News JAWS: ‘I Never In A Million Years Expected To Be Where We Are Now’

At first it was a minor ripple, then it became a wave with enough force behind it to render the rest of the country meaningless. Birmingham - or ‘B-town’ - has dominated the past 12 months’ new bands talk. All conversation on fledging talent emerging from the UK ultimately amounts to this city and its flurry of new bands. But would we have stumbled upon the likes of JAWS were it not for the initial surge in popularity for Peace and their contemporaries? It’s a question we put to vocalist Connor, who brings his band to the Old Blue Last in London next month to play a special DIY & Neu! Presents show (details here).



Does being classed as part of the ‘B-town’ movement have any negatives?
I wouldn’t say so. Peace & Swim Deep are both great, as well as all the other new bands coming through, so it’s fantastic to always be in the same sentence as them.

Do you think you’d have found it as easy to get this initial recognition, had you emerged from a different city and a different scene?
It’s hard to say really - the fact that Birmingham is in the limelight at the moment definitely helped us out a lot.

Of all the tracks out there at the moment they all seem to vary in terms of style and sound. Is there any one sound that you’ve settled on?
No, in a good way though. It’s not like we’re struggling to write similar sounding songs. We just write a song and if we like it, we’ll go with it. If we don’t we’ll put it in the bin.

How has your live set developed over the past few months?
We’ve pretty much played the same songs since around May time but we’ve recently started swapping and changing our set around because we have a lot more tracks now. We also recently got some really cool lighting equipment off an online store from Hong Kong for £20… It looks great.

Have any bands you’ve played with given you good advice?
Peace always give us great advice. Harry taught me never to boast on Twitter.

What would you all be doing if it wasn’t for music?
Sleeping.

Did you ever have a plan when you started as a band?
To an extent I guess we did, but the original plan was to put a song online and hope for the best.

How surreal have the past few months been?
I never in a million years expected to be where we are now, especially after being together for less than a year. We were Zane Lowe’s ‘Next Hype’ on Radio 1 a couple of weeks ago and that was a dream come true - so that was pretty surreal for me.

Did any of you guys have experience in other bands prior to Jaws?
Yeah, I used to drum in a hardcore band, Jake our bassist used to drum in a pop-punk band and our drummer still drums in a metal band…. We’re all drummers apart from Alex.

What’s been the highlight of your time together as a band so far?
Going to play shows outside of Birmingham and having an audience is pretty cool, so I’d say thats my highlight. That, and finding the best kebab in every city in the UK.



JAWS play a special, free show at London’s Old Blue Last for DIY and Neu on 30th January, 2013.

JAWS’ ‘Surround You / Stay In’ single is out now.