Sinful Choire was a particularly interesting band the emerged this year. They came from playing in the local pub, to completely booked out in-house venues. Their unique sound like no other helped the three young men, of 22 and 23 years old; Matt, Sam and Dane, find a record label within 3 months. It was in March the 17th that the band officially signed with well renowned record label 'Red Dragon'.
With a record label, and support behind the band, they toured across the UK; this was to be the first of many tours outside their home region of Wales.
With a recording studio, and with support of producer Hans Friedal, 'The Choire' released their first ever album in April. This album would be known as the notorious "Exocentric".
Though originally the band did not sell as many releases as they wanted, their later single "She Was Free" released in July caught the mainstream public attention for the band for the first time. Many more releases would be sold as a result of this.
However this was only half way through the year for The Choire, and in Late August, their new single "Living with no lights on" shocked the whole Rock world. Reaching 14th in the UK charts, the song was praised by such groups as The Verve for its "originality".
By the time November came, it seemed as though the band had gone quiet, only doing gigs in small in house stages; then lead vocalist and guitarist "Sam Fole" was found in a public high-street, passed out on the floor in the early hours of Monday 19th. Sam was arrested, but later let go after being bailed out.
"That was a crazy night, [it's] not the worst I've been, and fortunately for me I didn't take any drugs that night".
Sam glanced away and smiled to himself as he reminisced about that night.
Sitting in the corner of the pub, Sam sat on the opposite couch seating to me as he picked up his Larger and began to sip the froth. I asked him with The Choires large recent success, whether the boys would consider touring in large arenas such as the O2. "No, in the near future we would probably stick to our small in-house gigs. Many people think it's because at the O2, we would be afraid that our gig wouldn't sell, but the truth is we don't want to. We want to stick to our origins. It wasn't so long ago we would be in line to get a venue at the Darkmyth (the local pub for the boys back in Wales). We are just a few mates playing music and having a good time, it's not about the money for us, we don't want to sell out".
I then moved the conversation towards the name ‘Sinful Choire’. Sam claimed that, “We all attend the same church back when we were younger, in the homeland, which was how we met. We were all teens when we first started playing music together, not necessarily as a band yet. It was when we were 18 ‘ish we decided to form a band, officially. The choir at church was tame so in a way we rebelled and decided to make a mockery of it with our much more rock and roll style of music. Our band is based on being alternate and away from the mainstream conformist society, which is why I have came onto the stage dressed as Fidel Castro, a famous revolutionary. The ‘E’ on the end of choir is sort of inside joke. Ewan (the bassist), the idiot he is, when making ideas for the album cover of ‘Exocentric’, he spelt choir with an ‘E’. From then on we never let it go, besides it intrigues people, you aren’t the first to ask that question”.
Despite the Choires unique sound, Sam claims to had been inspired by the 1980’s alternate rock post punk movement. “Unlike today's music, the instruments come first, then the vocals come second. We don’t mean that the vocals are any less important, but the bass and the guitar isn’t muted in order to make room for the singer, being me. We are a band not a one man show. We still contain a raw rock and roll feel to our music while keeping it new. A recent band that inspired us the most would most likely be The Verve.
I proceeded to handing Sam the ‘Band of the Year’ trophy, and congratulated him on his achievements this year. Sam responded “I’m really surprised by this, and honoured. We just enjoy playing music, we never realised our music would be so recognised.
My false impressions of a drugged up rock and roll star were easily falsified by the modest, hardworking Sam I met today who created music as it was his passion and legacy to do so. The band were well deserving of the Band of the Year award, and hope to grow and create even more alternate rock in 2017.
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