I knew I was in for a treat this particular night a few months ago as I walked into one of York’s most beloved venues, the Crescent Community Venue, to the sound of Paul Simon’s ‘You Can Call Me Al’. I was there, naturally, to see some live music and interview one of York’s most beloved bands, Gents and Ginger.
The aptly named five-piece consists of four gents: Riko on guitar, and sometimes “scream[ing] into a saxophone and clarinet”, Adam on electric bass guitar, Eli on keyboard and talkbox (an extremely impressive creation), and Tom on guitar and vocals And of course, the ginger to the gents, Mia on drums, vocals and the band’s “mumager”.
When talking about their sound, Adam said the genres they use to describe themselves the most are funk and rock, but they also improvise a lot. They also thought the term “genre neutral”, coined by PH7, was quite relevant for them.
“I feel like you can’t really pin us down.” Mia joked, "We've been a band for three years and we still haven’t found our sound!”
“I think we’re the only band in York who do some just instrumental and some with vocals too. We do a good mix. Some funkier ones, some pop songs.”
This night in April was a special one for Gents and Ginger; it was the night of Band Soc’s ‘Farewell Fest’, signifying the final gig they would be playing in York (for now). They took to the stage that night alongside PH7, Trent and the Crickets and Ghostship. Certainly a night to remember in York’s rich music history!
I sat down with the band as the Graceland track came to a close, and we jumped straight into their origin. Mia quickly sat forward in her seat and said “let me cook!”
“So basically, Band Soc. I met Adam and Riko and there was a huge drummer shortage in first year so I was sort of playing with loads of bands. I was playing with you two [Adam and Riko] and I was playing with Eli and Tom in a separate band. And then Battle of the Bands came up and I was asked by them both to compete and I thought “this is getting silly now” so I was like why don’t we combine for this one gig?
So we combined, we made a playlist of songs to learn and we called the playlist Gents and Ginger as a joke…we didn’t know what to put as a band name so we just put the playlist name then we actually did well. So it stuck and now we’re here! Now we can’t change the fucking name.”
As a leading band in the York student community for the last few years, Gents and Ginger have been perfect role models for any emerging bands or people who want to join a band at university. I asked them what advice they would give to anyone who may be looking to join a band. Adam shared:
“If you’re in York you should definitely go to Band Soc. It’s so welcoming, so accessible, you can meet anyone. It’s great! People are so nice and people have such a diverse range of musical tastes. They do Meet N Jams where you can go and meet people; they have drum kits and amps set up.”
Speaking of BandSoc, in their XLR interview at the 2023 Summer Ball, shortly after Mia had been elected as President of the society, the group pondered on whether they thought this would impact their dynamic at all. Around one year later, Mia reflected upon this and if she thought it had changed anything.
“I think I specifically [thought] I don’t want to put us forward for anything because I didn’t want it to seem like I was abusing any power. Even for this gig, it’s a BandSoc presents gig but I gave it to someone who isn’t in any bands to decide who was to perform. I wasn’t going to put us forward because that felt conceited… I think that it sort of hasn’t impacted it in that we haven’t played with as many student bands necessarily but we still have because promoters outside of BandSoc still put us with bands.” Eli added that “it works quite well because we’re all busy body third years now so we don’t have as much time for gigs as other up and coming BandSoc bands.”
Their gig at The Crescent that night was the penultimate show of the Those Were The Days Tour which saw Gents and Ginger travelling across the country to perform in Folkestone, London, Manchester and York. When I asked about the tour or any anecdotes they had, I was met with extreme excitement and a collective “where do we begin?” They explained each show of the tour, starting “with a bang” at The Fulford Arms, then travelling down to Folkestone to perform at Eli’s dad’s birthday.
Everyone reflected on one of their favourite memories of the tour: going cold water swimming in Folkestone!
“It was on the coast so one morning we all decided that the pain of it might bring us closer together…and we kind of waded, it was on a cobbly beach as well.”
“The crashing waves, the boys were running full force screaming “arghhh”.”
“It felt like we were going to war!”
“Adam was getting changed and I had taken his clothes so he had a big towel round him and nothing else.”
The band then went on to play in London with their fellow BandSoc band Ghostship. “That was our favourite gig I think we’ve played so far, it was a great venue and it was the best.” They took a moment here to show their gratitude to their friends, as they sold 130 tickets to this gig, which was held on a Monday night at a venue near Finsbury Park which had a capacity of 150!
