Kings Of Understatement - The Rascals

Until Alex Turner bigged them up and began the side project Last Shadow Puppets with front man Miles Kane, you probably hadn’t heard much of The Rascals. 'Age Of The Understatement', the first song from the duo sparked debate asking questions such as ‘Is this the next Lennon and McCartney’ or ‘Is this a Muse rip off?’ and people began to take more interest in Miles' band. Okay the world might not completely be at their fingertips yet, but luck and being in the right place could certainly play a part.  In previous band, The Little Flames, they were lucky enough to tour with Arctic Monkeys who were taking the world by storm.

Now as The Rascals, they’re touring with The Courteeners, who have been predicted to be the next Oasis. But their own headline tour starts this week with support from The Susuzki's, who they hope will get some deserved recognition from the gigs. “The Suzuki’s are a great band we really love them so we can’t wait for the tour,” we're told. They’ve even been added to the 02 wireless festival. Not bad for three lads from Wirral. Gigwise got talking to Bassist Joe with only two hours until they’d be on stage supporting The Courteeeners in Southampton. 

“Yeah, we’re excited. We’ve been excited about all the gigs. We get ready by listening to a few tunes and that and it’s been very good,” explains Joe about their latest bout of touring. So, do they believe they’re touring with the next Oasis? Joe laughs and says, "Well, everyone jumps on that one. They are good and they’re decent lads. We wanna be the next Beatles though” Hmm, never heard that one before. “There’s been a dead good atmosphere with the album and it only took two months in total to finish it. We worked with Ben Hillier and he’s dead nice and it was great to work with him” It’s not a bad start working with producer of Blur, Elbow and Futureheads. And they seem determined to be your next favourite band having worked 12 hours a day on the album! “We always have new songs as well; we just wanna keep the ball rolling”

But in terms of influences the list is varied and surprisingly hasn’t got Arctic Monkeys on it. Joe reels of a list, “I love The Beatles obviously, Scott Walker, QOTSA and I love a bit of hip hop as well. All three of us like pretty much the same music” It looks like nothing can pull this band apart not even disagreements in music. In fact they seem to be taking it in their stride, almost unfazed by the sudden exposure, but then they are mates with Alex Turner.