The Rills

“We’re romantics at heart,” offers The Rills bassist Callum Warner-Webb. “When we were recording this album, we watched a lot of romance films like La La Land. They leave you with that question at the end: was it worth it? You have your dreams, but was it worth it to lose so much of yourself?”

The Rills have certainly shed a skin or two to reach this point, on the eve of their effervescent debut album ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’. Produced by Dave McCracken (the indie mastermind behind many Ian Brown solo records and key works by dEUS and The Rifles as well as lending a hand to albums by the likes of Depeche Mode, Sports Team, The Snuts and Beyoncé), ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’ sees these three young friends take that untapped energy that made them viral sensations and darlings of the grassroots scene and direct it something more considered, complete and heartfelt.

Warner-Webb and frontman Mitch Spencer met in their native Lincoln as young teens, losing their spare time in a skate park. A few years later, that same urge to kill smalltown boredom saw them pick up guitars and start jamming together. A brief stint living in Sheffield chasing some of that Arctic Monkeys magic saw them soon return home to university where Essex lad Mason Cassar joined as drummer and their line-up was complete. Often referenced in their music, there’s a Lincoln Imp spirit baked into The Rills’ DNA – notably in their ability to always see over the horizon and carve something out for themselves when no one else will.

They didn’t have a lot of choice when they came out of uni, hungry to make a break when COVID shut the world down. “We were just a little idiot band,” admits Spencer. “Obviously we had these dreams, but then lockdown happened and we were forced into doing TikTok and all that stuff because we didn’t have a way to play or release music.”