There is so much great music emerging from that Holmfirth- Huddersfield- Halifax triangle at the moment. I must remember to ask Yorkshire Water what strength amphetamine they are putting into the local water supply.

A band that has caught my eye for a while is Holmfirth’s Renegade. The band are five bouncy, strapping and talented 16/17-year olds in the form of Ewen Rivallain – Vocals, Eddie Kirkby-Geddes- Guitar, Will Senior – Guitar, Alex Philokyprou- Bass and, Max Slingsby- Drums.

The first recent release Smile (birthed in October last year) is a particularly sunny and jaunty song with nice jangly guitars and a chorus line straight from the best of the 1980’s banger pop tunes. Vocally I get something of Phil Oakey (Human League) mixed with Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley with a very warm, rich and strong tone.

The lyrics are as sweet as a sweet thing and I pick up that they reflect that fast feeling time when you realise you are attracted to someone and your heart is all over the place. I certainly know faces that want to make me smile, although a cruel reality of being older is that quite a few of them belong to cats. Aging is death by a thousand cuts. Renegrade’s sound is likewise as tight as a very tight thing and it made me wonder how long the band had been melding this sound.

Renegade tell me that Ewen and Alex had been close friends since the age of 5, as were Eddie and Will. When they got to Holmfirth High School all 5 ended up in the same form and soon became mates. Then during their first year at High School when they were 11/12 years old one of them had the idea of starting a band and they decided they might as well; now the guys are 16/17 and have stayed together ever since. That figures; I know my former editor Adam has a theory that he can usually spot a particular togetherness in a band with siblings or those that have stuck together since school and that is certainly true here. This band have a special knack of melding together.

The most recent released track Bite Lip is a different beast and show Renegade with something of a heavier and less jovial context. Again, the distinguishing features are the nicely jangling guitars, soaring tune, that strong warm vocal and those particularly perceptive lyrics. This time it features a somewhat unsettled girl who doesn’t know what she wants, but she is with someone else. One for the too hard pile methinks. The Renegade lyrics are so relatable.

What’s certainly true is that Renegrade are building up some class songs on their Spotify account and it’s only going to be a matter of time before one flies. I’m sure with their building body of class tunes Renegade will be a good live bet. They are playing next at Huddersfield Parish on 18 February as support to Tall Order.

Chris R

* Images taken from the guys social media feeds.