Lincoln’s rising indie-rock band The Rills are releasing their new EP ‘Do It Differently’ via Nice Swan Records on May 6 2022.
With taught, propulsive rhythms and witty, acerbic vocals – the omnipresent backbone of small-town living lies front and centre in everything that The Rills create, coupled with the driving ambition to make something bigger of themselves that chime through in every cutthroat riff.
It has been a bumper 12 months for the young trio who continue to build a fervent following, both online and at their raucous live shows. Last Autumn saw the band sign to Nice Swan Records and release whip-smart number ‘Skint Eastwood’, gaining top support from the likes of NME, Dork, The Line of Best Fit, 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and Radio 1’s Jack Saunders. Their joke-filled TikTok continues to snowball too, currently standing at a not-too-shabby 4 million likes and counting, with EP title track ‘Do It Differently’ gathering more pace on the platform.
Most recent single; World Leader, “ is an ironic bashing of modern politics” explains Spencer. “It’s a stab at our modern political figures, the way we digest media and the way voters express their views online”. The video sees the trio galivanting around the capital, pointing their fingers in an ironic fashion towards the stuffy, political gatekeepers of the world. Watch the video here.
In support of their incoming EP, the band will take to the road for a slew of tour dates and festivals this summer, including this year’s Great Escape Festival.
European dates for this Autumn have also been announced too.
See below for all upcoming shows.
THE RILLS TOUR DATES
May 06 The Road to TGE, Glasgow May 13 The Great Escape, Brighton (Sentric Stage – Queen’s Hotel – 3:30pm)
May 29 Neighbourhood Weekender, Warrington
June 04 Sonic Wave, Birmingham
June 11 Golden Touch Festival Portsmouth
June 19 100 Club
July 09 Right to Roam Bolton
August 14 Boardmasters Festival Cornwall
August 24 Paris Nice Swan Showcase
ABOUT THE RILLS
The first seeds of The Rills began more than a decade ago in a nondescript East Midlands skatepark where Mitch and Callum first became tentative friends. It would take another few years until they’d broach the subject of starting a band, and a move first to Sheffield and then to the big smoke until they’d finally meet Mason and hone themselves into the trio they are today. But, bonded by a clutch of mutual early musical loves – Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines chief among them – the pair’s ambition was strong from the off.
“Trying to do music or anything out of the ordinary is extremely difficult in a place like Lincoln because there’s no infrastructure or industry there,” Mitch explains. “There were never any gigs, and the ones that were there were massive, so you go from pub gigs with cover bands to seeing the Kaiser Chiefs. There were no young bands, so we knew if we were gonna build anything, we had to leave.”
A couple of early singles – 2017’s ‘Pyro’ and the following year’s ‘Us & Them’ – stand as testament to those first days of the band (then operating with an additional second guitarist), but it was when they streamlined down to a trio at the start of 2020 that The Rills really began to click into gear. Acting as a total sonic reset, they describe the differenace as “suddenly going from this blasting wall of sound to there being three instruments, with clear dynamics, where it felt concise”. “The whole ethos of the band had changed,” Mitch explains. “The mission statement was ’less is more’, in absolutely every aspect.”
Influenced by the broad-ranging but energy-packed punk and alternative bands of the South London scene they’d been submerging themselves in, The Rills 2.0 set to rid their music of any excess fat, channeling the visceral quiet-loud dynamics of long term loves Pixies, and incorporating muscular drums and pointed rhythms into a palette that leaves nowhere to hide. Lyrically, meanwhile, Mitch’s knack for narrating the rogue chancers that populated his youth would come even further to the fore, with last year’s ‘Stardog’ and ‘The Angler’ portraying their titular characters with a razor sharp pen.