Tell us a bit about the band. Where are you from and how did you all meet?
The band was founded when we were 12/13. In a little Staffordshire village of Alrewas. we were school friends all into the same scene so I (Ricky Bass) invited Liam (guitar) and Sam (drums) round to my house for a Jam, trying to play old Hendrix, Bowie and Neil Young songs. We kept things going over the years becoming a fixture on the local midlands music scene, trying to find the elusive front man who would fit right in. Liam met Steve at Derby University, he was the best singer in the class so Liam made the natural move and the rest is history.
Where does the name Esteban come from?
One thing which brought us all together as kids was our love of cult cartoon classic ‘The mysterious cities of gold’ Esteban was the main character and following our old band name of Onion seemed like a good option and stopped the puns of us being ‘good enough to make your eyes water’.
If you were to sum yourselves up in three words, what would you say?
Funky, Driven and conscious
You recently released your latest single, Suburban Paradise. Where did the inspiration come from for this song?
The inspiration came from the world around us and from those who mean the most to us. Seeing the beauty in what is in-front of us and celebrating it.
What does the song mean to you?
To me the song is an anthem for our loved ones, the ones who have put up with the many hours of rehearsals and gigs over the years and driven us on to keep pushing.
Is this a hint at more new music to come?
Yeah I would say so, Since we were kids our sound has remaining even back then. The upcoming Jackpot Motel is a culmination of all our years playing together, brought together in our most cohesive offering yet. We’ve grown up and matured. I think the sound of the new album reflects that whilst still maintain our Desert Funk vibe.
Who produced it? Have you worked with them before? How was it working with them?
Mat Leppanen from the Animal farm produced this. We hadn’t been in the studio for almost a decade and after amazing experiences in the late 00’s working with the Animal Farm was always going to be the natural fit. True to form after so long it felt like we had never left. Jokes going around as usual and us managing to record 16 tracks in two weekends with no click tracks.
Pre-lockdown, did you play many shows? Are there any plans to play any when we are allowed to?
Pre lockdown we were busy recording, rehearsing, and writing new tracks ( we have a decade of experiences still to write about) As soon as all this craziness ends we are itching to get live and take the new material to the people.
If you could go back 10 years ago and tell yourselves one thing, what would it be?
‘ keep your mouth shut and don’t rat on your friends ’
Where do you hope to be this time next year?
We have lots of new releases and remixes coming out soon so this time next year it would be good to be mid way through a tour with a few festival dates to look forward too!
Where can we find out more about you?
You can find us across all the usual social media platforms which are all linked from our page www.weareesteban.com
Anything else you would like to tell us?
Yeah if you like the desert funk vibe be sure to check out our Spotify we have the new album coming out at the end of July along with more singles until the end of the year.
I’d like to thank the band for taking the time to answer my questions and wish them all the best with the new music.
TrueStyleMusic 