The Crave

Now if you had tried to pitch this to me by saying it sounded like a ringer for Def Leppard with the added promise that by the end Id be throwing myself around the room like a young un in total admiration - then frankly Id have had the men in white suits around our gaff to take you away for a spot of therapy. But it does and I did. A scorching 4 track debut from Brighton based quartet the Crave who it seems drop more epic pop radio thrashing anthem laced tuneage per square inch of wax than most ensembles dare to deliver in a whole career. The Crave lean perilously towards what Id suppose youd term soft rock pop cleverly avoiding the EMO trap and before you all start running for cover when we mention the unflinching likeness to Def Leppard - think again because what you have here is an outfit that bristle with a certain amount of savvy, strut and coolness. Add to that the audacity of possessing cutely honed super charged slabs of slickly curvaceous romp and you get the sense that this lot have an edge and sound ready made for the rock fraternity. Bring it on opens the set, carved out in the kind of heavy rotated Americanised rock riffs much beloved by MTV and anthemic in a way it just eats up and mushrooms colourfully into your listening space, very much in the mould of Motley Crue but dont wince just wait till you hear this soaring from the speakers . High judging by the play count on their my space site is something of a favourite and why not, softly cured cloud piercing melodies that furtively fold around you, you can imagine this being something of a festival pleaser coaxing crowds to light up the night skies with their Zippos. The saccharine My apology leads out the set not dissimilar in stature to a cruise controlling yet its Ive got better things to do (than you) that provides the highlight of the set and had us recalling at times some secret laboratory controlled experimental cross pollinating the DNAs of both the Senseless Things and Cactus World News - upbeat, bright and blessed with a smarting fuck you uber cool and a chorus hook so immediately infectious it should come housed with a WHO advisory sticker.

www.thecrave.co.uk

- www.losingtoday.com

Nice little slice of T-Rex riff-a-rama blended with Motley Crue attitude and AC/DC’s swagger… A glorious cock-punch-rock of a song!
- www.subba-cultcha.com

It’s difficult to know exactly how many ‘classic rock’ bands there are room for in the current market. The Darkness have given hope to any number of AC/DC wannabes across the globe. However, it is also true that there are a lot of people that like and will continue to buy this kind of music till the end of humanity. Based on this alone The Crave should do very well for themselves.

They certainly aren’t doing anything remotely original but they are pulling it off with certain panache. They admit to influences such as Guns and Roses and U2 but to be perfectly honest they mostly sound like Feeder with a slightly grittier vocalist. That is other than on lead track ‘Bring It On’ when they sound like a slightly unusual Def Leppard/Wildhearts hybrid.

The Crave are a very traditional 80s-tinged rock band who peddle their catchy soft-rock ‘anthems’ with a certain amount of charm. Consequently you actually find yourself quite liking them when you’re trying exceptionally hard not to.





- www.highvoltage.org.uk

the Summer 2006 www.starttalkingideas.org

When the mark met The Crave in Brighton recently, we
couldn’t help but hope all their hard work eventually pays off.
These guys want it really badly and are working their socks
off to get to the top.

How did you get together?

ryan: Me and dave were in the original crave,
but had to make a tough decision to let two of
the band members go (one of them still speaks
to us, the other doesn’t!). Tom and carlos had
just finished sessioning with the Speedway
tour, so the timing was perfect.

What has influenced your sound?

ryan: our music doesn’t come out of a
particular scene. our influences are classic
rock, but we are not pretending to be anyone
but ourselves. Bands form saying, like, the
Killers are really big right now, so let’s sound
like the Killers and maybe we’ll get a record
deal. we just want to sound like the crave.

tom: for us, the music has always been there.
we all love the same kind of music – we’ve all
done a load of other stuff – we were just ready
to do our own thing.

Who writes?

Carlos: we all do – someone will come up
with a chorus or chord and we just see what
happens. Everything from a guitar riff to a lyric.

Dave: we did a new song about a month
and a half ago it just came out of nowhere
and, like, at the end of the day we had this
amazing new song that went straight into
the set. There’s a real chemistry between us
when we are on a roll together like that.

What’s the best part about what you do?

ryan, tom, Dave & Carlos: gigging! awesome!

Carlos: Being on stage you get an adrenalin
rush. i don’t know – it’s an interaction with the
people watching us – when you jump, they
jump. you know, the feedback you get.

Best of times?

ryan: gigging right now.

