Interview With New Sheffield Band, Frazer

Originally formed in 2011, Sheffield band Frazer have already headlined gigs at The Plug and The Leadmill in Sheffield as well as supporting McBusted and Scouting For Girls at two Open Air gigs at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Their new single Something I Need is out now.

I spoke to lead singer Ashley Clarke about the band and their home county.

WHY DO YOU THINK A LOT OF BANDS COME OUT OF SHEFFIELD?
There is a lot of good music here, over the years there have been so many different acts from Joe Cocker to the Human League not forgetting The Arctic Monkey's. There are so many places too in the city to play gigs plus we have great venues like The Leadmill, we've played there 4 times already.

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
There are so many and so diverse: Oasis, Linkin Park, we all have different ones - our guitarist likes Guns 'N Roses, the bass player likes Queen, our drummer seems to like everything, its wild - so many influences in there but it all comes together in our music.

YOU HAVE A NEW SINGLE OUT
That's right, it's called Something I Need. It is available on all platforms. You can hear a bit of The Killers on the track, they would be a great act to support as their music is very similar to ours.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE PLAYING SCARBOROUGH OPEN AIR THEATRE?
It was great and a good opportunity for us. It was good supporting an act like Scouting For Girls. We sold a lot of merchandise, in fact at one of the gigs we sold out completely - we didn't expect that.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YORKSHIRE?
The people mainly and the countryside which you are never far away from. Lots of my friends are here and my family too.

WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE NO GUITAR BANDS IN THE SINGLES CHARTS THESE DAYS?
Things seem different at the moment, there are so many good bands out there who have great songs and who can put on a good show. If radio played more guitar bands then I'm sure things would change.

WHO IS THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON YOU HAVE MET?
Alex Turner from The Arctic Monkeys would be the one. He was so helpful and I chatted to him for nearly an hour. We met McBusted and Scouting For Girls when we played the Scarborough gigs with them.