Cloudspotting Festival: Ways To Sweeten The Mind (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Cloudspotting Festival: Ways To Sweeten The Mind
4:29pm Friday 27th July 2012 in What's on in Lancashire
By John Anson, Features editor
SUNNY OUTLOOK From left, Lorcan Moriarty, Chris Jones and Richy Jones Picture: Sarah Kenworthy
ONE of the highlights of this year’s Cloudspotting Festival in the heart of the Ribble Valley promises to be an appearance on the main stage tonight by Sunstack Jones.
The band, who blend the harmonies of classic Americana with an indie edge, are returning to the boutique festival in the grounds of the Aspinall Arms at Mitton.
“We played last year as a duo, just me and singer Chris Jones,” said guitarist Lorcan Moriaty.
“We’d only been together a couple of months then so I think people who saw us then will notice a real difference this time round.”
Back as a four-piece and now with a debut album under their belts, Sunstack Jones also include Richy Jones on drums and Australian Daniel Thorne on bass.
Lorcan will be familiar to East Lancashire music lovers for his work with Maupa, the Hyndburn-based band who released two albums and attracted considerable interest from the likes of NME.
“We’ve never officially split up but we were together for 10 years and people have moved away and have families,” said Lorcan.
“With Sunstack Jones we are all very realistic about what we’re doing. We have done everything ourselves, including releasing the album Surefire Ways To Sweeten The Mind on vinyl. We just felt that it was the right thing to do. We all love the physical nature of vinyl and wanted people to have something tangible. You do get an MP3 version of the album too when you buy the record.”
Apart from Lorcan, who is now Blackburn based, the band live in Liverpool, and are already creating interest in the city.
“We’ve got this Americana tag but we’ve also been called dreamy pop, whatever that is,” said Lorcan. “To me I don’t think I’m playing that much different from what I did in Maupa but the overall sound has changed.”
Lorcan came up with the band’s unusual name. I just thought it sounded like some unknown old Delta blues player,” he said.
Sunstack Jones play Cloudspotting tonight. Tomorrow the festival line-up includes blues-folk legend Michael Chapman, Jesca Hoop, Glasgow-based electro-folk act Jonnie Common and 10-piece covers band Ofay, made up from members of The Earlies and fronted by singer Liam Frost.
A limited number of tickets for tomorrow are available, priced £20, from Townsend Records in Clitheroe, the Aspinall Arms or www.wegottickets.com.
Ways To Sweeten The Mind by Sunstack Jones is available from the band’s website www.sunstackjones.com