Making music

tom: yeah. i know it sounds crazy, but even the
bad experiences are great. like, a couple of weeks
back we drove 350 miles to Sunderland, spent 100
quid on petrol. it was packed when we got there
but then there was this massive fight – everyone
was throwing tables and we ended up playing
about six numbers to seven people. Even the
promoter scarpered and we didn’t get paid! But it’s
all part and parcel of what we do – you just take it
on the chin and move on to the next gig. we just
slept in the van and came home the next day. it’s
part of learning our trade and it’s cool.

Worst of times?

Dave: when carlos went away for two months
to get his work visa. it really made us have to
think about how much we wanted all this. we
always knew he would have to go back for
a while, but it really made us stop and think
about our future together. like, what would
happen if he couldn’t come back?

You all live together at Dave’s parents – how
do you all get along?

tom: we are four alpha males and we do get
tetchy but we get along most of the time. i
think you just learn to live with each other.
Before we moved in together, we used to
meet up once a week, maybe for a coffee
– now we share a room! it’s cool but yeah,
it’s like being married! But we love it as it
means we can practise all day, every day if
we want!

Dave: Since carlos got back from Ecuador with
his work visa it’s like we have really started
taking it seriously. we can rehearse everyday
and our music has really progressed.

ryan: oh, and dave talks in his sleep– about the
Mario brothers! – which is really annoying!

What’s the plan for the future?

ryan: Mark at Panic Room Productions has
been a huge influence and has given us some
great advice – we have all learned such a lot
from him. Right now the plan is to build up our
fan base by gigging – sort of the old-fashioned
way of doing it. it can be tough, but there are
no short cuts and you need to build up a fan
base. we want to get so good live and get
a deal as a support act where we can play
to bigger audiences. Then we hope a bigger
record label will hear us and see how our fans
react and will consider signing us.

tom: for us it’s always the music first. famous
is a bonus.

Dave: it’s just about being as good as you can be.

What advice would you give to other
bands coming up behind you?

Carlos: get out there. get heard. get gigging.

tom: you gotta have the passion.

Dave: and you have to work so hard – at
everything. we all muck in and do a bit of
everything. The website. Booking gigs.
Talking to people.

Carlos: we are managing ourselves right
now. and when you don’t have a booking
agent, it’s really hard work and you just have
to get on the phones to book the gigs. you try
to have a plan, but you end up driving from
one end of the country and back again the
next night.

ryan: Use MySpace to promote yourselves.
it’s an amazing web tool. like, the other day
when we were playing cambridge, we just
emailed everyone signed up to MySpace
who lived in cambridge – we told them
where we were playing and gave them a link
to our site and our music. Suddenly there
was a load more people coming along to
see us.

Meet the Crave! or win acopy of their 4-track CD
Do you have a question you’d like toput to the Crave?
we are offering up to 6 readers the chanceto get to one of their gigs and meet theboys after where you can put your questionto them face-to-face. if you are in an upand coming band, and would like to know more about real life ‘on the road’ direct from people in the know, then this is a great opportunity. Runners up will receive a copy of their cd.
Email your question to themark@seeda.
co.uk


you can find out more about the Crave at
www.myspace.com/thecraveband - The Mark

The Knitting Factory - New York - The Crave/Jyrojets/Pop Up


"The Crave were my favorite of the night. I was saying to myself that they look like a U.S. West Coast bar band. That guitar player looks like he came from the Slash/Nikki Sixx school of guitar heroes. I joke, but he was pretty damn good. What I found interesting was that the sound comes from that mid-80s Los Angeles rock scene (Guns 'n' Roses, Motley Crue), but they gave a little British edge by adding those Kelly Jones style harmonies. They rocked pretty hard, and it was refreshing that they didn't have to knock crap over to prove it. I was thinking they sounded a bit like The Darkness without the irony. As I learned later, Justin Hawkins is a fan of the band. Then I asked if they opened up for anybody I knew, they said that The Kooks opened up for them. Nice job"
- The Knitting Factory

Following tips and recommendations, Sunday was a more restrained and less hectic night. Best local act, as it was in the main fringe events, was The Crave with their glam inclined, wired n’ fired guitar onslaught and outstanding vocal performance. The Great Escape festival was a brilliant 4 days of some of the UK’s best up and coming bands. Watch this festival blossom into something spectacular in forthcoming years. - Scootering Magazine