Judas Chat To VIVA About Leeds Festival & Their Upcoming Single

With a few sore heads following Leeds Festival‘s first night shenanigans it, at first, seemed surprising how large of a crowd Judas pulled in so early on. However, as their performance went on it became clear why. Their energy exuded off the stage, waking the crowd up instantly, and it’s safe to say they’re just as charismatic, charming and comical off the stage as they are on.

 

VIVA were lucky enough to catch up with the four-piece (John Clancy- Vocals, Todd Blackmore- Guitar, James Phillips- Bass and Sam Horvath- Drums) following their performance. However, for the purposes of this interview they all, apart from Todd, have new roles.

 

John: “I play the microphone.”

 

James: “I’m the fit one in the band.”

 

Sam: “I’m the beekeeper.”

 

Judas were formed by singer John back in 2014, but his memory of it seems a little hazy: “Basically what happened is… I moved to London, quit my band in Liverpool, had a handful of bangin’ tunes and I was just looking for three more male models to join me in the quest for greatness… And I failed, so I’ve got these boys.”

 

As much as we’d like that story to be accurate, something tells us Sam’s version of events are slightly closer to the truth: “He found me on a website, like Join My Band, and I knew these guys through college, so-”

 

John: “It was called BandMix, shout out to BandMix… And here we are, killin’ it.”

 

I guess my suggestion of Gumtree and James and Todd’s shouts of “Tinder” and “Grindr” weren’t so far off then…

 

They certainly are killing it, having only been together for a few years Saturday was the second time they had played the Main Stage at Leeds Festival. In 2016 they took to the stage after another band were unable to play, with John explaining: “We weren’t supposed to play, Parkway Drive dropped out and we got to play the main stage at like 4 o’clock.”

 

It wasn’t all smooth running up to the set, as after their rehearsal Sam tweeted that he had borrowed Kasabian‘s hi-hat stand: “I deleted that Tweet ‘cos we didn’t want Kasabian to get mad. They still don’t know… Basically we were setting up our gear backstage today and my hi-hat stand was just broke, it just didn’t work.”

 

After a few polite words with Kasabian’s drum tech he was provided with Ian Matthews’ hi-hat stand, a “claim to fame” in his words… As if he really needs one after opening the Main Stage at Leeds Festival.

 

Speaking of the experience as a whole, the band said: “We’re so lucky and we absolutely adore the fact that they’ve given us this opportunity to get to play on the Main Stage and do what we love doing.”

 

Class weekend. Thanks a million to @officialrandl for inviting us to play, what an experience. Next up we headline @O2Islington on 18th pic.twitter.com/457PvvTJr7

— J U D A S (@WeAreJUDAS) August 27, 2017

Following their performance they were sticking around for a short while before heading off to Liverpool, and had a few artists they were keen to see: “We watched Rat Boy from side stage yesterday, I wanna see him from front stage.

 

“Rat Boy is so great, Circa Waves we f***ing love them, they’re so good.

 

“Valerie Knox as well, they’re really nice lads but we’ve had our press every time that they’ve been playing, but they sound like they’re killing it.”

 

Although it seemed as though John only had one band on his mind: “I wanted to see Judas but they’ve already played.”

 

It was abundantly clear how grateful the band are to those that are supporting them, stating: “If you’re backing Judas we f***ing love you, eternally.”

 

And everyone will be given that opportunity to back them on Friday 15th September when their new single ‘Ceasefire’ is released: “It’s the biggest tune of the year… Some say… I say.

 

“Me, my mum and my dad all say it… So it’s completely legit.”

 

Well, I guess it must be true then!

 

Their talents don’t end there, though… Who’d have known we’d have Sam to thank for the great weather as well as a great performance: “I had a word with the weather this morning, he said to me ‘It’s gunna rain today’ and I said ‘F*** off, it’s gunna be sunny’… So… It’s sunny.”

 

Having now played the Main Stage twice it’s only a matter of time before Judas are headlining Reading and Leeds, but in the meantime you can catch them at: