The Covasettes -Artist Interview

BTD would like to welcome The Covasettes to the studio.

Hey thanks for having us, hope you’re well.

I see you have just released an EP titled “It’s Always Sunny Above The Clouds.” Such a true statement, how did you come up with the EP name?

Our frontman Chris came up with the idea and we just ran with it. It’s basically just saying if things look bleak, there’s always something bright around the corner.

The EP cover is very creative, I see bears that resemble Care Bears. I am sure they are not, due to copyrights, but what’s the meaning behind those cute little bears?

The guy who created the artwork is called Carl Thompson, I have no idea how he comes up with his ideas but he always manages to create something awesome. We asked for something that looked nice and ‘summery’ on the outside but was a little more sinister when taking a closer look, and Carl has absolutely captured that with the bears.

The first song off the EP is titled Twit Twoo. That song really sets the tone for the rest of the EP.  I heard the lyrics on this song, “ I would like to get to know you.” What a great lead-in for me to ask the next question.  Let’s get to know The Covasettes a little bit more before we continue with this interview.  Could you tell our listeners who are the band members? Who plays what? Who is the wildest in the band and who is the quietest? Oh and one more thing, where are you from?

So we are The Covasettes, I am Matt Hewlett the lead guitarist, Chris Buxton is our frontman, Jamie McIntyre (J) is the bassist and Matt Buckley (Buck) is the drummer. Having two Matts does get a little confusing at times but we make it work. Jamie is probably the wildest and Buck is probably the quietest but we are all a bit crazy at times. We are all from different corners of the UK but met while studying at uni and now we live together in Manchester.

Now that we have gotten to know you a little bit more, back to the song titled, Twit Twoo. That’s an unusual spelling, could you tell us why you spelled it that way? Next, how did you come up with the title and last but not least, in your own words, what is the song about?

Chris usually comes up with the song names unless one of us feels strongly about it and this one was no different. There are oohs in this song and we didn’t want to title the song ‘ooh ooh’ so Twit Twoo just kind of developed from there. Chris is super mysterious with the meanings behind his songs and lyrics so he’d probably beat me up if I told you. I think at its core it’s just a heartfelt love song.

This EP has four fabulous songs on it, full of energy. Could you tell our listeners how this EP came about? What song off the EP took the longest to write? What song off the EP took the shortest to record?

Thank you so much! The EP was in production for around a year. We had the first two tracks ‘Twit Twoo’ and ‘You & I’ that we thought were strong enough to be singles and the other two, ‘Let’s Go’ and ‘Fine Lines’ that would make great B-sides, but we were really excited by the prospect of a more substantial piece of work. All four songs seemed to fit together really well and flow like an album. I couldn’t really tell you about the writing process as we’ve had some of the songs written for years, but ‘Twit Twoo’ is one of our favourites we have written as a band. The hardest to record was probably ‘Fine Lines’ because we had to change some parts from the demo and we kind of wrote it as we recorded it. Other than that ‘You & I’ was a challenge because we had such a specific view for how we wanted it to turn out.

Speaking of writing, who is the writer in the band? Is it a collaborative effort?

It’s a collaborative effort as everyone writes their own parts. We tend to start with Chris writing the chords and lyrics, then I (Matt H) will write my lead parts and maybe tweak some of the sections then we take it to a session with all four of us. The song could change a lot at that stage of the process of stay very similar. The songs may then change when we record the demos or when we play it live. Bits sometimes change as well when recording the final version of the track.

How would you describe your music in two sentences?

Good. Well, very good.

Now that you have described your music to me, describe your music to a country music lover who has very little time for you but is curious about your music. You only have a total of ten words to convince this person to listen to your music. Get ready, get set, go for it….

 Country music is good. Stick with that if you want.

Your official release date of your EP was July 5th of this year. Is there anything special about that date? Why did you choose July 5th?

 In all honesty, no there isn’t anything special about it. We wanted the release to be in the summer and before our hometown headline show (July 12^th).

There are some bands that release EPs and some that release albums, was there a reason for an EP instead of an album?

A band’s first album is such a massive step and I just don’t think we are quite at that level yet. Watch this space though because we may decide to drop a random concept album about our crime-fighting alter egos sometime in the future.

Where do you see your band in let’s say five years from now?

Our aspirations are mainly just to keep going and growing. Everything now is uncharted territory so who knows what the future holds. We hope that the shows get bigger and the music gets better, but other than that as long as we still have some fans to sing the songs back to us we will be four very happy lads.

Can each of you give us a favorite song title from another band that you really like and why?

Chris- The Man Who Built The Moon (Noel G) – The man is a legend.

Buck- Why Am I Like This? (Oddity Road) – Great bunch of guys, why is anyone the way they are?

J- Tuesday (Foxglove) – Simplicity

Me- You Always Get What You Give (New Radicals) – Great song with a great meaning and a great title.

We are coming to a close of this interview, thanks for letting us get to know you. Did I leave anything out of this interview that you would like to add? You can also give a shout-out to a special someone? How about letting our listeners know where they can buy your music.

Thanks for having us! What a wild ride! You can find our music on any major platform, our website www.thecovasettes.com and any of our socials @thecovasettes. We also wanted to shout out our collective sprit animal Sharon Osborne and our Kung-Fu trainer Ross Kemp.  

Be sure to keep us posted on your musical journey!

We will do! Thank you so much for taking the time to interview us and we look forward to the next one! All the best.