Cagework are a brand new three-piece from London, made up of Sam Bedford, James Luxton and Russell Marshall. The band have already made their way to many people’s ears, with impressive radio-play of their two singles inspired by anything from lo-fi indie and post-hardcore, to early emo and avant-garde folk. We had a chat with frontman Sam about their journey so far, and what’s next for the trio.
With just two singles to their name so far, the band already has a buzz around them after being spotted by Justin Lockey of Mastersystem and Minor Victories, who went on to produce their music. “To be honest I wasn’t that familiar with Justin’s work when he got in touch, I was just happy someone was interested in working with us. I’ve enjoyed working with him though, we both have very similar outlooks on music and recording so it made the whole process very easy.” Recent single ‘Wilson’ comes in at just 1 minute and 45 seconds – “I don’t think I consciously made it short, but it’s pretty tiring to play/sing so I think that probably sub-consciously affected its length” – and packs in all of the band’s wonky post-hardcore influences into that time, the ideal way to introduce themselves and leave people wanting more.
Both tracks have had well-deserved support from radio, too. “It’s been a pleasant surprise. We’ve had really good support from Huw Stephens since we put out our first single ‘Simmer’ last year and it’s great that its continued with ‘Wilson’”. This is despite a considerable gap between releases, which the band explain as taking “a bit of a step back to reassess what we wanted to do. We had some line-up changes and wanted to experiment with things a little so we were just quietly working on that”.
It’s not looking likely that we’ll have to wait that long between releases this time around, as the band promise that there are “some hot cuts coming out later this year”. With their influences ranging from Pile, Fugazi and Shellac to Robbie Basho and John Fahey – “I like interesting guitar music with odd compositions, anything melancholic and slightly out of the ordinary, basically” – what’s coming up next is sure to be just as replay worthy.
Check out the band’s latest single ‘Wilson’ and their upcoming shows below.
MAY
14 LONDON, Waiting Room
17 BRISTOL, White Rabbit