Burnley band are a class act

Despite their younger years (four of the band are in their last year at Blessed Trinity while one attends Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School) RITH are already brimming with experience.

“We formed back in 2009,” said lead singer Louis Potter. “We started off with school concerts and band nights and lately we’ve been getting bigger gigs. We played a Fairtrade gig at the Mechanics earlier this month and there were more than 200 people there.

“Even at the school nights though we’ve been playing in front of 150 people so we’re used to playing in front of decent sized crowds.”

Louis is joined in the band by Luke Marsden (lead guitar), Jack Barker (rhythm guitar), Callum Usher (bass guitar) and William Brown (drums).

The band have been honing their talents playing a variety of covers, tackling the likes of the Wombats, Foo Fighters, Queen and Kasabian.

In recent weeks though they have been penning more of their own material and are enjoying adding a new dimension to their sound.

“We’ve started writing our own stuff and it’s coming together nicely,” said Louis. “We’re enjoying it. It basically starts out as a jam with just a drum beat and then we add in the guitars. The lyrics come at the end when the music is finished. It’s mainly me who writes the lyrics but we all sit down together and look at them afterwards.

“We like playing covers live but it will definitely be more satisfying when we’re playing our own stuff.”

And it should only be a matter of time before the band’s followers are being treated to a sound which, as Louis puts it, is “the energy of Two Door Cinema Club’s crossed with the rock of the Foo Fighters”.

“We’ve got a couple of rough songs pretty much finished,” he said. “We’re going to keep working on these, start writing a few more and hopefully by the end of the year have enough to start putting together an album.”

The band practice seven to eight hours every Sunday and on Wednesday evenings if they have a gig that week.

Putting the hours in isn’t an issue though, according to Louis, even with the small matter of GCSEs on the horizon.

“We love playing music and it’s what we want to do when we leave school. Word is starting to get around now. We played a fund-raising gig at a boxing gym in Rawtenstall the other day. Afterwards a couple of people who put on nights in Bacup and Rawtensatll came up to us and asked us if we’d be able to play for them. We love playing live and we’re up for anything.”

If you want to keep tabs on what the band is up to you can follow them on Twitter @RITHofficial or search for Rabbit In The Headlights on Facebook.