in case you missed it, we put out our latest The Wrap feature for October last week! 
with reviews of new music from FEAR of MARKO Novustory Velvet Venus Grrrls Sugarstone Mathew Kerry Dr Fabola and Cliché Cult, it’s a belter with so much incredible new music 
find the full write-up over on our website at https://breadrecords.co.uk/2022/11/15/the-wrap-october-2022/ – let us know what you think! 
we’ve got our next Knead To Know interview for you, this time with a good friend of ours who we’ve known for a long time now – Chris Tavener!
Chris has been on the scene for a good while now, and we’ve been massive fans of his from the start, with his witty and tongue-in-cheek songwriting, ability to hold the crowd in the palm of his hand, and excellent repertoire of songs behind him – a real talent whose been making waves across the North West now for a good number of years. it was lovely to chat with him here – find the full interview below! ⬇️
Hey Chris, thanks for doing this interview for us! Tell us a bit more about yourself and your music!
Thanks for having me! I’m a singer-songwriter, originally from Northwich in Cheshire, but I now live in Manchester. I write music that’s inspired by quirky rock ‘n’ roll with some acoustic folk inspirations as well. I’ve often described my songs as satirical because they are humorous, character-based narratives that I create based on social commentary observations.
We’ve been huge fans of your music for the past few years, having listened to you perform a bunch. What got you into music?
I originally became interested in music by listening to my Dad’s CD collection in his car, with albums by: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Talking Heads and Elvis Costello. I think I’ve carried a lot of that 60s/70s inspiration into my songwriting. The likes of Randy Newman, Loudon Wainwright III and even Monty Python got me into writing songs with a cynical edge that would make people laugh.
Tell us a bit more about your new single “This Is The One”!
’This Is The One’ is a football song for the FIFA World Cup 2022. I’m really interested by the hysteria that seems to emerge every time England performs even remotely well in an international tournament. I find it hilarious that the most unlikely football fans are suddenly cheering with incredible passion for the sport as soon as England reach any kind of final.
What got you into writing more satirical music? Is it something you always wanted to do?
I’ve always loved comedy, looking at the funny side of life and I find it quite difficult to take being an artist very seriously. As a result, I think I’ve naturally gravitated towards expressing myself through humour.
Being cynical and joking around is what I’m most comfortable doing.
With the song being focused around the World Cup, are you a big sports fan?
I’m not, unfortunately…I’m a fraud! In fact, the sentiment of the song is relatable to me because for years I would only be interested in football when the world cup was on. Nowadays I’m a casual, premier league team supporter but I wouldn’t say I was a big sports fan.
What are the processes involved in creating your music? Do you home record, or use a studio?
I usually arrange all the instrument parts for a new song at home via Pro Tools recording software. I find it’s the easiest way to save money and time in the studio since I can be quite particular about what I’d like the track to sound like.
After that, I prefer to take these demos into the studio where session musicians and myself can give it a more polished sound.
Which studio do you go to?
Green Velvet Studios in Manchester. I highly recommend them!
What inspires you to create music?
I’m constantly inspired by the works of other songwriters; particularly lyricists. I find a lyric that can make you understand a complex feeling or sentiment in a short amount of words is so creatively invigorating. I’m always striving for that.
When I pair that with the fun performance style of rock ‘n’ roll, it’s a combination that’s never failed to keep me motivated to release music.
What have you been doing over the past few years, musically?
In the past few years, I’ve kept myself very busy performing hundreds of gigs a year. I enjoy keeping up a steady stream of music releases which is why I’ve never gone a year without releasing at least one single with a music video since I started in 2015.
I’m always trying to challenge myself as well, which is why I’ve performed abroad in Europe/Ireland and I’ve written a number of song commissions for individuals, filmmakers and organisations.
With each release, what do you find motivates you to keep going and putting out more?
I’m not the sort of person that experiences constant creative inspiration, I usually have to deliberately sit down to write new songs. What motivates me most of all is the thrill of performing live to a captive audience, I think there’s nothing like it.
Where have you been performing lately? What gigs have been special for you?
Recently I’ve been performing a weekends tour with Thomas Benjamin Wild Esquire. He’s another funny songwriter and it’s been fantastic playing to a room full of people that are up for a laugh. We’ve stopped in Nottingham, Liverpool, Brighton, Ipswich, Manchester and Chester. I will also be announcing a new tour for Spring 2023.
Have you got any more stuff in the works?
