Young Soul Rebels They're based in that cultural melting pot of Brighton. They have an inspired name and a sartorial presence to match.

classic ingredients

They deliver inspired tunes fusing classic ingredients of incisive guitar, bass and drums with attitude and sharp lyrics and vocals. They supported The Ordinary Boys on a nationwide tour earlier this year to a strong reception. All in all, The Young Soul Rebels are well worth a listen.

They are: Matthew Powers - Vox/Guitar
Danny Barnes - Guitar/Vox
Graham Cullis - Bass/Vox
Peter Young - Drums They can be found at http://www.myspace.com/theyoungsoulrebels .

sharp trebly guitar

There is a selection of four quality tunes there, from the spiky guitar of “Shot” through to the humorous lyrics and feedback of “Stay Handsome”. “Just stay handsome”, they sing. An admirable sentiment if ever there was one. Then there‘s the rapid fire guitar and vocals of the excellent “The Engineer”. And the sharp trebly guitar and neat vocal delivery of “Same Song Same Sight”. All in all quality sounds.

Rob spoke to the band and put a few questions to them.

How long have the band been together?

Me, Matt and Graham decided to make music together in the Summer of 2005...there was another drummer at the time but wasn't really right for the band. Pete joined us in November which completed the line-up. So in answer to your question, we've been together for about 8 months.

Youre from Brighton, right? Is that where you all come from?

None of us are originally from Brighton we all came to Brighton independently... Matt, Graham and I are all orginally from Slough and the surrounding areas and Pete is from Bournmouth.

Tell me a little about the local music scene

Brighton is great for music - there's always lots going on and there are a lot of good bands and people.

How would you describe the Young Soul Rebels sound?

Gritty, British soulful punk rock.

Favourite songs?

My personal favourites - The Engineer, Shot and Search is Over...

You supported The Ordinary Boys in March. Tell me a little about it.

First and foremost we've known The Ordinary Boys for years, so to tour with them was a right laugh. Secondly to play the venues we were playing, to the amount of people we were playing to was amazing. We were playing on average to about 2000 people and we went down really well - we only had a DIY-as-hell demo for sale and we sold about 2000 of them. And if you sit back and think about it - we are a completely unsigned band. We have no manager, no funding, no label behind us - we have jobs on the side to support our music.

So to do what we did is pretty impressive really. We weren't sure if people would be into us at all but it seemed that they were - from the new post-Big Brother girls to the old Mods - they all were really complimentary about us. I think we've gained a few fans which will continue to support us in the future. It was basically amazing.

Other than that, what are your most memorable moments of the band so far?

For me, there have been 2 key moments - one really good and one really bad. The best moment so far was playing Brixton Academy. When you start a band you dream of playing there, so to actually do it was something else. We had actually played another venue in Brixton a couple of weeks before playing the Academy - we all joked about how we should have been playing at the Academy... Funny how things turn out, eh?
The worst moment was when our van got robbed whilst on tour with The Ordinary Boys. The bastards made off with all our merch money, our video cameras, my laptop, digital camera and my bloody wash-bag (!). It's a lesson learned but annoying nonetheless. We had some really good footage from the tour and our new demo was on the laptop too.

Who would you say are your biggest influences?

Each other.

Youve got a good mod and soul boy look - is that an important theme for the band?

Not really to be honest. We dress how we dress and if it conforms to a certain style, then so be it... Saying that though, I think it is important for bands to look and act like a unit or gang.

Theres a new generation of band out there. Any you particularly like?

Boom in the Diamond Industry are amazing - a real good mix of music in one. Definitely check them out. Other bands to check out are The Don Ramos Players and The Steal. They all have myspace accounts - it is 2006 afterall.

Anyone you would like to support?

Any band who is good.

Tell me about your plans for the future

We plan just to get on with it. We plan to just play as many gigs and write as many songs as we can. It's important to keep active in a band - too many bands are guilty of sitting back and being content to play the same old songs in the same old places, to the same old people. Hopefully you can expect a cd from us in the very near future.

And to conclude the dreaded Desert Island Disc question. If you had to take one record, one book and one film (assuming you had a DVD player) with you what would they be?"

I can't speak for the rest of the band, but my choices would be:
Record - Minor Threat - Discography
Book - SAS Survival Handbook
DVD - The Lost Boys

Cheers boys.  Keep on blasting out those sounds - we look forward to the cd.