“You discover new people, and it’s mad.”
For Liverpool indie outfit Keyside, festivals are as much about discovering new faces as about performing to those already familiar with their music.
Fresh from their performance on The Nest stage at Truck Festival, the four-piece reflected on a memorable set which saw them play to a mixture of established fans and festivalgoers discovering the band for the first time. “We had a great time up there; it was mad,” they recalled.
For the band, that sense of discovery is one of the best things about festival season. “Just being onstage and seeing new faces and old faces of people who have been to our gigs before,” they explained. “That’s what festivals are all about. You discover new people, and it’s mad.”
That interaction with an unfamiliar crowd is something Keyside particularly relish. While playing to their own fans brings its own rewards, there is something uniquely exciting about stepping onto a festival stage with no idea who will be watching. “Having a laugh onstage, it’s just a great feeling, enjoying yourself and expressing yourself,” they said. “I think when it comes to festivals, you see all these new crowds you’ve never seen before, and I always get a moment when everything slows down, and I look around, and I’m like, wow, these people are really watching us.”
The timing of the festival appearance was particularly significant for Keyside, with their self-titled debut album, Keyside, arriving on 7 August. Recorded as a culmination of the band’s early years, the album showcases their ability to turn real-life experiences into melodic indie anthems, while retaining enough variety to keep things unpredictable.
Describing what listeners can expect, the band promised “tunes that tell real-life stories while you get to the point, fresh and modern with inches of the past.”Among the tracks closest to the band’s heart is Heaven, which at the time of the interview was still unreleased but had already become a favourite within the group.
“Heaven, yeah, I’d say Heaven,” they agreed. “It’s unreleased, but I’d also say Angeline, which is released and everyone knows. That was one of the first songs as a band we thought, ‘Oh, we’ve got a tune here.’”
For lead vocalist Dani-Lee Parker, however, Heaven carries a particularly powerful story. The song began with a message from a fan who contacted the band online around two years ago, sharing his experiences of addiction and difficulties at home.
“All of our songs are about like addiction, isolation and redemption and all of that,” Parker explained. “He connected with songs like Michael and Runaway, and he connected with us on DMs, and he was telling us about his story from home and how he was having trouble at home.” The fan then asked whether Keyside could turn his story into a song.
“He requested if we could make it into a song, so we took his request and made the song,” Parker said. “And I’ve had similar things at home myself, so it felt like a collaboration to write that for him.” The title Heaven reflects the song’s exploration of addiction and its impact on a family, while one of its central lyrics offers a message of unwavering support. “The Heaven sentiment is like his parents are always in heaven through drugs, and a line in it is ‘I’ll always be there when you hit the ground’, meaning when you come off [the drugs] I’ll always be there.”
Although storytelling sits at the heart of much of Keyside’s music, the band are conscious that an album can’t exist entirely in the heavier moments. “There’s a yin yang, I think, when you songwrite,” they explained. “We have songs that are lighthearted like Down My Way, which is like a summer song, so there’s a contrast you need to have as a band to cover all areas.”
“You need the real stuff, but you also need the banana flavour as well to swallow it.”
With their debut album now out in the world, the next major milestone for Keyside is a headline show at Liverpool’s Mountford Hall, a venue the band jokingly refer to as “the big fella”.
“We’re gonna put everything into that,” they promised. “We can’t wait for it.”
Their appetite for big moments comes from years of playing together, with the Isle of Wight Festival holding a particularly special place in the band’s history. It was the first festival they ever played, around three or four years ago. “Even now we look back, and we didn’t even watch a single band that weekend,” they laughed. “We just had a belter weekend.”
For Keyside, a great festival crowd doesn’t necessarily require anything complicated. “A lot of booze, I think,” they joked. “And when they’re up for it, they want to hear the music and bring whatever they want to the crowd.”
Behind the scenes, however, the band’s philosophy is considerably more grounded. Asked about the best advice they’ve received throughout their journey, their answer focuses on resilience and looking after one another. “Look out for each other, keep each other safe. Don’t give up when the going gets tough, because for every setback you get, the next time you’re gonna go further and further.”
“Ten steps forward, four steps back; resilience above all.”
For now, though, Keyside’s immediate focus is on introducing their debut album to the world, taking their stories to bigger stages and continuing to build the connection with audiences that made their Truck Festival performance so memorable.
With their record Keyside now officially out, the Liverpool four-piece have reached the beginning of a new chapter, and if their debut is anything to go by, there are plenty more stories still to tell.
