Photo: Tommy Sheehan
Even at first listen, the foremost influences on The Captive Hearts are clear to see. The Wigan quartet take their cues from the 1960s mod scene with a growing catalogue of upbeat, predominantly positive guitar driven pop melodies that are infuriatingly infectious.
Think you’ve heard it all before? Think again. These guys have far more to offer than just another tired Beatles rip off.
“We’ve been going for 18 months now, we got together after my last band had called time and went straight into the studio working on my new material,” says lead singer and songwriter Mark Frith. “I hadn’t planned on getting a band together at first, just asked friends to come into the studio and work on instruments with me, but as soon as the recordings were finished I think everyone in the studio knew I had to get a band around the tunes and get out again. We’ve toured the UK twice, had two indie singles out, one Japanese EP, and we’re all from Wigan…”
Less than two years old, the Lancashire lads have already built up quite a name for themselves on the indie circuit. As well as having the two UK tours under their belt, the aforementioned Japanese debut EP, ‘Hummingbird’, was met with a widely favourable response by fans and critics alike.
Although the EP is not yet available on home shores, The Captive Hearts have delivered a handful of singles to keep interest levels high, and to hear it is to believe that the belated but natural successors to the early 90s Liverpool mod revival have surfaced.
Title track ‘Hummingbird’ in particular tips its hat to The La’s, as do the haircuts of the four – be it intentional or not – whilst effortlessly conveying a harmonious blend that The Kooks always aspired to but never quite achieved.
“Liverpool has a knack for producing bands that sing really up and positive melodic songs, and that’s the type of stuff I write,” says Frith on those Merseyside inspirations. “I suppose it comes from being a positive person, you’ve got to be in this music game.”
“It was probably the last full song I had left over from the Troubadours days (former band) so I released it first with the new band,” he reveals on the EP’s title track. “Just because it was in the vein of my last band and I didnt want to lose the fans I’d gained through that band, and thought I’d give them an upbeat melodic tune like I’d always released in the past.”
The haunting ‘(All I Ever Do Is) Think Of You’ is a beautifully crafted mesmeric waltz time ballad that sounds like the greatest number Starsailor never wrote, and perhaps the greatest example of Mark Frith’s fledgling talents.
“I write everything we’ve played and released up to now,” says Frith. “I’ve been writing since I was a teenager and it just kind of comes natural to me. I can draw quite well as well, apart from that I’m useless and can’t wire a plug!”
The real showstopper of the band’s modest repertoire to date is arguably ‘Believin’ Love’. A short, simple, punchy and heartfelt track that typifies the group’s overwhelmingly chirpy outlook on their musical output, this is a gloriously catchy acoustic meltdown that is tailor made for a live crowd. Think Mumford & Sons if you were to strip away the banjos and accordions.
All comparisons aside though, The Captive Hearts are a breath of fresh air amidst a spate of pretenders and clones. Of course their predecessors are eminent, but unlike others of the same ilk who have gone before, they evidently work hard to inject a degree of originality and enthusiasm into their work.
Combined with a tireless touring ethic, big things might just lie ahead.
(Words: Graham Miller & Carl Stanley)
I hate bands with beards.