That began with a string of live dates in late 2022, first appearing at Manchester’s famous new band showcase ‘R-Fest’ (from the now-sadly defunct Retro Bar), before taking in a number of venues across the Manchester and Liverpool indie scenes, including legendary venues like Night & Day, the Kazmier Stockroom, and Manchester Academy. Unlike many bands in the embryonic stage, they’ve also tasted international success, playing a particularly fun gig at the Iron Horse in Warsaw, Poland.

If their origins feel a little Spinal Tap-ish, it’ll be nothing new to the band members, as they’re all already veterans of multiple bands. Tower Grounds, however, feels different; they’ve always had, and find it very easy to articulate, clear ideas and their vision and trajectory. Following those gigs, and looking set to power on, out came a couple of tester singles, headlined by Smokeshow (at that time as a four-piece), honed strongly at live shows and released to general acclaim. An album seemed certain, and then, as always, fate intervened again.

A reshuffle of the originally larger lineup (numbering four or five at different times through the band’s lifespan), prompted by some abortive attempts at recording their first long-play, eventually left the group down to its original trio, and Lloyd thinks this might have been the moment where things finally started to coalesce. “At some point, we just needed to lock in, and while it was a shame to have to swap things around, once we became a trio, we were writing as a trio, and because all of us were in from the start, there was that sense of trust between us, and our knowledge of each other’s levels. That really pushed us on, I think – so it became a bit of a turning point,” Lloyd says.

That turning point finally saw their vision go down on tape, firstly with another taster in Homecoming, before following up with the album Tower Grounds, released on March 13^th, what they have to show for it. Originally envisaged as a concept album (the bones of which still live on in the opening track, The One Ear Inn, Bed & Breakfast – a “The Shining”-like concept that inspired singer and lyricist Mellor’s writing, and the album cover, which displays a macabre scene depicted in one of the songs). The album instead became eponymous largely down to the band’s desire to introduce themselves and their sound with no more delays and no more opacity. As Lloyd says: “It was just time to be Tower Grounds, and put an album out saying, ‘This Is Tower Grounds’, so the name came pretty obviously after that – keeping it simple!”

Simple and fun definitely seems to be the name of the game – the album is full of hooky guitars, a rock-solid, funky rhythm section, and strangely playful and menacing writing. That writing is described by Mellor thus: “I don’t like to give too much away about the meaning of the songs. If they’re difficult to interpret, they’re probably doing what I want them to do!” he smiled. “That said, I do like framing relatively simple stories in unexpected settings. Forman’s Basement is probably the most obvious example of that. I think what’s going on in the song is fairly clear, but for some reason it’s happening in Eric Forman’s basement – not literally, of course, but that’s where my head was while writing it. I was obsessed with That ’70s Show for a summer, and it must have seeped in!”

Sitcom references aside, it won’t be long before you hear some 2000s and 2010s indie, the kind the band grew up listening to, in the sound, and some of the riffs are downright Strokesian, but more than anything, it feels like the band want to have fun, and bring the energy of their live shows (often full of toe-tapping funk) onto the record.

 

Where will Tower Grounds go from here? Given their trajectory so far, who can tell. But to be honest, if you talk to them, you meet three normal lads infused with fun and a love for music. That can carry you a long way, particularly when it shows up in the work you do. With their debut album, it certainly does, so let’s see what’s next…