Meet that student band… Neon Kicks

Rumbidzai Maweni gets up close and personal with Durham’s synth-rocking starlets. Accompanying photography by Marc Pritchard

THE NEON KICKS are known virtually all throughout the Durham student music scene as being the hottest student band in town and the go-to for college events and local gigs. Comprised of two 3rd-year and two 2nd year Durham students, they harness a smooth electro-synth sound accompanied by the jazzy vocals of classically trained pianist and Music student Natalie Graham.

“I wouldn’t really say there’s a scene,” she says when I ask her what it’s like to be in a Durham student band. “There was before, but a lot of them graduated last year. It’s really just us at the moment.”

The band achieved immediate success when they made their debut last summer, playing a series of Fishtank dates and moving on to become a popular choice for college functions. “A drunk audience is always best”, cracks Rob Peck, who provides the band’s synth, guitar, and bass.

Nonchalant about their success, they play down their collectively impressive backgrounds in a wide range of musical styles; indeed, they almost make it look easy. When I ask them how they got together they all look at each other and shrug: “I basically called up Rob and said, ‘Hey do you want to start a band’ and he said, ‘Yeah’. And that’s all there was to it,” Natalie says whimsically. “But it really didn’t come together until Chloe joined us.

As if on cue, Chloe Elliott, the band’s vivacious, brunette drummer nods and smiles cheekily. “Rob and I already knew each other since we both study Music in the same year”, Natalie continues. Chloe then explains how she joined the group though Rob who she knew through “a friend of a friend of a friend that lived near her” and subsequently brought John Williamson into the mix to replace original member Joel Reich, currently on a year abroad. “Both Chloe and John fit really well actually,” Natalie goes on to say. “We had no problems at all.”

Indeed the bond between them is immediately evident. There are times during the interview when I feel like I’m crashing the cool kids’ party. Clearly a tight-knit group that gets along really well, the conversation occasionally would divert to chit-chat about mutual friends and they were prone to gently ribbing each other.

“Tell her about that song about the girl you hate, but you won’t tell us who she is,” giggles Chloe at one point. Natalie shoots her pointed “zip-it” look and everyone bursts out laughing. “See, this is why I don’t tell them what the songs are about,” she rolls her eyes and smiles apologetically.

Equally blasé about the music-making process, Natalie is also the group’s main songwriter. “I write about what inspires me and the people and things that are going on around me. It’s really doesn’t take long for me to write a song. I can write a song in as little as an hour. The thing, you know, is that if you go into it feeling like, ‘Oh, I have to write a song’, then it won’t happen. But if I sit down in my room to write a song, when I’m feeling inspired about something then it’s a lot easier.”

She went on to emphasise, however, that song-writing was not a sole enterprise. Rob backed her up on this: “I think we actually have a good thing going, because we all add our own elements. Natalie and I both see each other all the time since we’re both finalist Music students. So she’ll write something really jazzy and I’ll see how I can add my own synth thing to it. And Chloe and John will then add their input. So everyone is involved in the writing process really,” he confirms.

Half-way through the meeting Natalie gets a text from John, who was unable to make the interview. “He says to tell you that he smiles and nods sagely,” she laughs.

On their website, they cite a wide-range of influences including Tom Vek, Bloc Party, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and they agree that they all enjoy very different artists. “I think it’s great that we all have different musical backgrounds, and thus, varied influences,” Rob enthuses. “Like, Natalie will write something really jazzy on the piano with a lot of depth and I’ll listen to it and go, ‘Ok, how can I turn this into an electro-synth song?’ And Chloe, of course, has played the drums for 10 years…”

Plans about next year make them all turn to each other and chuckle nervously. “That’s what we’ve been talking about non-stop it seems,” Chloe admits. Natalie agrees. “We have no idea what we’re going to do, especially with me and Rob graduating. We would really like to continue with it and if we do then maybe I can come up from London every now and again. But then, there’s also the fact that the other band members that will be finalists next year study rather demanding subjects. Chloe is a 2nd year Maths student.” Chloe looks unimpressed: “It’s such a goony subject,” she says, rolling her eyes and scrunching up her face hilariously.

In the meantime, though, their prospects are looking good. They’re scarcely hard-pressed for gigs. “We’ll probably do a lot of the summer college events,” Chloe ganders. “That’s definitely when we’ll be busiest.

Even more exciting, the band has just started recording. As Rob explains, Dot 45 Promotions and Records, a Durham based promotions company and soon-to-be record label will be releasing a compilation record which will include their song Miles. “It comes out the first week of next term. They’ll probably be having some sort of launch party to kick it off somewhere like…”

“Fishtank,” they all say simultaneously, laughing.

Neon Kicks’ MySpace