the band?
That was a fun gig. It was Ricky’s first gig as part of the band so that definitely made it a memorable one! We’ve had a quiet few years due to the pandemic but we feel like we’ve developed our sound a lot, the next few songs will sound quite different to our previous releases so we’re excited to see how they’re received! I think Time To Leave has been the first song to move in that direction.
What are your main inspirations for music and creativity?
Lockdown gave us space and time to listen to new music and find new artists, when we all got back to Manchester we would listen together and share demos and ideas we had created. Change of environment is a big thing for us too, a lot of these songs reflect where we were and what we were doing at the time.
How do you write? Do you take a group approach to it, or do you have someone focus on lyrics, jam the tracks out to build them from ideas or otherwise?
Usually one of us will have a shell of a song that we take into a practice room to jam through, this gives us a basic idea then we can work on individual sections and parts. Lockdown forced us to become comfortable with logic, so we wrote a lot on there too and sent bits across to each other.
Did you find it difficult to work together as a band creatively during the lockdowns? Obviously it wouldn’t have been easy to practice together, or did you use other means such as video calls / streams?
We just focused on content really, we did a couple of lockdown covers remotely which did help us grow.
How have you been readjusting to gigging and post-pandemic music over the past few months?
We did a headliner in Manchester, Charlie was sick down an alleyway before we played so as a first gig back not the worst. In all seriousness It was quite nerve racking running up to our first gig back but as soon as we got on stage we remembered why we’re doing this.
When you’re performing live, what do you each find best about it?
How have your releases been going lately? You’ve been doing videos, putting out some top singles – what response have you guys got from audiences?
We filmed our first music video, we shot it in Derby whilst Boris was probably having a party. The response has been good to the video and helps put some faces to the name. We’ve had some recognition from Dean Jackson on BBC Intro East Mids which has been really encouraging.
Is there anything coming up we should know about?
Yes.
Have you got anything else planned for 2022?
We’ll be playing Bearded Theory in May, it’s our first festival so we’re very excited!
as always, it’s super lovely to be able to conduct these interviews with some of the best talent here in Manchester! we love hearing each artist and band’s unique perspectives and experiences, and Cottons’ here is really interesting in that they used lockdowns and pandemics to focus on themselves as a band, expand out their sound, try new things and it’s really worked out for them! 🙌 it’s a similar aspect to ourselves here at the label, in that we expanded out our online features, which in turn has worked out amazingly and we’ve seen some brilliant feedback from people and really managed to help push the musical community in a positive manner. great stuff! ☀️
brilliant to chat to the lads here, a massive shout to them for helping us with this. ❤️ we hope that you guys enjoyed this as much as we did! make sure you check out their tunes, we’ll pop some links below for you all to have a look at and let us know what you think! 🍞
oh we are super stoked to be able to announce the brand new double single from our very own Olivia Browse “Nevermind Valentine / Cliche” on the 25th February! 
every single of one of Olivia’s releases has been fantastic and we are well made up to be able to put this one out – with her lovely songwriting, amazing production from producer Shtum and unique britpop-indie style, we’re sure it’s bound to be a banger 
amazing stuff!
it’s our THIRD single in a month and we’re pretty sure we’ve started off 2022 in the best way 
keep your eyes peeled for the pre-save, or in the meantime head on over to www.breadrecords.bandcamp.com/music to find all of our releases! 
we can’t wait for this one next month over at The Thirsty Scholar! 
we’re back with our next Cream of the Crop and boy we have a boss lineup for this one with Konna Spencer Louis Cross Mark Pratt and Harrison Rimmer! 
some of the best up-and-coming talent in the North West here, definitely not one to miss. going to be fantastic!
we’ll be down over at the Scholar on the Saturday 5th March from 1pm – come on down, free entry, quality pints, veggie/vegan food served all day and boss musicians performing! find out more at our event Cream of the Crop: 5th March!
our feature for today’s Just The Crust is the brand new tune from Jack Critchlow “Runaway”!
Jack’s a singer-songwriter who has just moved here to Manchester from North Yorkshire and this is his latest single that came out earlier this week! he’s already got a wealth of music out on streaming platforms, having written since a young age and released music consistently over the past few years.
“Runaway” is a song blending indie with pop elements, almost dream-pop in parts, it sounds fantastic. his vocal effortlessly glides across the track, and we love the production on it, so minimalist yet sounding so great. 
the chorus is fantastic too, proper catchy and the lyrics are so personal and intimate, very apt for today being Valentines’ Day as well
we can’t wait to hear more from Jack, we’re sure he’s gonna be a force to be reckoned with and especially with more and more music of this calibre. 
head on over to Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/3E5qMpoEYsSXOPeTFzVS8q to check out his tunes – plenty for you to sink your teeth into!
find all of our features, reviews, music and more at our website www.breadrecords.co.uk
another Sunday so another update to our Local Loaf playlist
we’ve got some amazing new releases on it, with music from Harrison Rimmer UNO MAS Matt Hartless & the Maverick 7 P∆VÉ and Hangnail! 
absolutely fantastic releases this week, amazing to see it
head on over to our Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FnabVHuYeT9Yp2s7GjeKY to find the playlist in full – give it a like to keep up to date with all the updates!
only TWO weeks to go until our next gig over at the Grafton Arms with Nat Dempsey headlining with his band!
we absolutely can’t wait for this one, Nat sounds incredible with his band and has a boss set of original tunes, amazing songwriter! 
we’re super stoked to be able to bring him over to the Grafton and it’s looking like a busy one
there’s also some amazing support artists, with new Manchester indie rockers Casinos, Pat Gallagher and Laura Farrow! going to be a proper boss one this. a fantastic lineup of local artists
it’ll be happening on the Saturday 26th Feb, starts up at 7:30pm – find out more at our event Bread Records Present: Nat Dempsey + Supports
we’re so proud to be able to say that our brand new release from the fantastic Narwhals is out now!
“3310 & A Pterosaur” is a real triumph of their songwriting ability, the song sounds so gorgeous and we’re really stoked to be working with these guys. the raw emotion on this track is delivered superbly, it’s a tribute to Jacob’s friend who sadly took his own life in 2011 and we’re in awe of how beautiful it is.
head on over to Bandcamp over at https://narwhalsuk.bandcamp.com/releases to find the single in full, available for only £2 – it’s also on all streaming sites (bar Spotify!) let us know what you think. we reckon they’re a perfect fit for the label!
super stoked to see that our very own Olivia Browse has just hit 4,000 streams on “Calendar Girl” over on Spotify!
it’s mad to think this has only been out for 5 months too, five months today in actuality – we’re so happy to have this out on the label, it’s a fantastic tune and really shows off Liv’s diverse musical style plus the music video is class too (available on YouTube, thanks to Matchbox Productions!) it also features the amazing Szou who does an unreal verse on the track. we love to see it!
head on over to Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/4OdwzXj78GYA3i6QRT3pfE to find all of Olivia’s tunes – check out her singles, they’re proper boss and we’re so glad to see the tunes doing so well! also available on all other streaming platforms, go and have a gander!
just a lil one following yesterday’s post, we’ve got so many incredible features with so much boss music from the North West!
find them all over here on our website at www.breadrecords.co.uk – it’s so great to be able to cover so much fantastic music here, and to be able to bring you so many amazing talents!
Bread Records 