If your an avid CelebMix reader, you will know how much we love introducing you to up and coming artists. And today, we have the hottest band of 2020 – ‘The New Twentys’.
The band is made up of Jimmy and Harry Morris, and longterm friend of CelebMix Chris Bourne. Their debut single ‘Inside Out’ has been picked up by BBC Radio 6, and we couldn’t pass up the chance to find out more about the band, how they came together and what we will be listening to next.
Hi The New Twentys- welcome to CelebMix. Can you tell us a little about yourselves?
Hi, I’m Jimmy and I sing and play guitar in The New Twentys. I’ll do anything for a bargain or free food, and I like swimming in rivers and lakes whether it’s winter or summer.
Hey, I’m Harry and the first thing people notice about me is that my hair is verging on ‘stupidly long.’ I play guitar too and help with backing vocals. Oh and Jimmy and I are brothers by the way.
Chris – I play bass and sing the high notes in the band. I love surfing and i once spent 6 hours straight learning to ride a unicycle
How did The New Twentys form?
Harry and I are brothers, and we were in a band together before we met Chris. He asked us if we wanted to do some writing and it went really well, so we ended up going to Cornwall where we wrote a load of songs, including the debut single! After a while of making music collaboratively we realised this had to be it’s ‘own thing’ as we were all emotionally invested in the music.
Inside Out are such a fun and unique song – where did the inspiration for it come from?
Chris and Harry were jamming together in the living room and Jimmy had this lyric ‘I miss the pain of losing you, I guess I lived with it so long’ which he just started singing over the top of it. We all got excited by it and started playing it together on loop. (This isn’t always the case when it comes down to writing but for some reason when this happens the songs always seem to come rather quickly) When we finished jamming the chorus we went into the recording room and started laying down what we had. The rest of the track just started building from there. The song is about letting go of heartache, it can take some getting used to because it’s the final connection you had left to the person you used to love. Also, when you realise you are no longer hurting that’s when you know you have to pick yourself up and stop making excuses.
Which artists would you say inspire your sound?
We all love the new wave/post-punk movement for it’s energy and creativity, so our writing tends to lean into this direction, but we take references from anywhere and everywhere to be honest! When we wrote ‘Inside Out’ together (it was the first song we finished and birthed this band), we all felt that we had stumbled across a sound that was greater than the sum of our parts. I guess some of our favourite artists are Talking Heads, The Cure & Bowie. A lot of lyric ideas come to us from films, stories we’ve told each other, or things that have happened to us or friends of ours.
How was it filming the video and recording during the pandemic?
Super spontaneous and fun ! We had all planned to be together for a few weeks to work on the single release and making a video was kind of on the to do list, but we weren’t sure where to start because we knew we didn’t have any money to spend on it! Late one night we hatched a plan and decided we should go to a secret beach that Chris knew about. By a stroke of luck, a friend of ours had a day off work the very next day, so, we roped him along to film us at 7am despite him not being a cameraman or anything. We brought a speaker and our dancing shoes and our friend Archie who shot the whole thing on Chris’s iPhone in one take! Our friend Elliot gave us inspo for the trippy colours in the video too.
Looking forward, whats next to come from you guys – can we expect an EP/Album?
We are definitely going to keep a steady stream of music flowing from now on! We will probably have an EP out in the first half of next year, and you can expect a brand new song from us every month or so for the foreseeable future, so stay tuned and watch this space.
Any secrets that you can spill about that?
We are indecisive creatures living in uncertain times, but the next song is going to be an epic, anthemic love song about wearing your heart on your sleeve and constantly catching it on things. When you’ve tried your best to prove you will do anything for someone, but they keep moving the goalposts until you just can’t take it anymore!
Your sound is made to be played live, is that something that you guys are all excited for?
In a word, YES! First and foremost this is a BAND and we want everything to transpose as well as possible when playing live ! We had a load of gigs in the pipe-line and then you know what hit us all… But it is going to come back and when it does we are gonna be there hitting it hard! We can’t wait to get out on the road and play these songs in-front of a live audience. It’s rad to see some familiar names / faces popping up on our socials, already keeping up with the band.
2021 is set to be the biggest year ever for everyone, as a band, what are you wanting to achieve next year?
We just want to keep putting out songs that we are super passionate about so we will keep working hard in the studio and get playing live everywhere when we can again! We want to bring people along for the journey too and build a rad safe place for everyone to enjoy themselves and meet other Muso like-minded peeps. We hope our music can connect with people, theres nothing more fulfilling for an artist than to hear their own songs sung back to them in a dingy dive bar, we want everyone riding the wave.
Lastly, if anyone hasn’t checked ‘Inside Out’ yet, why should they?
Everyone could probably do with a pick me up after the bad vibes of this past year and we want our music to be that for people. We almost dare you to feel sad whilst ‘Inside Out’ is on because so far we haven’t been able to.
You can stream ‘Inside Out’ and future ‘The New Twentys’ tracks now on Spotify,
Follow The New Twentys on Twitter and Instagram for updates. And follow Jimmy, Harry and Chris on Instagram for all the latest behind the scenes antics and more.
You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram for the latest in music and pop culture!