At the moment, I’ve been having ideas for songs that aren’t quite as satirical as what I’ve done in the past. There are still some songs with a humorous edge but they’re less character-based. I’m not sure yet what to do with these songs but I think it might be a positive progression to try them live and perhaps in the future make my first studio album.
as always, we love making these up – learning more about artists’ inspirations and musical journeys is always super interesting for us to see. Chris’s new single sounds great as well, another fantastic piece of music to add to his already incredible discography! big love to him for doing this for us, and thank you all for checking it out! 🍞
our feature for today’s Just The Crust is the brand new debut single from George White “Up The England“!
we’ve had George perform for us a few times now and he always amazes us with his prolific songwriting, with catchy tunes and intrinsic lyrical ability, and his performances always go down a storm – a joy to watch live and a lovely chap! 
this is the first single from him, a brilliant introduction for listeners to his music – a modern-day anthem for this year’s footballing antics. with a singalong hook, a massive upbeat atmosphere surrounding the track and the strings complimenting the vocals super well, it’s a real lovely track full to the brim with a positive outlook and a touch to the nostalgia of the past world cup. well worth a listen over the sporting period! 
you can find the full video over at https://youtu.be/BPjfvwFX-Ls – it’s available on all streaming platforms as well, and we can’t wait to hear more music from him. 
find all of our features, reviews and more on our website at www.breadrecords.co.uk
In case you missed it, our latest Knead To Know interview with Gramms is a belter 
They’ve been smashing it with their debut single “Shut Up A Second” and it was super lovely to chat to them about their inspirations, influences and more! 
Definitely one’s to watch here in Manchester
Find it over on our website at https://breadrecords.co.uk/2022/11/10/knead-to-know-gramms/ – let us know what you think!
we’re back with our next The Wrap feature for you all, covering some of our favourite releases of October! It’s been an incredible year of music so far and we’ve written about so many incredible tunes – this one’s no different, check it all out below! ⬇️
One of our favourites on the Manchester scene, FEAR OF MARKO has just released his third single “Blood For Tears“! With an ever-changing, fresh and experimental sound, every release has been super exciting. We’re huge fans of the hyper-pop/industrial sound that is present throughout each release, and Marcus’ vocal sounds fantastic as always. Starting off real calm, the progression throughout the song becomes more and more intense as it starts to build, with the vocal flow becoming even more technical to add to the complexity of the instrumentation. Another fantastic hook on this, a real singalong tune – and that outro goes absolutely hard. Great to see, well worth checking out! (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / BANDCAMP / YOUTUBE)
Another one that we’ve been keeping our eyes on over the course of the year, Novustory have put out their new single “Give Me Fire“! They’ve made absolute waves over the past couple of months, gaining traction throughout the whole of the UK, playing sold out shows and it’s truly down to their work ethic, the amount of effort they put in constantly and their combined talents. We love this new tune – the calmness of the intro is a perfect parallel to the explosivity of the chorus. These guys sure know how to write a hook, shown so well with this track. They utilise the dynamic of the song so well here, with builds, tension and lovely use of atmosphere to really show off how fantastic this tune is. Ones to watch! (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / BANDCAMP / YOUTUBE)
Another band we’ve had on the radar for a while – we were huge fans of their previous releases and this new tune from Velvet, “Self Help” is a proper indication that these guys are gonna go far. They’ve got a fantastic unique sound, which only expands out with every single release – utilising tones, guitar riffs, huge drums, massive basslines to really create something they can call their own. This new tune goes right in from the get-go, with such a fantastic groove to it, showing how much chemistry the band has with each other – we’d love to see how this one goes down in a lil basement club, it’d be mental! (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC)
VENUS GRRRLS have been absolutely smashing it all across the UK lately, with constant radio plays, reviews and the such – when you hear this new tune “Aries” you’ll understand exactly why. We were massive fans of their last single “Violet State of Mind” and they’ve followed up with another proper banger. The chorus in this song is undeniably one of the best we’ve heard all year – catchy, easy to understand, a perfect explosivity of energy contrasting to the former verse. The guitar riffs throughout, driving bassline, and steady drums backing the track give so much energy to the track – all balancing the main vocal so well and just showing off the talent superbly. This is definitely one for our end of year list, we think! (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / BANDCAMP / YOUTUBE)
