Lawson
Artist

Lawson

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Lawson are living the dream. The four-piece are just back from five weeks in Los Angeles, recording their debut album with six-time Grammy nominee John Shanks. And they’re fresh from a sold-out headline UK tour – not bad for a band without even a single to their name – and slightly less-than-fresh after an arena tour with The Wanted.
“We had two or three heavy nights out with The Wanted,” explains guitarist Joel Peat. “But the biggest moment in that tour was when we got to the O2 Arena in London. We were all really nervous before we went on stage, but that was the best gig we’ve ever played. Everything felt perfect.”
But Lawson also remember the bad gigs. The pub in Cambridge where the audience numbered three, and that included the sound guy. The club in Manchester that promised to supply a PA, but neglected to mention that said PA was more suited to bingo – so there was nothing for it but to get drunk, which drummer Adam Pitts proceeded to do with so much gusto that he was “ill” between every song.
“We did so many terrible gigs that it defined us as a band,” says bass player Ryan Fletcher with something like wistfulness.
“But we always had a good laugh,” says Joel. “As soon as we realised no one would be turning up, we’d start singing the wrong lyrics. And getting pissed.”
These were gigs so bad they were great. Lawson, formed via Myspace and old school friends and music college, were learning the ropes, paying their dues and sharpening their performing and songwriting skills.
And there were the gigs that were straight-up-and-down great. Like playing with Avril Lavigne, one of the artists that had first inspired frontman Andy Brown to pick up the guitar. Or their first time supporting The Wanted, on a national tour in spring 2011. Lawson were an unsigned band at the time, and it was trial by fire in front of 5000 Wanted fans night after night.
“That was almost like an audition,” remembers Joel. “It was like, come along, see if you can pull off these big dates, see if the four of you can make a sound good enough for these big venues…”
Not only that – Lawson had to perform acoustically. “We were gobsmacked when we heard that,” admits Andy. “We’d been rehearsing as a full band, learning new songs and stuff. Then we had to start again and work out how we could play in these massive venues to these screaming fans with only acoustic guitars and a drum box.”
But Lawson pulled it off, and, grins Adam, “it was the best time ever.”
“It worked in our favour,” says Ryan. “People were saying, well if they can do it acoustically, imagine how impressive they’d be with a full band…”
Immediately after completing The Wanted tour, Lawson played their first headline show, in Brighton. There were crowds down the street. Was this queue of people round the block for them? They were. Also in the crowd that night: a rep from Polydor. In July last year, the band signed a record deal. Two years after forming, Lawson had lift-off.
Except they didn’t. The band know getting a record deal is only the beginning. Now the hard work really begins. But when you have songs as good as Lawson do – robustly melodic guitar-pop anthems by the bucketload – loads of the heavy lifting is already done.
Joel grew up in Mansfield, where his music teacher mum pushed him to try different instruments and his dad bombarded him with Motown records. Adam is from Brighton, where he practised drums from the age of ten, bashing out a love of Coldplay, Foo Fighters and Paramore.
Ryan comes from Chesterfield, and in his teenage years played in a succession of school bands that mixed up his enthusiasms for Eric Clapton, Guns N’ Roses and Taylor Swift. Liverpudlian Andy was raised by his dad’s busker’s guitar and Sixties music: The Beatles, The Searchers, The Stones. “I loved anything with guitars,” he says. “Everything from Sum 41 to The Eagles to Lady Antebellum.”
In summer 2009 Andy was a solo singer/songwriter on the Merseyside scene, trying to catch a break. For a while he’d been posting his own compositions and inspired cover versions – including Kanye West’s Heartless and Daniel Merriweather’s Red – on Myspace and YouTube, and had built up an online following in the tens of thousands. Then, out of the blue, he received an email from a “weirdo”… This was Adam, and he said how much he loved Andy’s songs – and if he ever fancied forming a band…
A couple of months later Andy – keen to amp up his music and give his songs a bigger shout – called Adam. They met in London for an initial jam, and were joined by Ryan – Andy had met him earlier in the year at an audition for musicians to work with a newly-signed female singer, and the pair had bonded over their shared appreciation of John Mayer.
