It has often been noted that pop culture always reinvents itself. Pop music is no different. The sound of past decades is often rediscovered by a new generation who puts their own spin on it. In the 1980s several bands emulated the sound of the 1950s, likewise bands in the 90s put their own signature on a late 60s early 70s sound. It should come to no ones surprise that a lot of modern groups are starting to sound like the post-punk/new wave sound of the late 70s / early 80s. One such band is Anteros band formed in 2014 London, and is made up of Laura Hayden (vocals), Joshua Rumble (bass guitar), Jackson Couzens (guitar) and Harry Balazs (drums).
Their latest album 'When We Land' really has an early New Wave vibe. Their look is pure Blondie as is their sound with possibly some Pretenders thrown in for good measure.
Check out their latest video for the track 'Drive On':
Here is their bio:
Anteros are a four-piece band from London, via Barcelona, where singer and lyricist Laura Hayden grew up with her Spanish father and English mother. She’s now in the English capital fronting a band making smart, sharp guitar pop. They call it “bitter dream pop”; same difference. It will please fans of 1978 new wave (you can tell Hayden’s mum fed her a constant diet of Pretenders and Blondie, although she also loves Stevie Nicks and Gwen Stefani) and 1995 Britpop (bassist and producer Joshua Rumble’s tipple of choice is Blur with a side order of Oasis). Hayden tells us that she wants “to make people dance and have a good time”, but there have been stranger responses to Anteros’s music: at their first gig, at Camden’s Monarch in 2015, a homeless man grabbed the mic from the singer and started telling “the rudest obscene joke, primarily about the Queen and parts of her anatomy”. More usually, they get people humming along and tapping their feet: these songs would slot quite comfortably on a 70s-90s radio station’s playlist next to What Do I Do Now and Kid, Connection and Rhiannon.
Anteros are poised between doing this in their spare time and the big time: Hayden, who is trilingual, is a former MTV Spain presenter and occasional DJ while Rumble does graphic design, guitarist Charles Monneraud used to work in McDonald’s and is now a session musician, and drummer Harry Balazs was formerly a consultant sound engineer for Iranian weddings. “It’s hard to make a living out of music,” says Hayden, who sounds chirpy even when she’s moaning. “Josh does all our driving – it’s like something out of ! We’re always getting stuck. It’s a struggle, but a fun struggle. Like an adventure.”
They’re getting there: they were one of Annie Mac’s New Names for 2016 and invited to open on the Other Stage at Glastonbury. Their latest track, The Beat, is a Radio 1 single of the week and Blondie’s Chris Stein recently liked one of their pictures on Instagram. “Which,” they all agree, “was nuts.”
When she was 13, Hayden was dragged by her mum to see the Stones, with the Pretenders supporting. Clocking Chrissie Hynde, she recalls: “I lost my shit. I said, ‘I want to be that girl.’” Insidiously infectious pop with spikes, sweetly exuberant melodies with a tart aftertaste, evidently come easily to songwriters Hayden and Rumble. “We usually sing about something miserable,” suggests Hayden, sounding anything but.
We should tell you about the music. There are songs about disappointment, alcoholism and mid-life crises; Anteros is indie with pop ambition, with its Be My Baby beat and Hayden’s woozy vocals. It’s a style she uses in abundance: on Fade to Grey she sounds as though she’s just got out of bed, while on Tell Me Over Breakfast, which by contrast has effervescence to spare, she sings: “I’m bored of talking for tonight.” It was inspired, Hayden explains, by an exhausting relationship with “someone who only wanted to stay up and talk about their problems all the time”. Relationships (often her own) are regularly dissected by Hayden and found wanting, even if Anteros was the Greek god of requited love. The Beat has the insouciance of peak (ie early) Pretenders, and is about a time the singer “got dumped because I was too busy to take care of the guy. He sent me a text as I was on my way to the studio, so I switched my phone off and wrote down all the things I wanted to tell him. I guess that makes it a breakup song?”
There’s also Ring Ring. It’s of the same name or , and yet Anteros’s reliance on old titles seems deliberate, as though to trigger echoes of distant pop memories. It’s a quasi-classic, like Saint Etienne going back in time and signing to Stax. “I’m gonna hold my breath till my eyes stop stinging,” threatens Hayden coolly over a two-chord strut that is at once naggingly familiar and not quite like anything you’ve heard before. It’s not on the accompanying playlist, but watch out for it on their forthcoming EP. It’s a shame Top of the Pops is no longer with us: you can imagine her performance, all feigned ennui as she secretly relishes the pop glory of the moment. She says “You think everything’s going to be amazing but then one day you wake up and go, ‘What the fuck am I gonna do with my life?’” – but this is someone who knows exactly what she’s doing and where she’s going.
Check more new music on my playlist 'Grounded' on Spotify
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