Having cut their teeth on tour with the likes of Blossoms and Inhaler, The Guest List are a band in the early phases of carving their own space from the wilderness of British indie. Rising from local venues to some of the most notable sticky floors and festivals in the country over the last five years, they’ve proven to be one to watch, and then some. These Mancunians channel inspiration from their 0161 predecessors, and who can blame them; musical talent is so deeply rooted in the band’s hometown of Altrincham that guitarist Tom Quigley sometimes sees Johnny Marr out on his morning run. With a debut headline tour already tucked under their belts and a bigger one on the way, The Guest List are on the move at a pace that would make The Smiths’ guitarist jealous on his jog. The Rock Revival sat down with frontman Cai Alty and the rest of his band to discuss their journey from school friends to one of the country’s most notable up-and-comers.
For those who don’t know The Guest List yet, is there anything in particular you’re wanting them to get from that first listen?
I think just what everyone wants really, we want them to think that we sound like something they’ve not heard before, buy into us as artists and buy into the music – that’s all you can hope for. I think it varies, we’ll have a different process for different songs. Sometimes certain lyrics won’t mean that much to us, and it’s more about the feeling we want to convey: being free, having a good time and being yourself. Other times, Cai’s put a bit more into the words and we want to be thought provoking. We’ve got a song called “When The Lights Are Out”, which is about mental health, and that’s quite important for us. That one’s not out yet, but keep an eye out – it will be.
You’ve gone from playing under a gazebo at Goose Green festival in Altrincham in 2021 to diving head-first into the UK festival circuit this summer – how have you grown since then, both musically and as a group?
Yeah, massively. There’s the obvious fact that we weren’t the same band members-wise at that point, but over the last two years there’s been a massive shift. We were just playing covers in the garage, filming them and sticking them on TikTok, but through that we’ve found our manager and our agent. It’s completely transformed us, being able to have a crack at putting our own tunes out there. This last six months of gigging pretty constantly in particular has forced us to look deeper into the songwriting and performing, as well.
Do you think your experience touring with other artists has been key to that growth?
100%. You start to watch shows differently; now when we see bands that we look up to perform, it’s not so much just having a good time but you’re also breaking down what they’re doing on stage, how they’re interacting with the crowd, and thinking how we could do that. The big thing we do is try to gather from everything we do as a band, every performance, every studio session. The last tour we did with Inhaler in February taught us a lot about stage presence – we’re always looking to learn, because that’s the only way you’re going to get better. We used to stand still onstage behaving like a school band, but now we’ve seen people we’ve performed with, like Blossoms, and it’s given us insight into how we want to be. It kind of ruins going to a gig now, instead of enjoying it we’re taking notes!
You played your first headline tour in March, but are already gearing up for a bigger one this November – you must be feeling confident, no?
Doing this first tour was definitely eye opening in terms of the influence we have on people. It’s great to come off the back of a tour like Inhaler, then go on to do our own shows and see people knowing the songs we haven’t released, and really getting behind us. Some of the venues are ambitious, we’ve not played maybe half of them and will have to work hard to sell them out, but yeah, we’re looking forward to it.
What can fans, both those who have been with you since the start and those who are brand new, expect from November?
Well, quite a big change really. I think between now and then, there’s going to be a lot more music released. Up to now, we’ve been fairly slow in releasing, and that’s down to being relatively new and not having the same support system around us. We’re now in a much better place to record and release. I think they can expect a pretty new sound. A big thing as well is that this year is like the first time we’re all completely free and able to commit more time to the band, because all of us are out of school now. We can do this full time, put more time to writing, and get a bit more flexibility in the studio. We used to have to record on a weekend, but now we can put some proper time into it, it feel a bit more full on.
Having built up a core base by now, how do you balance keeping those fans onboard whilst continuing your growth as a band?
It’s a bit of a tight rope, really, trying to play to like two audiences – one that knows you and one that doesn’t – because we want to keep moving and playing our new stock, but obviously there’s people in the crowd who wouldn’t recognize it. We’re constantly trying to battle the set list of it, and please everyone. We have to just be confident with it, and not be afraid to disappoint people. You want people to walk away thinking “that was a great show, I want to come to the next one”. Having those songs in the set which they’ve not heard before, but they think sound better than the ones they do know, is a really strong motivator for bringing people back.
You’ve played festivals before, but this summer sees you take to more stages than ever – how are you approaching such a great opportunity to get your name out there?
I think it’s really tough as an artist, being able to play songs to people that are up on Spotify, but then also trying to show you know what’s to come. Festivals are a really unique way you can play in front of hundreds or even a couple thousand people – people could be seeing you for the first time. Our main aim is just trying to get to people who are going to think “this is a band that want to keep an eye on”, and obviously, we’ve got that big tour of November to think about as well. If they see a 30 minute set at a festival, then maybe they’ll want to come down to recruit some people to see an hour set in November as well. We enjoy playing to people who don’t necessarily know who we are – it gives us a really good impression of how strong our new stuff really is.
‘Acoustic Sessions’ came out last month, and you’re no stranger to releasing more stripped-back tracks – what is it that drives you towards that style of music?
The new stuff that we’re going to release now won’t be so stripped back, but I think it gives a good insight for fans into the songwriting process and how these songs are born. When you hear the final product, you don’t really understand that the song really does come from nothing. It does start with just a piano and vocal, which is the version of London that we’ve just put out. If a band that we looked up to did something similar, I think we’d really appreciate being shown that.
How do you blend the styles of musicians you look up to into your own, unique sound?
It goes back to not trying not to replicate anything, I think. The first EP that we did was very Strokesy, because I was listening to loads of Strokes at the time, and trying to match what they were doing. We were 15/16, so I wouldn’t say I was that worried about trying to be authentic at that point. Now, though, we try to take what others do, learn from it, but then ultimately when, when we write, blocking all that out and still just trying to do what comes to us and feels natural, rather than emulate what other bands have done. We ruin a lot of ideas – one of us might bring something to the table, only for someone else to say “oh, that sounds like xyz”. In a way, I think it would probably have been better to be in a time where you could only play music on CDs or vinyl or whatever, because it’s so easy now to start an idea and go, “hang on a minute. I know what that is”, and then you can pull up from some random genre song on Spotify which you’ve somehow managed to accidentally rip off.
It’s still early doors for The Guest List, but you’ve already made the jump from local to national recognition – what would your advice be for bands looking to do the same?
Well, we’re still obviously very young and early into the career, so I wouldn’t want to preach too much to other bands. I think what we’ve learned on the way is that you just have to protect your authenticity as much as you can. Remember that in the midst of all the noise that you’re doing it because you want to make something new and be yourselves. It’s pretty easy to get dragged into what other bands are doing and why they might be more successful, but really, if you stay true to what you believe in, I think you ultimately get further.
Words by Dylan Seymour