One of the best bands we’ve seen live this yeaar, Sugarstone have put out their debut EP “SUCKER“! The balance of genres here, ranging from metal to indie to electronica.. they’ve got something super special here behind them. We were huge fans of the second track “That’s Intense” which came out a few months ago, but the rest of the tracks compliment it so well – the opener “Author Is Now Dead” is a huge track incorporating so many elements throughout from synth lines, metal breakdowns, to the lyricism – a bleak yet intensive piece of social commentary. It’s chock-full of energetic, thought-provoking tunes that have harmonies throughout and sound just bloody incredible. Whack this on at a party and you’ll get everyone going mental! (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / YOUTUBE)
One of our favourite songwriters and general people on the Manchester scene, we absolutely LOVED Mathew Kerry’s 2019 release “Okie Dokie?”. He’s come back with another one, “If You’re Not Going Home With Me, That’s Okay“, which only expands on the quality of his last one. Full to the brim with beautiful melodies, Mat’s gorgeous vocal over the top of it all, it sounds absolutely lovely. Throughout, his songwriting shines through – his lyricism is second to none, one of the most talented chaps we know. The instrumentation throughout really commpliments him too – big shout to Sloe Flower Studios, always fantastic work from them. A must listen to any singer-songwriter fans! (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / BANDCAMP / YOUTUBE)
Another familiar face for us on the scene, Dr Fabola has just put out his brand new single “All Behind“! His first release this year, he’s kept true to his beautiful fingerpicking style, soft vocals, and lovely image-inducing lyrics. We love his style, it’s such a raw outburst of passion – the atmosphere of this track compliments him so well. The backing vocals in the chorus are a lovely balance to his main vocal – it’s such a well produced song, perfect for Dr Fabola’s sound. We can’t wait to hear more from him, the calm feel of this song is so lush and yet another fantastic release from him. (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / BANDCAMP / YOUTUBE)
We’ve covered Leeds’ Cliche Cult so many times in the past now, every release from them has been super sublime – this new tune “Slippy” only proves that they can improve on an already incredible discography. Straight from the get-go, the track is huge. The guitar riff that comes in is so dirty, laying the foundation for the track so well, and throughout the verses there’s an exceptional chemistry between the band that is parallel to none. We love this tune, the vocals are on point, the lyricism is tongue in cheek and compliments itself by the use of rhythm between verses, and that chorus is bloomin massive. They never disappoint us, this is 100% well worth a listen! (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / YOUTUBE)
it’s been an incredible month for music, with so many fantastic releases – these here are just a select few from the scene, there’s been so many more that have come out but we can’t cover them all or we’d be here all day writing essays ahaha. big shout to all the artists here, well worth checking out! ⚡️
Make sure you head on down to open mics, gigs, support local music and arts and keep your scenes going! 😊 all music, videos and images remain copyright of their respective owners. 🍞
our feature for today’s Just The Crust is the new single from Craig Lee and the Humblebees “Built On Bones“!
we’ve covered Craig’s music in the past and we’re huge fans of his tunes – upbeat, catchy and nostalgic for old school rock and roll feels, he’s got a real unique sound that you can tell he’s put time and effort into crafting.
this new single “Built On Bones” only furthers his talent, with a real feel-good vibe from the get-go, opening up real mellow and calm as it opens up to a lovely chorus that feels super full with steady drums, driving bass and a real catchy hook that’ll have audiences singing along in no time. the track flows along so well, with a proper groove behind it, Craig’s vocal gliding over the instrumentation super well. it’s amassed nearly 7k streams so far, incredible to see and very well deserved! 
you can find it over on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/4TW1kuyPJO7mJhOtxgc8pK… – well worth checking out his full discography too, a load of bangers in there!
find all of our features, reviews and more on our website at www.breadrecords.co.uk
we’re back with our next Knead To Know interview, this time with the incredible Gramms! ⚡️
formed by our good friend Sam Jenkins and Paul Bowe, they’ve just put out their debut single “Shut Up A Second“, a riotous, infectious tune filled to the brim with attitude and gorgeous guitar riffs. an absolutely explosive debut release – we’re huge fans of this tune and knew we had to get them on for an interview. check it out in full below! ⬇️
Hey guys, thanks for sorting out this interview! Give us a bit more information about yourselves.
GRAMMS is Sam Jenkins and Paul Bowe and we’re based in Stockport. Started throwing demos across to each other during lockdown and released our first single earlier this year.
We love the new tune “Shut Up A Second” – tell us some more about the tune!
It was the first thing we worked on after the last lockdown and I don’t know if it was because of all that pent-up creativity, but we put it together in a matter of hours.