The next leg of the tour led the band back to York to play Micklegate Social and The Crescent, and they went on to close in Manchester. I asked them about all of the amazing venues in York which they had played at during their three years at university and Mia said that she booked most of the venues for the tour for certain reasons:
“I thought I definitely want to play The Crescent, definitely want to play The Fulford Arms and definitely want to play Micklegate [Social] because…I kind of did it [based] on my personal opinion of them. Micklegate was our first headline so we wanted to go back there.” Adam added, “our first proper gig was the 2022 Battle of the Bands final at The Fulford Arms,” and Mia explained the third choice very simple,
“The Crescent is just fucking sick! We had played with Plant Food and Everything After Midnight here. To headline this is a cool way to go out. They all hold a special place to us.”
Matt & Phreds, the venue the band played in Manchester, described Gents and Ginger’s sound as “a delicious blend of old school funk with a modern twist”. When I asked if they could explain what this means, Adam explained that he, Riko and Eli are fans of Vulfpeck, a modern funk band who have brought the genre back in the past decade. This, merging with Mia’s pop/grunge drumming style and Tom’s individual taste in music, formed “…a weird little love child of 15 different genres!”
Considering that each of the band members brings such a personal and unique twist to their overall sound, I wondered whether there was one album or artist which influenced each of their musical tastes or the way they play.
Riko named his favourite album of all time, which is I Am by Earth Wind and Fire, and although he “listen[s] to it all the time I don’t think it necessarily comes out in my playing, it’s just something I love.” He also said he listens to a lot of classical music, which he doesn’t think comes across in his playing, but Mia disagreed with this.
Adam expressed his love of Vulfpeck and Parliament Funkadelic as well as his love of The Doors in first year, even though they didn’t have a bassist. “Joe Dart, who plays in Vulfpeck, steals the same licks as I do from Parliament Funkadelic!”
Eli mentioned the 1995 album Ben Folds Five, which is “very bluesy and I like to put a lot of blues licks and really crashy piano playing which is all over the place. That’s in the spirit of Ben Folds’ music.”
Mia looked through her Spotify to decide upon an album or artist, and ended up talking about the music she listened to before Gents and Ginger, which was Seattle grunge. “I don’t know if that influences my playing but I would say that sort of genre. But also, because I sing and drum at the same time, everyone says it’s like Phil Collins but I’ve never listened to him and thought “let me learn from this guy.” It’s always been Elise Trouw. She’s a multi-instrumentalist and I took a lot from her.”
As Mia spoke about her ability to sing and drum at the same time, I was reminded of a video from the band's Instagram account where she drummed while heading a football! This led to a chat about if they had any hidden party tricks, along with some attempts to show them. We started the night with Eli trying to flip as many beer mats as he could, so of course this made a comeback (he did 11). Riko said that as a band their life goal is to all be able to do a standing backflip. Tom joked that his is “taking my hair down” but Mia shared that he is really good at bowling.
After a while of flipping beer mats, we moved on to chat about some go-to karaoke songs from the group. We had some crowd pleasers and cracking choices:
Eli - ‘Gettin’ Jiggy With It’ by Will Smith
Adam - ‘Light My Fire’ by The Doors
Riko - ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen
Mia - ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen
Tom - ‘Let It Be’ by The Beatles
To close my chat with Gents and Ginger, I asked what we could expect from the night at The Crescent:
“Nothing like we’ve ever done before. We’ve got some new tricks, especially if you haven’t seen us in the last couple of months.”
“Probably also some tears to be honest. I’m pretty confident that I’m going to cry. It’s such a weird thing because it’s been such a staple and then it’s just done tonight in York. I’ve heard from a lot of people recently that they feel like they’ve grown with Gents and Ginger because they came in first year to see us as friends and now they’re watching us close.”
Finally, the question on everyone’s lips, can we expect a ten year reunion tour?
This was met with a resounding YES!
“We’ve made friends for life here.”
“These are my brothers.”
This may have been their last show in York on this specific tour, but it certainly isn’t the end of Gents and Ginger. They will be playing at Band on the Wall, Manchester on 2 August. You can also stream their four singles, ‘Those Were The Days’, ‘Hardware Store’, ‘Social Tea’ and ‘Ambience For a Kebab Shop Pt.II’ wherever you listen to your music. You can also expect an album from the band, which will be out by the end of summer! Keep updated on their Instagram, @gentsandginger.
