Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: we are from different parts of the UK, however Rich & I have been friends for over 10 years after meeting at university. Amazingly, neither Rich or I had heard each other play their instrument until just before the pandemic where we went for jam in a studio near us. We quickly moved from covers to original pieces but with one slight problem; neither of them could sing (Rich might debate this).
Enter Cherry Terzza. We met Cherry through a mutual friend. She auditioned and was a perfect fit for our sound. We spent much of lockdown 2 and 3 writing original material and have really kickstarted our music careers this year.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A: I started playing guitar in 2002. I was classically trained on guitar for 2 years before moving to teaching myself on electric guitar.
Rich started playing in 2004 and had training for 6 years.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘The Here and Now’?
A: Where do we even start!?! We all have such eclectic tastes in music so it’s hard to name everyone who we’ve been influenced by but we’ll give it a go with a few names: Royal Blood, Bloc Party, Foals, Rage Against the Machine, Paramore, Maneskin and the list can go on. Whilst we’re influenced by loads of different artists we’ve been told by a few people we’re a bit different with our sound and so we enjoy being a bit more difficult to pigeon-hole into one specific genre.
Rich initially thought of our name, it’s a lyric in a song by one of my favourite bands. It resonated with all of us as it pretty much sums up why we formed the band in the first place and the basis for a lot of the themes we write about. Sometimes we can all be stuck in the troubles of the past or too focused on the future and letting things that might not even happen in future dictate how we live our lives. We think it’s really important to value each and every day and that we live in the moment more and not take for granted what we have in the here and now. We write songs about our own real experiences and things we go through every day as we navigate through adulthood
Q: You have just released your new single ‘Dreams of Grandeur’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Dreams of Grandeur reflects on where our past selves thought we would be in life by now. Whilst all completely comfortable with how our lives have progressed, we use this song to reflect on past dreams/visions and wonder why things didn’t play out how we envisioned.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: You can indeed! We are working on releasing our first EP later this year.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: We might talk about some pretty deep themes in some of our songs but we’re all about making songs that people can bop their heads and get moving to when we play live. Expect fun, catchy guitar hooks, energetic drum beats and big vocals that you can get singing along to.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: 100%. We all have full-time jobs outside of music and we use music as an escape and release from everyday pressures. The main thing we get from our music is pure enjoyment and all the work we put into it is an absolute pleasure.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: We all contribute to the songwriting process whether that’s co-writing lyrics together or individually writing songs so we each have our own personal ways of writing when we’re on our own. When we’re together we nearly always start with a main theme for the song or message we want to talk about and then go from there. Often song ideas come from a riff written by Lee or an idea that he and I have jammed together but we also try to sometimes write the music second once we know the feel and mood of the lyrics we’ve written
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: It has to be the pandemic. As I mentioned before, Rich & I started this just before the first lockdown hit. Once restrictions lifted, we built some momentum by getting Cherry onboard and practicing regularly. The subsequent lockdowns slowed the momentum we had been building but it also gave us so much time to reflect on what we wanted to be.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: Our first gig together was at the iconic Spice of Life (The Sex Pistols, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens) in Soho in April. Between us and the rest of the other great artists we shared the bill with, the night was a sell-out. It was incredible to hear the roar from the crowd throughout our set and even hear some people singing lyrics to our first two singles back to us. After 2 years of songwriting sessions over Zoom and irregular rehearsals because of the pandemic it felt amazing to finally share our music with people live.