It’s essentially about our need to express an opinion no matter how baseless or unhelpful that may be.
What started you guys off as a band?
We’ve both been on the scene for a good while in separate projects and have been wanting to sort out some kind of collaboration for years. End of last year we finally both found ourselves with a bit of time on our hands.
Whose the main songwriter in the band, or do you do it all together?
Yea, it’s completely collaborative and the process depends on the song.
What are the processes involved in creating your music? Do you home record, or use a studio?
All the songs have been written and arranged at Paul’s rehearsal studios (Stockport Studios). We then demo them on logic and use that as a guide in the recording studio.
Both ‘Shut Up a Second’ and our upcoming single were recorded in Levenshulme by the musical wizard that is John Simm; formally of Cleft and currently working with Blossoms on their tour.
Where do you get the inspiration for your tracks?
It really varies. The lyrics for Shut Up were inspired by Paul’s riff. Made me think of a circus lion strutting around his cage thinking of ways to escape and the rest fell into place from there.
Over the time you’ve been together as a band, how have you been spending your time musically? (recording, writing etc)
It’s all been about writing and recording at the moment, but we’re planning to put on some shows in the new year.
What kinds of responses have you had from your releases?
Overwhelmingly positive! We’ve had record of the day, week and month from various publications. That leaves, year, decade, century, millennium and all time, so plenty to aim for.
Have you been performing live?
Not yet. Stay tuned!
When you’re performing live, what do you enjoy the most about it?
In previous projects it’s been seeing the impact your music can have on a room of people. Stunning a crowd into silence or inciting them to riot is a very cool power to wield!
We’re really looking forward to the next release, can you tell us any more about that?
It’s called ‘All’s Fair’ and it’s big! That’s kind of the through line for all GRAMMS tracks; it sounds massive. It’s got a slightly more mature sound than the last one but it still has the signature GRAMMS monstrousness to it.
What else is in the works?
We’re looking to release the next single before the end of the year along with another equally bonkers video and we’ll be back in the studio recording the third single in the next couple of months.
we love putting these interviews together, it’s so good to be able to interact with bands and artists on a more personal level – fantastic to see that Gramms have some more stuff in the works and find out the inspirations and backstory to them! we hope that you enjoyed this as much as we have, big love to Gramms for doing this for us! 🍞
our feature for today’s Just The Crust is the brand new single from Jacob Reddy Music “Who You Are“!
another incredible release from the young lad, we’ve covered his music plenty of times now and he always excels with each tune he puts out – a real up-and-coming talent here in the North West.
this new single continues in his usual trend of heavy guitars, anthemic choruses and feel-good lyricism that inspires and uplifts. we’re huge fans of this new tune, it’s a lovely tune celebrating individuality and it sounds huge! the lyricism is on point as always, with gorgeous guitar melodies and riffs throughout, the choruses open up to a massive soundscape, and the breakdown before the final chorus is a lush contrast to the rest of the tune.
you can go listen to it over on Spotify and all streaming sites over at https://open.spotify.com/artist/0zQSLe1qdEkcdqf2mIlcud – alternatively, you can check out the music video in full at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUpVcGt-Xqc
check out our website at www.breadrecords.co.uk for more reviews, features, music and more!
our feature for today’s Just The Crust is the brand new tune from DRIAN “Dreaming“!
their second single so far, they’ve been establishing themselves around Manchester performing and wowing audiences especially with their headline gig over at the Eagle Inn the other week! we were a big fan of their debut single and this new one only further emphasises their talent
with a huge groove to the track, with crunchy distortion lining the rhythm of the drums and the bass, it’s got a lovely soundscape to the track – plus, Jordan’s vocal ability is in full scope here as he belts out, especially in the chorus, an anthemic hook that would be sung back at them at any gig. a gorgeous guitar solo too, culminating in a fantastic breakdown that gives a proper depth to the track.
head on over to Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5mNOU9o4RNuLdDEK066W90 to find the track in full – well worth a listen!
find all of our reviews, features and more on our website at www.breadrecords.co.uk
in case you missed it, our last Knead to Know feature with Hayden J Barlow last week was beltin
it was great to chat with him about his new release “Stockholm Syndrome“, plus about his inspirations, creative processes and more! the new tune sounds incredible as well, another in a long list of bangers from the hyper-soul songwriter.
you can find the feature in full over on our website at https://breadrecords.co.uk/…/knead-to-know-hayden-j…/ – give it a read and let us know what you think!
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