First off, What’s up with your name? Is there a story behind it?
-Our name came about through far, far too much brainstorming in our group chat. We couldn’t settle on a name for the longest time and eventually our guitarist, Aaron mixed a couple of the words we had suggested before together and came up with Undercover Pangolin. Trust me it was the best option, some of the others we came up with were atrocious.
Tell us about your musical past, would you tell us about your early years?
-Three of our current members, Aaron Smith (lead guitarist), Aaron Browne (lead singer) and Joe Templeman (rhythm guitarist) had a band called High Function together from 2019 to 2020. COVID then stuck and halted all progress and stopped them from making music or doing anything together. After restrictions were lifted the three decided to pursue their love of music again and added two new members to the group, Harry Goundry (drummer) and Georgia Richardson (bassist) and from there we became Undercover Pangolin.
How would you describe your sound?
-Our sound is pretty weird overall if we’re being honest. Primarily it’s late 2000s – 2010s indie rock but with elements of funk, metal, grunge and shoegaze.
Which artists have the biggest influence on your sound?
-The great thing is that each member has their own unique musical influences and brings what they enjoy to our practice sessions. Georgia’s would have to be Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aaron Smith’s is definitely Arctic Monkeys, Aaron Browne’s is Linkin Park, Harry’s are Avenged Sevenfold and Bilmuri and Joe’s are Cage the Elephant and Anderson .Paak.
What’s the last song you listened to?
-a new moral low ground by Architects. Great for a workout!
What’s your source for hearing new music?
-Spotify itself offers loads of ways to discover new stuff. Algorithmic playlists like Discover and Release Radar and browsing by genre on Spotify is how most of us will usually find new music.
Who is your dream producer?
-Tom Dalgety 100%, he produced Royal Blood’s album ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’, which is absolutely incredible and so grand in scale for a band with only 2 members. He’s got credit for working with older, legendary bands such as Pixies and The Cure along with some of the best contemporary bands like The Amazons and Demob Happy. It’d be an absolute dream to work with him.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
-Conor Mason from Nothing But Thieves would be a great one because his voice is just incredible but a feature from a rapper on one of our songs would be really interesting. Denzel Curry would be the first choice from how he KILLED his cover of ‘Bulls On Parade,’ he suits rock perfectly but JID would also be amazing because of his sheer technical ability alone.
What led you to make music, and what motivates you to keep making it?
-Most of us started making music from childhood, so it’s been a part of our lives for years. I think we all got our initial motivation to make music just from listening to our favourite artists and trying to be like them. Right now it’s all about enjoying ourselves. Making music is a huge form of catharsis for us and the feeling of pride that we get when we finish something that we built together from scratch is unmatched.
Tell us about your songwriting process. How does it all come together?
-It varies, sometimes we’ll be in rehearsal, start jamming together and come out of the jam session with the skeleton for a full song. Then all we need to do after that is sort out timing and add some additional bits and then we’ll have a full song instrumental in a matter of hours. Other times someone will send in a riff they made to the group chat and then we’ll go from there and add things on gradually between rehearsals until we have a full song. Aaron will make the lyrics himself at home, based on his life experiences and what best fits the vibe of the song.
How do you connect with your audience? What is the easiest way for them to connect with you?
-Gigs! We love interacting with all the brilliant people that have come to see us live and it feels amazing to know that real people enjoy our music. We also like getting song feedback and messaging listeners and potential fans on our social media platforms.
Facebook
Instagram
Spotify
YouTube
LinkTree
What’s next for you?
-Our first ever EP is set to release in February of 2023 and we are really excited. We’ll be releasing the 2nd single off of the EP soon and doing shows and other stuff to promote it. After that we’re going to try to play at some UK festivals in the summer and begin working on an album!
Anything else you’d like to add or let us know about?
-If you’re hearing about us for the first time then we hope you consider checking us out and enjoy what we’ve got to offer!
Bio:
A 5 piece, alternative band from Norwich UK; Undercover Pangolin bring a sense of liveliness and individuality to their music. A combination of many different influences help the band to create their unique sound. The band previously made waves on BBC Introducing in Norfolk and had been pitched to radio 1 presenters with a former project in 2020.
