“One of my mates had heard Elliot was wanting to start a band and told him there’s this lad in their class called Connor who’s a singer,” Sheffield indie band, LUNARCA’s frontman Connor Berry shared with me, in regards to the band’s inception. “10 minutes later this guy in a parka with a Paul Weller haircut burst into the room and just said ‘I’ve heard you’re a singer’ and it virtually went from there.”
Described by their quickly blooming fanbase as the “Sheffield Beatles,” LUNARCA has just released their debut single, ‘Living As Me.’ The 60s influence is heavily ingrained into the band’s debut, with twangy, blues-tinged riffs akin to The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun.” Consisting of frontman Connor Berry, lead guitarist Elliot Britton, drummer Tom Stafford and bassist Jasper Elliot, LUNARCA’s debut represents the return of a classic sound.
Berry had his reservations about the band’s shaggy-haired guitarist as he continued the story of LUNARCA’s origin, “I took it with a pinch of salt, as I didn’t even know how good he was at guitar.” The turning point for raspy-voiced Sheffield native was Britton’s willingness to support Berry’s own musical endeavours, saying, “Elliot had travelled a good way to come and watch me play for 20 minutes supporting this band, I really respected him for that, so I agreed to join [the band] not long after.”
The two poached (for lack of a better word) LUNARCA’s bassist, Jasper Elliot, from another band after seeing him perform. Shortly after, drummer Tom Stafford was discovered via Instagram by Britton, and thus, LUNARCA was formed. “We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted,” Berry shared, “We didn’t want to do covers, we wanted to do our originals. In the first rehearsal I remember nailing down around 3 original songs. It was mind blowing to me because I’d never been in a band before and I was seeing the songs I wrote come alive within minutes.”
Among those three songs was ‘Living As Me,’ a catchy track with instrumentals that foreshadow much more to come from LUNARCA. The track is threatening, almost, but in the most joyous sort of way. Although a proper introduction to LUNARCA, “Living As Me” just one of many sounds the band is capable of” says Berry: “We’re aiming to release a song every month so I am super excited to show everyone that we’re not just one sound – and that all our songs are very versatile.” LUNARCA will be opening for The Haciendas at Sydney & Matilda on the 21st of October.