ION INDIE MAGAZINE March 2016, Volume 22 | Page 84

Joe Nelson: Where does the name “Narrow Plains” come from--and is there a particular
meaning behind it?
Roger Connick: Lots of bands have an elaborate or symbolic story behind their name. We
on the other hand, just really liked the sound of “The Narrows” and “The Plains”, but we
didn’t want to be another “The” band. In the end, we decided to put the two words
together and settled on Narrow Plains.
JN: You’ve known each other for quite some time--even attending the same school in
Caterham (Surrey, UK), but prior to forming Narrow Plains, you played in different bands;
what was it that ultimately brought you together?
RC: Even though we played in different bands, we’ve always been quite a tight-knit
group. Stu and I are brothers, and we’ve been friends with Charlie for around thirteen
years. Stu and Charlie were in the same year at school--which led to them playing music
together in sixth form and beyond--visiting each other’s universities and playing open
mic nights at pubs whenever they could find time. After they graduated, they were
looking to record some of the songs they’d written whilst at uni, but wanted to add more
depth to the sound. They asked me if I could record bass on the songs, so I agreed, as I’d
taken a break from music for four years and wanted to get back into it. It was actually
the first time I’d played bass, having always played a six-string up until that point. So we
all got together over Christmas of 2011 and recorded what was to become our EP,
“Somewhere In Between”. We started out with the intention of the EP being an
experiment, but really enjoyed working together and were pleased with the quality of
the music production…so decided to form Narrow Plains.
JN: In prior interviews you have mentioned that “You aren’t Folk musicians in the
traditionalist sense”, though your music is part of the new Acoustic/Folk movement, but
how exactly would you describe your sound?
RC: We describe our music as Acoustic/Indie. For the EP, we took the core component of
the singer/songwriter and supported it with an electric bass, drums and backing vocals.
We considered it to be an evolution of Traditional Folk music, but kept that as our main
ingredient as the songs were mainly written on an acoustic guitar in a singer/songwriter
format by Charlie before the formation of Narrow Plains. We now write songs together
that have much more of an Alternative/Indie feel to them with driven instrumental parts,
more experimental backing vocals, synths and harmonicas--but at the same time try to
stay true to our roots. I guess our drum kit symbolizes the Narrow Plains’ sound, in that
we blend a Traditional Folk cajon (used as a bass drum and toms) with modern hi-hats
and cymbals.
JN: You have also discussed how modern American Rock music sparked your passion for
music, but what was it about American Rock versus, say…UK Rock…which you found most
influential?
RC: When we were growing up and getting into music, it was around 2003/04. We all
gravitated much more towards American Rock than British Rock…I guess because of the
lack of it coming out of our own nation, and the huge volume coming out of the US. The
UK was much more focused on Pop, Dance and Electronic music at that time, which we
weren’t into. I think there was also a greater range of feelings you could get from modern
US Rock music--from full-on “not giving a f**k head-bangers”--to gentle emotive ballads