Interview with... & The Centurions

& The Centurions are a four-piece band originating from the Middle East, they play upbeat Indie-Rock and they've supported some of the biggest names in Indie. We sat down with Vish to chat about playing live shows, future plans for the band and much more!


Please could you tell us a little bit about yourselves for anyone who hasn’t heard of & The Centurians before?

Hello! & The Centurions are a 4 piece band based in West London, however all of us grew up in the middle east. We all went to high school together

So how did you all meet?

Well it was kind of awkward. We all had this one mutual friend who's house we used to go to every weekend. It was awesome because he used to have a lot of house parties and we all seemed to be there most of the time, everytime a red hot chilli peppers song came on or a bloc party tune we used to be the only ones dancing. We got talking and it turned out Maz played guitar, Rab played bass and is played drums! We later met Jad after our move to the UK.

You've supported some big names in the Indie world, what would be your most favourite show you've played?

Hmm, that's always a very tough question! all the shows have been great in their own respect but the one with Bastille really left a lasting impression on us! it was at a festival in Canterbury and we were on late, just before Bastille. We were very intimidated by the audience but after about 3 songs we knew this was going to be our best gig ever. By the last song people were just going crazy. Our last show with Theme Park was great fun too.

So talk to us about the song writing process, do you jam together then work a song from it? or does it stem from a guitar riff?

Most of the time it comes from a jam but in today's day and age you can do anything you like with technology. Maz has sent across voice clips as texts on our phones and that has stemmed into full demos. We also constantly send each other ideas online and when we go into rehearsal, we have a pretty solid foundation of where we want to go from.

So it looks like you're doing your best to make the band succeed, really shows with the consistency of your tracks, what would be your favourite track you've got?

Thats a tough one, probably a demo that we have been working on and playing live that hasn't been recorded yet, it draws the biggest reaction so far. That and Other People, will always be good for us!

Sounds good mate, so what artists inspired you all to start a band up?

There were a lot really. Each person had their own influences. Jad listens to a lot of classic rock - Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, I was really inspired to start a band when i used to watch videos of bands like Nirvana or Red Hot Chilli Peppers on Mtv and stuff, I know Rab always was into that stuff to but as we grew older we started listening to more music and now bands like Twin Shadow, Yeasayer, Crystal Fighters and a lot of the band we play shows with inspire us too! you always learn stuff from people around you.

What does the future hold for & The Centurions then? Got any releases coming up?

And yes for sure! we having been writing for the past month and are building up a reservoir of a lot of songs that we are extremely happy with. they show our change into more mature music, a mix of rock and electronic sounds and I think it's something we are ready to have as our first full on release. We will be sending this stuff to labels for the first time ever because in the past we really didn't think of that as a priority but now we want to go for it!

Thanks go to Vish for his time, why not check out their music just below!

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