Festivals Liverpool Sound City: Blood Red Shoes: ‘We Fucking Love Liverpool’

It’s safe to say that Liverpool is always going to be an integral part of musical history. But those with the keys to the city aren’t just going to sit and coast off the legacies of their previous exports: their mission lies in keeping the city a-buzz with new talent. That’s exactly what Liverpool Sound City does best.

Showcasing the newest, brightest and most enigmatic of new bands, while throwing in a few familiar faces for good measure, DIY will be taking over a chunk of Liverpudlian territory this year, too. As part of this year’s festivities, we’ll be playing hosts at The Garage, where some real treats lie in store.

“We fucking love Liverpool,” begins Blood Red Shoes’ Steven Ansell, who will be closing proceedings on Thursday evening. “We’ve made two albums in Liverpool, and along with berlin we consider it a home-from-home. The last Sound City we played was really fun, in a tiny place. This time, it’s a bigger room, so we’ll see how it goes; hopefully it’ll be packed and everyone will be up for it.”

The band are currently on tour in Europe, warming up for their return to the UK for a slew of tour dates alongside fellow Sound City goers DZ Deathrays and Slaves. It’ll also double as fans first real opportunity to get their teeth into the tracks from their new self-titled record. “It’s right at the end of the UK run so we’ll be at the top of our game.

“These have definitely been some of our best live shows since we began: our fans have been saying it and all our touring crew and people around us. The new songs have brought a whole new level to the live set. They’re more varied and more exciting, plus we can play loads of them live, unlike the third album, so it means we get to really really vary the set each night and keep things really spontaneous and not play the same way. I think with this album we didn’t really gain a huge amount of fans in most countries, but we’ve cemented our place in the hearts of people who were into us already. They’re going batshit mental at these shows, and not just for the old songs you’d expect.”

And if you’re a fan of the band, Ansell’s advice is to see them while they can: their plans lie more on the other side of the Atlantic this time around. “This album we’ll be spending most of the time over stateside. We’ve been slowly building things up a bit over there, especially with the third album, and now things are starting to really work out. It’s such a vast country that if we really wanna smash it - which we do - we need to get over there and just do our thing - keep touring like crazy. So, after summer you probably won’t be seeing much of us at all over in the UK or elsewhere.” You heard the man.

Liverpool Sound City takes place 1st-3rd May at various venues across the city. Check out the DIY Stage schedule here and the best new bands playing Day One here.