Brighton’s indie-punk outfit, Gender Roles, have developed a huge underground reputation for aggressive live sets and interesting music.  Signed to the Big Scary Monsters label, the Role’s have been on blistering form recently, including last years ‘About her’ single.  Damian Robinson caught up with guitarist Tom Bennett to find out more about the band and their upcoming tour.

You’ve been out touring considerably already this year and have just finished a tour leg.  How’s the health of the live Gender Roles and how are the band sounding?

Yeah lots of touring already this year with plenty more to come! In terms of the live performance, it’s definitely still healthy and hungry for more. Playing live is what keeps us going! Band is sounding rad, all the new songs have been going down a right treat and excited to share them with more and more people!

Then you’ve got a few days off before hitting the road again and out for the festival season.  Where do you find the motivation to play at such a high level on each show?

Thank goodness for a day off eh! The motivation comes from playing itself, we love it so much, it’s our favourite part of being a band. It doesn’t matter how many shows we play (even in a day) all our shows have us stretching to max and giving it our all!

Sandwiched in between your festival shows is a date in Middlesbrough in June.  Do you find any difference with North East crowds than other crowds around the country?

Every crowd we’ve had since day one have had some of the loveliest people. We do often find people are more up for a chat before/after shows and we always appreciate the warm welcoming nature of life up there. A lot of rad parents getting involved with their youngsters as well which is awesome.


What can we expect from the show in Middlesbrough?

You can expect 3 outgoing sillies to go mad on stage, provide banter of the highest level and some great new tunes. It’s pretty much the same as any show, we want to have as much fun with the crowd as possible and get people boogying!

How is the rest of the year looking and what can we expect? 

Rest of the year is looking pretty bonkers at the moment. You can expect an album, a bunch of lovely tours, more silly pics of us and probably a news report that we’re taking over the world or something? 

Gender Roles play Middlesborough’s Heelapalooza on Sunday June 23^rd.