The Avenues are a four-piece indie-rock band from Hull. Coming together in late 2018, they have already played some huge gigs including selling out venues in their hometown, playing the main stage at Humber Street Sesh Festival and supporting the likes of , and and are now gigging regularly around the country. Their first two EPs marked them out as serious ones-to-watch and singles “Every Morning” and “Admit Nothing” took their operation to the next level.
After “Another Movie” a few weeks ago, they just dropped a new single titled “Office Wear” – a song that delves into the monotony of traditional office life and the overwhelming feeling of its all-consuming nature. We got to chat with them around this new release.
– Who’s behind the name The Avenues?
We were arguing for months between 2 band names, neither of which was ‘The Avenues’ (and in hindsight, neither was any good). During one argument outside The Adelphi in Hull, our mate Lucy interrupted and said “why don’t you just call it The Avenues?” which was the area of Hull we were in at the time. None of us hated it, so we agreed to call ourselves that until we thought of something better – for better or worse we never did think of anything!
– How did each of you get involved in music and what led to the formation of The Avenues?
Tom: I was always into music but my first introduction to playing with a group was when me and Kurt started jamming at school as he started learning the drums. Seems stupid now but I was absolutely blown away by how much better I sounded once you started adding more instruments haha.
Joe: I got into music when I played the saxophone in school, but always wanted to be in a guitar band, so I picked up the bass a few years later. I met Tom through a stranger who contacted me to recruit for a band they were starting, and Tom and I quickly started our own from there.
Kurt: I played in a bunch of bands and did some session work here and there until Tom reached out and mentioned they were looking for drummer, we arranged a practice and the rest is (barely) history.
– How has your hometown of Hull influenced your music and the band’s identity?
Hull has a really tight-knit music scene and we were introduced to a lot of aspects of live music by mates who were already in bands. I think being in a small city away from everyone else definitely helps build on theboredom and frustration young people feel wherever they grow up, because there’s not a lot to do other than make music, and those feelings of being lost and wanting more are pretty constant themes in our lyrics
– “Office Wear” is your latest release. Can you share the inspiration behind the song and its themes?
It’s a song about being stuck in a rut really and looking over at the life you think you could have. Once you get that kind of idea into your head it never really goes away. I think most people have spent days in their job dreaming out of the window and I was the same.
