86TVs promise: ‘We’ll rip it up when we come to Cambridge’

“It’s a hard world out there for music, especially bands,” says Cambridge-born drummer Jamie Morrison, who plies his trade with Stereophonics and also with alternative rockers 86TVs.

The latter are a new-ish quartet – who will soon be coming to Cambridge – that also includes former members of indie rock group The Maccabees, Hugo and Felix White, as well as their younger brother Will White.

After impressing with their debut EP, You Don’t Have to Be Yourself Right Now, earlier this year and selling out their recent UK headline tour, 86TVs released their self-titled debut album on 2 August.

Jamie, who says that the reaction to the album has been “beautiful”, elaborates on his earlier statement about how difficult it is for bands these days: “We’ve been in bands for a long time, so how things were 10 or 15 years ago with putting records out, it’s changed.

“So you feel very lucky to have a record out, you feel very lucky to have a team around you, you feel very privileged to be signed – so I feel very grateful for the whole thing.

“And I speak on behalf of everyone there [in the band], I believe.”

Jamie was previously a member of Noisettes, an indie rock/pop act, who enjoyed huge success with their smash hit single Don’t Upset the Rhythm (Go Baby Go) in 2009, and with the album on which the track appeared, Wild Young Hearts.

He first got to know future bandmates Hugo and Felix White when Noisettes toured the United States with The Maccabees, supporting Bloc Party.

“We were all London-based,” recalls the friendly sticksman, who has also worked with the likes of Bryan Adams, Martha Reeves, KT Tunstall, and Duffy, “so we were at the same house parties, [we had] the same mutual friends, and I got to know the boys on the American tour. This was probably around 2006…

“But it wasn’t until 2014, or ’15, I bumped into them in Paris, specifically Hugo, who is a producer.

“We started talking and we started doing some records together, like Matt Maltese and a Jamie T album.

“And we were using The Maccabees’ old studio – and one day the brothers were there and we were like ‘Let’s have a jam’ and that was it.”

On how they just ‘gelled’ musically, Jamie observes: “We’re from the same sort of worlds, we’ve got the same sort of vocabulary.

“We’ve got the same reference points, very natural process, and obviously they’re brothers – so there’s a natural synergy there.

“And I’m just very good at getting in the mix and working out what’s missing and filling in the gaps, but also adding my vibes.”

Jamie calls 86TVs a “full collaborative effort” and notes that the band played festivals both this summer and last summer, and also did an in-store tour.

“The first summer we didn’t have any music out,” he explains, “so it was quite an interesting situation, playing frankly big festivals, big slots, a lot of people there coming to see us.

“They’d not heard anything [previously] but they’re coming away loving it. So the second time round, this summer, we had music out and we’ve seen the growth and we imagine in the future it will keep growing. It’s been a great summer festival season.”

Jamie says that he and the others are all very active musicians and that “we’re not just sitting around in our downtime”.

“There’s a real genuine love and desire for the work that we do,” he states, “and when that is there you can’t help but make art – and I think we’re pure artists.

“We’re not doing it for fame or money, we’re making art because that’s what’s in our hearts to do.”

Jamie has been with longstanding Welsh collective Stereophonics – one of the UK’s biggest rock bands – since 2012.

He says he is in the band “for life”, adding: “It’s family; 86TVs is a family, Stereophonics is a family. I’m not leaving any of my families.”

86TVs will be performing at Mash in Cambridge on Saturday, 30 November, and Jamie has this to say to the fans, or to anyone who might be thinking of attending: “There’s a lot of energy that we’re going to put out.

“The day that we come into Cambridge, we’re going to rip it up!”

Tickets, priced £20.15, are available from mashcambridge.com. For more on the band, go to 86tvsband.com.