The Thieves: an Interview on Becoming a Band

Photo provided by the band, The Thieves

Every artist or band starts in the same place: nowhere. There's a willingness to become better, a dream that the weakest people are not destined or strong enough to follow.

The hard work, blood, sweat and tears that goes into a local scene is brutal. These bands all want that one thing, to go onto a stage and hear thousands of people singing their songs back to them - a dream that seems so accessible yet so far away.

Frankie Dobson, lead singer of County Durham band The Thieves, is no stranger to that notion. The up and coming band have been on the graft since 2019, formulating their sound and beginning to play live shows before the global atrocities of the pandemic.

Tell me a bit about yourself and the band?

"We've been around for a bit just sort of doing covers, then we realised we actually wanted to do something and write some music. I know the bass player Liam because our dads went to school together. Leon, the drummer, I met him at a festival. It was like looking for the right people and just waiting for it."

"We did our first gigs at the back end of 2019 and were pretty much gigging up until COVID. We released two singles that we recorded off our own backs as well."

The global pandemic left way for many bands to form and work silently in the background, waiting for the moment to make something of the music. However, Dobson's local scene beforehand was in a way, nonexistent.

What would you say your local scene is like?

"Dire. We're not from a major city. Our local scene is a lot of bands playing bile you'd hear in a pub. A lot of the original bands when I was growing up weren't going further than playing the rugby club at the end of every month on a Friday or whatever. When it came to music, you'd get on a bus and you'd go to Newcastle and watch Miles Kane at the O2. If we were gonna go to a gig, we were gonna go to a big gig. Our local music scene is all pub singing and stuff like that."

So, you're starting your own scene?

"I'd like to think at some point we could. We've just sort of grown up knowing we can only do certain types of things, we're not really clever with all that in-ears, backing track kind of thing. The music we've listened to growing up has really influenced what we sound like. Where we live, there's really no time to mess about, you need to either get on with it and do something or you just get washed away and get forgotten about. So it's like get your head down and go."

There's a certain poetry in the way a small band works, the matter of it being there are no limits except the sky. The Thieves portray that instinctive musical quality, the intention to go out and grab it whilst they can, even if that thing hasn't been common around where they're from.

The Thieves recorded their up and coming single at Eggman Studios do in Glasgow: "We're hoping to get the next single out by the end of October. We'll be playing a gig in Glasgow at the Cathouse in April."

With a single on the way and a plethora of shows planned, The Thieves are a band that will surely defy the expectations of their hometowns and the restrictions the local pub singing culture may bring - The Thieves will bring more.