The Pirates have spoken!

From over 2,000 submissions, 30 acts from across the UK have been chosen to compete for the prize of a lifetime. Just three of these musical outfits will be awarded with a talent development package that includes everything​ they need to break into the musical stratosphere in 2018, including unlimited rehearsal, recording, industry mentoring and more.

For this special ‘Who Are Ya’ takeover we profile 3 top North West acts that have made to the Pirate Prodigies final.

The brains behind this incredible competition is the swashbucklers over at Pirate Studios (you can read recent our interview with them here). David Borrie, the Co-Founder of Pirate Studios, explains why this contest is so important, “We have 25,000+ musicians in our community, so many of them are producing amazing music. We find it incredible some of these guys aren’t already household names so we thought it would be awesome if we could be the ones to give them a helping hand.”

The programme has been backed  and the teams behind Liam Gallagher, Charli XCX, The Libertines, The Zutons and Brit & NME award winner Kate Nash, who adds “I’m so excited to be a part of this. What Pirate Studios are doing for the music scene is the most supportive/coolest thing I’ve seen in years! Get involved.”

It’s now up to you, the discerning public to vote for your favourites. Voting closes on Friday 20th April, and you can find out how to cast yours after this interview…

This is Red Rum Club

Red Rum Club

Who are ya? 6 lads making Wild West Tarantino sounds from up north.

Where are you from? Liverpool

How long have you been doing what you’re doing now? As Red Rum Club we have been doing it about 2 years. Playing music together and in other bands we have been doing since we were in nappies.

Is being a musician your full time job? Not yet.

Are there any obvious influences in your music? The soundtracks of any Quentin Tarantino film we think comes out in our music, that’s probably the biggest one for us.

Are there any not so obvious influences in your music? Cher – Believe and Britney Spears – Toxic have influenced every song we have ever written and will continue to do so for the entirety of our career.

Any musical Guilty Pleasures? Come on you can share, we’re all friends here! Neil’s is Taylor Swift, Simon loves Tiffany – I Think We’re Alone Now, Joe loves any soft jazz, Francis likes to listen to deep house music in his bedroom with the lights off, Tom loves anything by Dolly Parton and Mike likes anything with a double bass pedal. None of us are even sorry.

Apart from yourself of course, what other band/artist would you recommend our readers check out? Our mate Tracky is boss from Liverpool. He’s just come onto the scene but we have known him years. As well as our mate Tony from the Zanzibar club in Liverpool, he’s not a band or an artist he just owns the club, but everyone should get on him cause he’s just mad.

Tell us about the defining moment when you thought ‘Fuck, yes I want to be a musician!’ At the Catalina Wine Mixer when Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) sings Por Ti Volare and Dale Doback (John C Reilly) rocks the shit out of those drums. That was the defining moment.

Does what go on, on tour, stay on tour? Sometimes things do come back, but there are pills and creams for that now which is good.

What’s your most favouritist gig (as a gig goer), like, ever? Woodstock in 69, the vibes there were something else man.

Who, in your wildest dreams would you like to collaborate with/be produced by? We are aiming to get a tune on the next Tarantino film. So, that’s always the answer to a question like this until we do. But failing that we would love to work with Mark Ronson, he’s a hit machine.

Best place for people to find out what you are up to? Probably our Instagram, we are pretty hilarious so come for tunes, stay for the laughs.

Anything to declare? I honestly had a dream last night that I robbed a multipack of canned sweetcorn from Tesco’s and they didn’t catch me. It’s been eating me up inside since, so that feels good getting off my chest.

Other than that our new single ‘Angeline’ is coming out on Spotify and iTunes at the start of may so go and check that out!

Vote for Red Rum Club to receive the hallowed Pirate Prodigies package of a lifetime here www.piratestudios.co.uk/prodigy

Voting closes Friday 20th April – so hurry!