Sweet Crisis – Rollin’ In It
Put simply, Sweet Crisis will be rollin’ in money if the calibre of their output continues like this. Dripping in the sounds that made rock music great in this country, the band from Cambridge have added many layers to present a definitive style that is currently played by very few bands. There is always talk of a new breed of classic rock music being made at the moment but many of the artists that fall under that banner seem tired, uninspiring and incapable writing a tune that will stick in the head for hours to come. Not so with Sweet Crisis, a band I’ve seen live multiple times now and never failed to be impressed with. Whether they’ve been playing to 100 people in a small venue or several thousand in a festival field, the audience are stood in rapture throughout the length of their set.
‘Rollin’ In It’ ensures that their ability to hold the listener in thrall remains and the track itself can be summed up in a single word, ‘swagger’. The track is dripping in it and if you want a comparative as to what you can expect when listening to it, imagine if Howlin’ Wolf and Lynyrd Skynrd has teamed up to release a bluesy rock and roll track that was wrapped up in the soul and groove that Stevie Wonder made his name with. The end result as you might imagine is something rather special. Check out the video below and bring on the album I say! This is a band on the cusp of greatness.
LIVE GIGS
13 Mar Hot Box Live Chelmsford, United Kingdom
21 Jun Cambridge Rock Festival Cambridge, United Kingdom
TIckets: https://www.sweetcrisis.net/gigs
Sweet Crisis is a contemporary Blues rock band in which the roots and the music run deep.
Singer Leo Robarts and guitarist Piers Mortimer first met when they were kids in the early 2000s, and as Leo says, “This band is all about soulful, rock n’ roll.”
Sweet Crisis were formed in Cambridge in 2015, and after a number of line-ups an album was recorded in 2018 but then discarded. “It was very frustrating,” Leo recalls. “We spent a year making that album, and then realized we didn’t like any of it. So we ditched it.” As Piers explains: “We knew we could do better. We needed to be true to our roots and play the kind of music we grew up on”
The starting point was re-visiting albums they had ‘borrowed’ from their dad’s record collections: Free, Humble Pie, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Zep and The Stones. Piers offers “We want to capture the vibe and spirit of the classic British rock bands we grew up on and still love so much. Killer riffs, soulful emotive vocals and great drum grooves. We’ve always enjoyed playing epic guitar riffs and Leo’s voice really inspires our songwriting.”
Leo says “We’ve been guilty of overthinking things in the past, so we wanted to loosen up, capture a vibe and record ‘old school’. We needed to go out, play gigs and grab some studio time.
Piers and I started jammin’, formed a new band, and then headed out on tour to Switzerland. We spent the days writing new material and getting high, and then every night played for hours in small clubs, trying out the songs on a different crowd. We arrived back in UK at 10am Monday morning, in the studio by lunchtime and by midnight we’d recorded 5 new tracks. We were fortunate to get Don Airey (Deep Purple, Whitesnake) to come in and lay down some Purple-esque Hammond Organ, and having Sarah Brown (Pink Floyd, Roxy Music) record some spine-tingling backing vocals was the cherry on the top!”
The first track from the recording session ‘Black Magic’ is scheduled for release Friday 21st June. Leo states “The starting point was definitely a cheeky nod to Hendrix, and very much inspired by The Black Keys and Gary Clark Jnr – bands that respectively tip the hat to the Blues but add a modern spin. Piers finishes “. We’ve been at this since we were kids and it’s like we’ve come full circle.
It feels good to be making a sound that comes natural and not to be searching. Our time is now!”
Sweet Crisis are:
Leo Robarts – Vocals, Guitars
Piers Mortimer – Lead Guitar
Joe Taylor – Drums
Matt Duduryn – Bass Guitar
Dom Briggs-Fish – Keyboards/Organ
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