The three of them set up in a shabby rehearsal room under railway arches in Shepherds Bush, west London. They jammed Stevie Wonder songs, and Duffy, and Lady Gaga.
“It was obvious that it was definitely gonna work,” says Andy. “It just needed the edge, basically. But The Edge wasn’t free.”
But Ryan was studying at music college in Guildford. There was a kid on the guitar course there that he’d known from the adolescent band scene in the Midlands. Ryan’s band Superfox (“did we have a tidy bird singing? No, we had an ugly lad!”) had played with Joel’s band Red Lemons. Ryan called Joel and asked him to join the trio for their next rehearsal in a couple of weeks’ time.
When the four of them were in the room together, playing, the chemistry, remembers Andy, “was instant. But it sounded shit!” he laughs. “We all clicked immediately as mates. But musically, we realised it might take a bit of time.”
The foursome got stuck in. They began posting songs – originals and covers – on YouTube. A small online buzz grew into a bigger virtual fanbase. They sought out the management companies behind the bands whose approach to big, anthemic, gutsy, no-nonsense pop they liked, like The Script, The Feeling and Maroon 5. They eventually entered into a development partnership with 19, and began gigging… and gigging… and gigging.
And they changed their name – they had been called The Grove, which even for a name taken from a fancy shopping mall in Los Angeles, is still a band named after a mall…
Then, says Andy, “we named ourselves after a surgeon who did an operation on me a few years back.”
“You play that down so much!” smiles Ryan. “He saved your life.”
Turns out the “operation” was an 18-hour marathon to remove a brain tumour that had threatened to, well, kill Andy. Even the operation had its risks: deafness, blindness, loss of facial nerves. But after three months in hospital, Andy was right as rain. Naming his cherished band after Dr Lawson, the surgeon who did in fact save his life, seemed the least he could do.
Adam was inspired by the name-change too: DIY-style, he jotted down a band logo on the back of an envelope, featuring a heart-monitor-style line under the letters.
The buzz, and the gigs, began to pay off. And the songs kept pouring out. Inspired by the news of his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, Andy wrote Standing In The Dark and first single When She Was Mine – buoyant, uplifting songs whose feelgood-vibes belie their emotional content. “Every song is taken from real life,” says the frontman with the soulful pipes. “Emotional honesty is the only thing I can write about. To be honest I’d say 80 per cent of the album is about that girl.”
That said: You Didn’t Tell Me, which begins with delicate acoustic guitar before blooming into a radio-friendly piano-and-guitars ballad, isn’t about said girl – it’s about Ryan, and his own rough romantic patch. “He went through a two-month phase of getting stood up by girls who were, to be frank, out of his league!” laughs Joel.
Then there’s Stolen, a big tune made even bigger by a fleet of strings. “We love the strings on Take That’s Greatest Day,” says Andy. “They make such a massive impact,” adds Joel. It’s no coincidence that to help them make their debut album, Lawson have recruited producer John Shanks, the guitar buff and strings expert who helped Take That craft their albums Beautiful World and The Circus. Lawson have big plans, and big tunes – and they needed someone with big ideas and a big sound to help them realise their dreams.

“His studio was unbelievable,” laughs Ryan. “Right in the middle of Hollywood, by the Jim Henson/Muppets studios. You’d go in and Van Halen would be coming out. Drake was there one day, Justin Bieber another day.” For the freshfaced foursome, “it was just mental seeing all these huge stars.”
“I did get a bit emotional when we were recording a song called The Girl I Knew,” say’s Andy. “I’d written that on acoustic guitar in my bedroom a year ago - then hearing how John had layered in all these strings, it just sounded amazing. I tried to sing but I couldn’t, I was too emotional! From having nothing to going and recording with a Grammy-winning producer in an amazing studio in LA – it was a huge moment for all of us.”
“You only get one first album, don’t you?” says Ryan. “So you gotta make it big.”
This month the band are heading back to LA to record the video for When She Was Mine, before returning to the UK for a headline London show in April that sold out in 10 minutes. With their rapidly expanding fanbase, Lawson are already halfway there. But it’s the other half they’re really looking forward to.
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For further information contact chris@chrislathampr.co.uk

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