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Members of Kerbslider and Making Eyes at Elvis joined forces towards the end of 2007 to work on songs largely written by guitarist Ian.

"I started writing in October 2007, trying to get some stuff together while we tried to piece together who was going to do what," said Ian.

"It was originally going to be a side project between Chewy (vocals) and myself. To start with I'd write most of the musical writing and Chewy would do the lyrics.

"But we've now settled into a proper band we tend to write songs at rehearsals, with the members bringing their own ideas in. So it's written by all of us now."

Kerbslider disbanded to pursue new musical avenues, whilst university commitments are cited as being the reason why Making Eyes at Elvis (formerly Charlie Brown) ceased to exist.

Making Eyes at Elvis drummer Joel joined up with Blacktop Harrison, whose reputation was quick to flourish considering the reputation of both former bands.

Garf (photo by Andrew Laws)

Their first gig took place at spiritual home The Steamboat and was soon followed by a headlining slot on the CSV Stage at Ipswich Music Day in July 2008.

"Yeah, we were well chuffed with that! We're not quite sure how that happened.

"The fact that we were known a bit for the two other bands, who were both known as relatively professional bands perhaps helped us. But Garf and myself have a degree in music, and part of that was a foundation in pop music at Colchester Institute.

"This drills a certain amount of professionalism into you and this can really help get you places - just going that extra mile, making sure you get your press pack together and that sort of thing. It can make a big difference.

"We're definitely more artistic than we are business people but there's certain elements that would be easy to overlook because the music is the heart of it, and where your passion is.

"But if you don't pull your finger out and do a bit of promotional work then nobody will hear your music and there's no point in putting the effort in in the first place."

Rock on

Ian describes Blacktop Harrison as being a rock band but says they're looking at ways to push the boundaries associated with the genre.

"We're thinking of putting some electronica into it, adding some weirder noises and stuff like that.

"I'm trying to have something that I consider to be innovative to keep me interested in it - be it an unusual chord progression or something that I think is quirky in the music - as well as actually making it a good song.

"There's obviously a lot of power there and it's pretty rocky type stuff but I don't want it to be metal where there's not as much song structure. I want it to just about fit in the rock category where thought processes go into the structure of the songs, so as powerful as I can but also with good, solid construction.

"We're trying to push new things but at the end of the day it's got to be good fun for us. I feel like we're in a honeymoon period at the moment as everyone's absolutely loving it.

"Joel will still do the odd drum roll and I'll be open mouthed asking 'how the hell does he do that?'. I'll be smiling so much that I can't do the backing vocals."

Conversations with bands from Ipswich almost always end up with positive comments made about the state of the local music scene ("good, but surprisingly not many punk bands coming through," says Ian) but concerns over a lack of built-for-purpose venues.

It's also a regular occurrence that The Steamboat is heralded as something of a saviour.

"The Steamboat is an amazing place and we love it there," said Ian. "Bands are so used to being treated badly in one way or another, especially if you're an originals band.

"You can guarantee there will be one of several things that will be really annoying when you go somewhere else - the management will be particularly annoying, there'll be noise level issues or they can be down right rude - it could be anything.

"But when you go to the Steamboat you know you're going to be looked after. Val will put up bands that travel, give them free food and you can guarantee they'll pay you what they can - it may not be a fortune but it will be a reasonable amount and you can understand that it's a reasonable amount.

"The combination of all that, just basically being treated fairly, is something that doesn't always happen unfortunately.

"In Ipswich the venue is either a pub or something too big where you're dealing with the council and things can get too tricky. It would be good to have something slightly bigger than a pub and well managed.

"If we had a decent venue with the management style that Val and Lee use at the Steamboat it would be amazing.

"But I've been hoping for something like this for the last 20 years!"

Blacktop Harrison's debut album is available on M13 Records.