It’s always difficult to turn challenging moments and pain into strength, especially when it also becomes art. For LASTELLE this is not a big deal! The up-and-coming post-hardcore band from the UK prove song by song why they are a rising star to watch in 2024. Their latest song, Changes with the Seasons came out this week and their next EP will be out this autumn, so we had plenty to talk about. The band’s guitarist Jonjo Williams answered our questions.
Interviewee: Jonjo Williams (guitar)
LASTELLE
Adam Rigozzi (Vocals)
Mike Hayden (Drums/Vocals)
Freddie Whatmore (Bass/Vocals/Brass)
Rich Lester (Guitar)
Jonjo Williams (Guitar)
How did music become a defining part of your life? Who had a big impact on you? Considering your family members, musicians and bands too.
My uncle was a guitarist and gave me my first guitar when I was super young, with the intention I’d one play it. His plan definitely worked! I started playing guitar with my friends when i was 13, and then started going to local shows and seeing local bands. There used to be a really strong scene for local gigs in my hometown, that were also accessible for under 18 year olds. That scene really lit the fire, and made me go “this is what I want to do!”.
Was it obvious what band position you would like to fill, or did you try different things before you had found the one that best suits you?
I learnt guitar to play it live and be in a band, so I always knew what was I going to do. Once I started playing in bands though, someone needed to write the songs, and I ended up just falling into that role. I really loved finding my sound over the years, and it’s always fun looking back and seeing how my song writing habits have changed… for the better I like to think!
There are many talented British bands with a lot of potential, including you. Who do you think are hidden gems from the United Kingdom and they should get more attention?
There are loads of criminally underrated bands in our scene in the UK! For me personally, a few bands that I’ve been listening to and think need more attention in our scene are Chalk Hands, Sleep Outside, Lonesome, Love Rarely, Pleiades, and Reckoner.
Can you please tell us how you all got to know each other? How did the concept of LASTELLE come about?
LASTELLE rose from the ashes of my previous band. Rich and I played in that band together for a few years, and Mike joined it for the last 9 months or so of its existence. I’d known Mike for years from our local scene. When that band split, the 3 of us were ready to keep going. Adam was already a good friend of ours, and had come on tour with us before as a photographer and videographer, so was an easy choice. Fred was a friend of Mike’s, and when he met the rest of us at the very informal audition, we all got on straight away.
Harrow was released in 2019. This EP was the beginning for you! How do you look back on this record? How often do you play your older songs at your shows?
We look back on Harrow very fondly, but it definitely feels like a different era of the band. Most of the songs were re-written versions of songs never released for my previous band, and they didn’t go through the same writing process we use now. There’s a lot of stuff on there that we’d do very differently these days. We still regularly play This Cage I Built Myself live, and every now and then we’ll play The Silence Hurts The Most if we’ve got an appropriate set length!
Which one of your live performances so far has been the most memorable for you, that for some reason still lives in you as a very vivid memory?
Our recent set at Download Festival is definitely one for me, as it was our first major festival and it was one of those “are we a proper band?” moments. Also, our very first show will always stick with me too, as we sold out a local venue, The Cellar in Oxford, which is sadly no longer there.
In 2019, Bluebells was released as a single, which also received a synthwave reimagination. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear a synthwave song, whether it’s a song, a film or something else? How close is this style to you?
Ha, the synthwave version was very much a moment of boredom/madness during the Covid-19 UK lockdowns… although it was great fun to make, and kept me sane. I’d never written anything like that, but I’m a big fan of the genre! To me, the genre has such a good atmosphere and vibe. Great driving music too!
Your second EP was released in 2021. I probably don’t need to go into details regarding the circumstances, but Delicate was released in the midst of a difficult period of time, where both the individuals and the bands faced many challenges in their daily lives. As an up-and-coming band, how did you deal with these months and years? Did it have an impact on your career progression?
As mentioned above, it was definitely a strange time, which led to strange things like the Synthwave reimagining. Whilst that period definitely felt like a massive pin had been put in our trajectory as a band, we were lucky to have recorded the Delicate EP and shot two of its music videos just before the lockdowns happened. In the first lockdown, we were able to get the EP mixed and the music videos edited. This allowed us to prepare the release whilst we couldn’t play any shows. The whole thing was released over a period where we couldn’t promote it on the stage, which was very strange…
How much does Delicate cover what we can expect from you in the future in terms of the atmosphere, the structure and themes of the songs?
Our new music is very much a continuation of that sound, but i think we’ve approached it with a much clearer idea of what we wanted from it. We’ve taken what we’ve liked from all our previous music and thrown it into the mixing pot for our new music. I think we have a much better idea of what LASTELLE is now.
Before July, you have presented two new singles. Breathe Me In and Life in Silhouettes both absolutely nailed it! Emotional and energetic tracks with great execution. What inspired these songs? Will your upcoming releases follow this approach or are you working on more diverse stuff?
Thank you! Both songs are about very different things, but were both lyrically spearheaded by our bassist, Freddie. Breathe Me In focuses on the hope of rekindling a spark of a dwindling love, whereas Life In Silhouettes is about learning to understand and dealing with the struggles of being neurodivergent. I think our upcoming releases will show many different sides to our sound beyond what these first two singles have! Whilst I think we’ve really honed in our sound for this new material, I think we’ve managed to achieve a great amount of variation within it.
Speaking of releases! Your latest song, „Changes with the Seasons” has just been released. Can you tell us about the process of making it and the story behind the lyrics? For you, what are the main elements of a great single?
This song, out of all of our music, was actually one of the hardest songs to write. It had, I think, 8 revisions before we landed on the final version. Multiple re-writes, re-structures, and different keys. Despite all that, we’re all super happy with how it turned out and are really excited for its release! It’s definitely something a bit different from us I’d say. Lyrically, this song focuses on Adam’s struggles with Seasonal Affective Disorder and the toll it can have on his mental health. It’s about longing for light in the darkness.
You plan to debut your next EP this autumn. First of all, how would you sum up the essence of ‘Exist vol. I’? Furthermore, given the title, are there plans for a sequel? If so, will the two of them make an album together or would you treat them separately? Is there anything interesting about the EP that you would like to share with us and your followers?
Exist vol. I is a very personal release for us. As mentioned before, the songs deal with personal internal mental health struggles, as well as subjects that are just part of the human existence, such as love and loss. This release helps give us a voice to the sides our personalities that don’t come across face to face everyday, and that only we ourselves may hear and struggle with. We use this band as a cathartic release for our feelings and emotions that we may struggle to convey in other ways, and this release is very much a part of that. We have a lot of plans for the future, and a vol. II is definitely on there, although the exact plans will be defined by the unpredictable ebb and flow of being in a band… We are also doing a headline London show at The Black Heart in Camden to celebrate the release of the EP, and we are planning on putting on the most exciting, and longest set we’ve done to date. We’re really excited about this one!
Thank you for the interview!
LASTELLE
Photo Credit: Murry Deaves
by: Wolfy
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