Feelin' Grovy!

ROB FIDDAMAN this week chats to Alsager’s The Groves about their love of 90s power pop, their new single recorded in Stoke-on-Trent - and why they've ‘toned down the twang’

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What style of music do you play? We struggle to pin it down exactly, but it's rooted in a late 90s power pop/indie rock kind of sound. It's fun hearing what people compare us to. Most of the time, we're flattered by the comparisons — although someone at our first gig said we had a country rock vibe, so we toned down some of the twang after that.

How did you all meet? Two of us are brothers, and the rest of us met at secondary school in Alsager. The only exception is Harvey, who Luke and Josh met at university in Leeds back in 2019.

When did the band form? We first started playing as a group around late 2023. Originally, Tom and Josh were writing spoof songs for a spoof rock star character they created called Jack Falcon. He was a washed-up LA rocker type who never quite hit the big time and was a little out of touch and disillusioned with the contemporary music scene. At first it was just a joke — a fun way of writing with no expectations — but we saw some potential in the songs and started taking things a bit more seriously. Once we got everyone together, Luke added some of his own compositions and things started to gain traction. We played our first gig in July 2024 at the Captain's Bar in Hanley (RIP), and we've been playing locally ever since.

Can you introduce all the band members and what they play? Kris Morgan - vocalsTom Adamson - guitar, songwriterLuke Prince - guitar, songwriterHarvey Brown - bassJoshua Prince - drums, songwriter

Are any of the members in other bands or projects? Harvey is the busiest musician in the band — he plays bass for Ruby J and a bunch of other artists. Luke and Josh also play jazz quartet gigs here and there. Josh occasionally plays Ringo in a Beatles tribute band, too.