JAWS at The Garage

Indie pop band JAWS are riding high on the back of the September 15^th release of their first studio album Be Slowly on the Rattlepop label. The album marks an industrious couple of years; two EPs and four hit singles, including the hugely popular Gold which featured recently on Hollyoaks. The Brummie band have garnered a solid young fanbase who were out in full force last night at The Garage in Islington.

Sporting trademark nonchalance in the face of their energetic crowd, the band played a selection of old and new tracks, exhibiting an impressive range of genres from the dreamlike ambience of Toucan Surf to the laidback, 90s rock sound of album title track Be Slowly.

Ironically, in performance JAWS is rather unassuming. Clad in simple jeans and a t-shirt, lead singer Connor Schofield doesn’t go in for flashy showmanship, instead greeting every song with the gravity of a boxer gearing up for the next round. His bandmates – Alex Hudson (guitar), Eddy Geach (drums) and Jake Cooper (bass) – are similarly reticent, contributing to an overall vibe of “heads down and get on with the music”. The “no frills” approach is a refreshing trend noticeable in many rising bands from the Digbeth, Birmingham area – often referred to as “B-town”. Rejecting overproduction in favour of an unpolished, yet surprisingly sophisticated sound, JAWS finds itself in good company, with fellow bands Superfood and Troumaca also carving a new niche in the alternative rock genre.

It seems the challenge for the band will be to maintain momentum, and to curate their inviting sound into a truly riveting one. Judging from the noticeably more refined tone of the new album – standout track Think Too Much Feel Too Little had the crowd in raptures – JAWS is definitely moving in the right direction.

Aisha Josiah

For further information about JAWS and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Gold here: