Peterborough trio Idolising Nova have just finished playing shows in Amsterdam, Paris and Cologne with The Vamps on their Night & Day tour. Ahead of the release of their latest single Take on the World, we had a chat with vocalist Jack Fulton Smith about life in the band and what’s on the cards in the near future.
Hey Idolising Nova, can you tell us a bit more about yourselves for readers who haven’t heard of you before?
We are a fun, lively 3-piece indie pop band from Peterborough; Jack Fulton Smith (lead vocals & bass), Kris Lee (guitar) and Kyle O’Sullivan (drums & backing vocals). We formed in 2016.
Sum up your sound in five words….
Big, catchy indie pop music!
Who are your musical idols?
There are a lot of artists/ bands that we love, including Bastille, Eliza and The Bear, The Hunna & loads more. In terms of idols, Dan from Bastille and Yannis from Foals are some of the people that we look up to most in the industry.
Let’s talk about your latest single Take on the World, can you tell us more about the recording of this track and the theme behind it?
This was actually the first song that we wrote together as a band. It went on to be played on BBC Radio 2 by Janice Long and ITV’s “This Morning” and we LOVE playing this song live, but we felt that the original recording just didn’t do it justice. So we’ve re-recorded it and it’s sounding awesome now! The theme for the lyrics is that you can easily get stuck in one place and time just passes by, but it’s great to go out and see the world, so go out and see it if you can!
You’ve just played three shows in Europe with The Vamps, how did these come about?
We were invited to play a show exclusive to BBC staff at the Broadcasting House in London last year and The Vamps were performing live on The One Show next door. So before our set, we went over and watched their performance, got some selfies with them, then went and introduced ourselves to their manager, Joe. We had a chat, gave him a demo CD and our email address, and it all just went from there really!
What was it like playing these shows, did you have a favourite?
It was literally amazing! We couldn’t believe how crazy the crowds went during our set and we just loved every minute. All 3 shows were incredible, so it’s hard to pick a favourite!
Live show wise there’s a real sense of fun and engagement with the audience. Which gig that you’ve attended before as a fan has been your favourite?
We want everyone to have fun at our shows, so we have as much fun as possible on stage and get the crowd involved with our set whenever we can. I’ve been to SO MANY gigs over the years (Jack), but personally Foals at the O2 Academy Birmingham was my favourite show. Yannis is such a great frontman and they put on one hell of a show, and it was just such a great night. The Hunna at Rock City in Nottingham and Eliza and the Bear & KYKO at Scala in London stand out as memorable gigs for me too.
The big question; what’s your recording schedule looking like? When will an EP be released?
Well, up until this point, we have recorded and mixed everything ourselves in Kris bedroom. But in a few weeks we are recording a new single with Sugar House, the production duo who produced the Viola Beach album (a band who we love) and who have also worked with Pale Waves, Glass Caves and loads of other great bands, so that’s very exciting and we will hopefully be releasing that single in the next few months. We’re then looking at releasing a few more singles or an EP towards the end of the year, but we are planning to write and record a lot over the summer, so everyone can expect to hear a load of new music from us before the end of the year!
Which of your own lyrics do you feel sums up your time in Idolising Nova?
The first line of lyrics that spring to mind are from our new single, so I don’t want to spoil that, but ask us the same question in a few months and we will be able to answer that question easily!
What’s next on the cards in 2018?
We want to release more music in 2018 and play as many shows as we can. We got such a buzz from playing The Vamps shows and we’ve got some exciting things lined up for the rest of 2018, so hopefully, it will be a really fun year and we’ll go from strength to strength!
Check out Idolising Nova on Facebook, Instagram, Official Website, Twitter and YouTube. Be sure to listen to Take on the World when it is released on Saturday.
Keep an eye on CelebMix for more Idolising Nova news in the near future!