Neu North to the future: ALASKALASKA

Upon arriving at their local haunt, Peckham hotspot The Montague Arms, the first thing the three present members of ALASKALASKA do is apologise for the absence of the other half of the band.

“Look, these are the jazz boys!” vocalist Lucinda John-Duarte exclaims, pulling out a polaroid shot of three topless men on a poolside from her purse. Her two bandmates then proceed to do the same. “We all keep a photo of them close to us,” she continues. “They get flown all over Europe to talk about jazz music and we just steal them for a while when they’re back in London to come and jam in a room with us for a while.”

The six-piece have a polarising make-up, with Lucinda, guitarist Calum Duncan and bassist Fraser Rieley bringing backgrounds in pop and rock, joined by the affectionately labelled jazz boys on drums, keyboards and saxophone. It’s a blend of backgrounds that mould together perfectly on the band’s brilliant pair of debut singles, ‘Bitter Winter’ and ‘Familiar Ways’.

Initially powered by vocal hooks and sweet guitar lines, the former track and band’s first official single disappears off down a sharp tangent full of screeching sax, a fitting counterpart to Lucinda’s slinky, often despairing lyrics. “I’ve been waiting for the bad news ever since it all began,” she sings on ‘Familiar Ways’, but there’s an innate hope to the band’s music, a togetherness that’s immediately apparent when meeting them.