Thrills With the Rills
Young, energetic and guitar-led, The Rills are a breakout band from the UK working their way up the indie-rock ranks. Comprised of 23-year-old lead vocalist Mitchell Spencer, bassist Callum Warner-Webb and drummer Mason Cassar, the trio creates a gritty and punk-influenced sound that fits the ever-growing underground rock scene in London. And, they’re likely to be well on their way to the US soon. Over 550,000 views on TikTok later, and their journey is just beginning.
In a FaceTime interview, we talk with The Rills about their inspirations, wildest dreams and how they’re staying creative during quarantine.
[Unpublished:] First, some preliminary questions: What genre do you think The Rills best fit into?
[Mitch Spencer]: Probably indie rock, maybe post-punk, which is kind of going on in London right now in the South London scene.
[Unpublished:] What artists do you think influence your music the most?
[Mitch Spencer]: We're influenced by quite a lot of stuff but the big influences are Arctic Monkeys and the Libertines, who are maybe slightly less known than Arctic Monkeys, who are quite massive. Also, we really like a band in London at the minute called Black Midi. But, I’m influenced by Alex [Turner’s] lyrics mostly.
[Unpublished:] How have you guys been dealing with quarantine? Has it affected your creative process at all, or did it make you, as a band, better?
[Mitch Spencer]: Yeah, it affected us massively. I used to kind of write everything and then bring it to practice and then we would work on it together right before lockdown. We’d all create and develop it together; it was a collaborative process. Then, lockdown happened, and we’ve still been toying with ideas, but not really writing together as much. Although, I have still been writing a lot.
[Unpublished:] I have to ask the cliche interview question that every band gets asked: How did you come up with the band name The Rills?
[Mitch Spencer]: This took us so long, we were actually really struggling with it. But, eventually, I was reading some poetry by a guy called Samuel Coleridge and he’d written this poem about Kubla Khan, who's Genghis Khan’s son, or something. There’s this line in it that goes...He's talking about smoke, he's kind of like smoking a pipe, and he's talking it kind of spilling out of his nose’s nostrils and he describes them as sinuous rills. I was just like... rills. That’s nice. I like that.
[Unpublished:] I saw you guys have a new single called “The Angler” coming out. Can you tell me a little bit about it?
[Mitch Spencer]: I can tell you the song is about a very specific character, and he is sort of described through the song. You know it's not like a first-person thing; I'm very much looking at him but in reality, he is made up of lots of different people I've come across in my life. He's a bit boisterous and kind of throws his weight around a little bit. I can tell you it's called “The Angler” as he's out trying to book with a woman, and that in England is called going on the pull. He decides that he's the angler, looking for a catch.
[Unpublished:] Since you guys are based in England, do you find it hard to reach out to American fans and try to get your music out here? I saw you guys went pretty viral on TikTok.
[Mitch Spencer]: I mean this is the first time we've ever had any interest from anywhere other than the UK. So, we've definitely found it hard and we almost haven’t even thought about it. It’s all kind of happened overnight, to be honest. Now it’s like “Let’s get on tour and let’s see where we can go with people as far as Australia, why not.”
[Unpublished:] Indie-rock is getting huge in America, I feel like it’s one of the fastest-growing genres. I could really see you guys getting big here, to be honest.
[Mitch Spencer]: It's not very often people say that about English bands you know. They really struggle in America.
[Unpublished:] Where do you guys see yourself in the near and far future? What's your wildest dream as a band?
[Mitch Spencer]: A wildest dream is obviously to headline Glasglow. For an English band, that's like the holy grail to ourselves, in a couple of years down the line. I seriously would love to have an album out--like, desperately. And, you know, playing major festivals, hopefully touring somewhere around the world.
[Unpublished:] Have you guys been doing smaller gigs so far? Have you opened for any bands or had anything where you were like, “Oh God, this could be really good for us”?
[Mitch Spencer]: Yeah, more of British bands, really. There’s a band called The Blinds who we opened for and that was one time where we felt like all the things were kind of brewing. Then, there was another band we supported who actually signed on the same label as The 1975, which was the real big one for us. We also had a spot at a festival called Kendal Calling, and we ended up playing the slot after a band we really admired at the time. We came out and there were a thousand people and we were just like, “right.”
[Unpublished:] I heard you guys have a mailing list for your fans. Can you tell me a bit about that?
[Mitch Spencer]: I write poetry and our bassist is an illustrator as well. I’ll write and he’ll do drawings over it and we send it out through the mailing list. He’s always been into art and I’ve always been into literature, so it’s just something a bit different we thought we would do.
[Unpublished:] Can you tell us about any of your upcoming release dates?
[Mitch Spencer]: It’s so annoying that I can’t say anything on the date yet! What I could probably say is the single is going to come out on the 24th of July. Also, we are absolutely prepped and ready for potentially two more releases before 2021. Yeah, we’re ready to go.
And, ready to go they are.
You can listen to their music on YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify.
Catch them on Instagram and Twitter and sign up for their mailing list for poems and illustrations from the band members!