Harrow rock band The Blinding Lights intend to “take back control” of their music by playing “on our own terms how we want”.

Made up of three brothers, they are calling the project Stand Against the Tide. We spoke to lead singer Callum Lury to find out more…

What is your role in the band?

I like to think that I’m in charge, though in practice it usually ends up being more of a democratic dictatorship... I’m the frontman and leader of the band when we perform, so I sing lead vocals and play the piano and occasionally guitar. But Jack, 27, and Theo, 20 (I’m 24) both have their opinions - particularly Jack - and aren’t afraid to share them.

When did you start playing together?

We started playing properly a couple years ago now. It has its upsides and downsides, organising rehearsals is easy, and so is giving opinions, but when we have other people in to jam with us, they’re usually surprised at quite how much we argue.

Describe your sound

To be succinct about it: Rock ‘n’ roll. But it’s a bit more than that really, there’s a string piano led feel to a lot of it, with the rock ‘n’ roll sound playing off a lot of other influences; Jersey shore, soul revue, bar band spontaneity, 80s arena rock.

Where do you find inspiration from for writing music?

Sometimes it can be as simple as reading a story in a paper, that was the basis for our song The Refugee - a few lines in the paper on the way to work and I’d written the entire song by the time I was off the tube. But equally, sometimes you’ve got to go looking for it.

A lot of my music is in some way or another about ordinary people, living very ordinary lives, and looking for something exciting to break out of it. If you look hard enough those sorts of romantic stories are everywhere, you just have to listen out and look for them.

What’s your process?

Often it’s a slow one but can also happen very quickly, I usually write the bulk of the music myself, but only as a structural outline. I’ll either have a specific melodic idea or just a lyric, and then I’ll sit down and work at the piano or guitar. The music doesn’t really have a set way of coming together, you work with what you’ve got and develop from the ideas you have. Once I have a basic idea I’ll build on it and then come to the band with what I’ve got and they’ll often suggest what they think will fit best with what I’ve got to their instruments (drums and guitar).

What artists inspire your music?

Our dad has a pretty wide taste in music, but loves his rock n’ roll and classic rock, and so growing up a lot of what we listened to came from him, but also more modern people as well as we have grown up. So lots of Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Meatloaf, Southside Johnny, and then also your bedrock of Ray Charles, Elvis and Queen, as well as more modern artists like the Gaslight Anthem and Robert Randolph, giving a similar sort of sound from a similar sort of set-up.

Do you have any favourite venues to perform, or just to watch other bands in Harrow?

Not necessarily just bands but all music at the Trinity is amazing. Such a weird mix of styles and anything goes there and you meet some really cool like-minded people as well, and generally we’ve just had some great gigs there and the people you work with are fantastic and genuinely passionate about music. But it’s also a really cool venue to have as your local, for a place like Harrow to have such an iconic venue around London.

What is planned for 2017?

We have been taking a new approach to things. It’s sort of an all or nothing year. We realised that a year of working with promoters and doing the usual rounds of London had done next to nothing and cost us a fair amount of money. So, starting in March, we decided to do it all ourselves, so we have started putting on all of our own gigs, playing whenever, wherever and however long we like and so far it’s been great.

All of this is part of a bigger project we currently are undertaking called Stand Against the Tide. It is all about standing up to anything that is trying to stop music happening, whether that’s promoters limiting the length of your set, unnecessary middle men taking your money, whether it’s councils trying to stop street performance. There’s a lot happening, and we’re going to push as hard as we can, we care about this, about playing music and getting our music heard. It’s going to be a big year.

Find out more from their website: theblindinglights.co.uk