I am so honored to introduce my very first spotlight band to all of my blog readers today. High Tyde is an unsigned band from Brighton, England, and they recently contacted me with their newest song release “Solana.” I was taken right away with their song, and my initial reaction was, “Wow! This is Eddie Vedder meets the Caribbean!” As I listened deeper to their previous releases, however, I realized that this Indie group of young rockers had quite an impressive and eclectic sound. There is a maturity to their music that goes way beyond their youthful appearance, and I knew right away that this band was worthy of featuring in my blog and holding the title of first “Songstress Spotlight” band.
High Tyde consists of:
Cody Matthews – Vocals, Bass, Synth
Spencer Tobias-Williams – Lead Guitar
Connor Cheetham – Guitar, Vocals
Louis Semlekan-Faith – Drums, Vocals
I have had the pleasure of corresponding with the band’s drummer, Louis, over the last couple of weeks. He appears to be all business and professional sending me links to the music on Sound Cloud, links to a Facebook fan page and other promotional information. There is a fun human being that peeks through his emails, however: “We know you’re busy teaching and being a mom but thought it’ll be cool to be a part of the ‘song of the day.” He is endearing, and I am a sucker for charm. Of course, you can be part of the song of the day, Louis! You’re awesome, and your music is rockin’!
The band was also nice enough to answer some questions for me that I thought my readers would want to know, too. Spencer, High Tyde’s lead guitarist, wrote the following responses:
How did the band come together? How did you all meet?
Spencer:
Originally I met Louis a year and half ago on a music course where we really hooked and started playing music together a lot, including playing the old blues tunes busking in Brighton. Louis and I really wanted to start something bigger though. We wanted to create a new sound different from what we had previously been doing. We wanted to get into that indie rock tone of raw guitar but also sweet and lush sounding with that booming drum mixed together with jazz, rock and ska. We asked Cody to join where in our first practice we had made the song “High Tide.” We then recorded our first EP ‘Meal Deal’ with our producer and manager Ryan Gorringe. Whilst recording we noticed that we would need a second guitar as we had packed quite a lot of guitar melody’s and riffs together it would need to sound just as big live so we asked Connor to join who I had previously been friends for a long time and been in other bands with. It then kicked off from there with releasing ‘Spill the Beans’ which has been one of our most popular tracks.
Tell me about “Solana.” What is the inspiration for it?
Spencer:
As Summer’s slowly approaching here in the UK, we thought that we would write a song about our previous summer being a band. The song came about like every song we have written – at band practice. I had come up with a guitar riff resembling a South African Soukous sound…a bit like something you would hear off a Johnny Clegg record. Louis came up with the initial lyrics which were then adapted by Cody to suit his style of singing. It all came together and after a couple of hours we had finished the track but were still without a name. Originally we were going to call it ‘Sunny Day’, but after a discussion, Louis had thought of the word ‘solana’, which is the Spanish word for ‘sun’. We felt it would fit perfectly with the sound of the song.
What can we expect from High Tyde in the future? Any plans for an album?
Spencer:
Well, we are planning on a doing UK summer tour this year to celebrate our leaving of high school and generally just getting our music around more, support bigger bands, play bigger shows and hopefully coming over to you guys over the pond 
(As for) An album release we will lay low on this. For now, we are just going to release a few more E.Ps and singles just to build up our fan base a bit more. Then by the time we are ready, the album can be put into process.
I, for one, look forward to the day they come over “to you guys over the pond,” and really look forward to the day when I can upload an entire album on iTunes, too. I do believe it will happen for them, and I am truly excited to spread the word of their music on to all of you. So, here is some good stuff for all of you to take into account, note and check out. This Songstress in Tucson really believes in this band, and I am certain you will agree with me.
So, without further ado….Ladies and Gentleman………this is High Tyde.
The Song
Here is the link to “Solana” their most recent tune just released on March 16th, 2013: https://soundcloud.com/wearehightyde/solana-new-single
The Facebook Page
“Like” High Tyde on Facebook and follow them: https://www.facebook.com/wearehightyde
The Twitter Handle: @wearehightyde …. https://twitter.com/WeAreHighTyde
The Youtube Channel:
Here’s the link to check out High Tyde playing live: http://www.youtube.com/user/hightydeUK
Thank you to High Tyde for working with me and please do keep in touch. I will always be happy to spread your amazingly talented music. If you are a just-staring-out musical artist and would like to be featured in “The Songstress Spotlight,” contact me! (http://tucsonsongstress.com/contact-me/) Let’s get your music heard!
