6 Questions with UK indie-rockers Red Rum Club as they kick off a US tour
Red Rum Club hails from Liverpool. But as you read this new edition of the Bandsintown, Hypebot, and CelebrityAccess “6 Questions With” series, the indie band is early in a 14-city tour of the USA and Canada.
Q1: Your sound feels smartly planned but with a heavy dose of fun. For example, your new track, “Vanilla,” begins with a retro distorted bass riff sitting atop a thumping beat. Then the song builds from there, but with some strategic musical pauses. Is that the kind of playful build that fans can expect at shows on your current US tour, or does winning over a live audience require different pacing?
‘Smartly planned but with a heavy dose of fun’ could be a very good way to describe this band. I think for us, we view the US in the same way we viewed the UK when we were first starting out there. Anything is a bonus, and everything is an adventure. It is what we make it. Fans on our current US tour can expect us to bring all the energy we have to every show, and we look forward to saying hello to everybody afterward, too!
Q2: You’ve played in the US and Canada before. Is this your most extensive tour here yet?
We’ve actually never been to Canada before this. So we’re very excited about our first shows there. As for the US, we are revisiting some places we played in March (New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, and Los Angeles) as well as visiting some exciting new places! This is by far our most extensive US tour – and our first tour on a sleeper bus which will be an experience of some sort!
Q3 Are there any cities or venues on this tour that you’re particularly looking forward to… or dreading?
There are definitely no cities or venues that we are dreading… We definitely see all of the shows as opportunities that we’re lucky to have! The US is so vast and fascinating to us that we’re actually looking forward to going everywhere as tourists! The history and sheer magnitude of the US is something that we find amazing. We had a great time in Austin, TX for SXSW earlier this year so we will give Austin a special mention, although LA doesn’t hurt either…
Q4: Are US live audiences different from the UK live audiences?
At the moment, it feels very similar to the UK for us when we were starting out. There are a lot of really enthusiastic and supportive people, and as the crowds aren’t as big as the crowds in the UK just yet, we get the opportunity to speak to everybody, which is nice! We’ve already met some interesting folk on our last visit, and we’re looking forward to meeting more this time around.
Q5: When you’re on the road, do you have routines, habits, or “must-have” items in the dressing room?
I think all of the lads are very trustworthy on the road, and everybody is always there, ready for the start of the show. As a result, we have a very relaxed environment before we hit the stage. Sometimes we have to perk ourselves up a bit! A speaker to play some music is a must for us. To get us in the mood for the shows!
Q6: Tell us something about you that your fans might be surprised to know.
- Francis and Tom are cousins.
- Neil has a dog called ‘snoop’.
- Our tour manager’s surname is ‘Pain’.
- Simon’s middle name is ‘danger’.
- Our manager plays Roger Daltrey in a tribute band to The Who.
- Tom once wet his pants in an elevator in Glasgow, Scotland. This was only 2 years ago, on tour with the band.
- In 2013, Joe witnessed, in the flesh, Meryl Streep fake an orgasm down a microphone in London.
- Only one of these is a lie.
Find all Run Rum Club tour dates on Bandsintown here.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown, which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
