The Beat Surrender

With blonde hair and a resemblance in both looks and stage prescence of a young Debbie Harry, Gracie Bickerton is a Yorkshire girl who makes a striking frontwoman and has a burning hunger for her band to succeed. The band in question is The Antix and they’ve had a very good year, playing countless gigs and releasing their debut single Dare I.

2009 is already looking like an exciting time for the band with a TV appearance lined up and more studio time booked for their next release.

Live they are a real force to be reckoned with so i’m told, I would have found out for myself recently but an over zealous age restriction policy at a local venue put paid to that. I caught up with Gracie recently to ask about that gig, what their plans are and I also asked for some tips for other local bands, read on to see what our feisty front woman has to say about it all.

You’ve been together a few years now as group but i’m guessing this year has definitely been your best as a band as far as the progress you’ve made?

Yeah I totally agree with you there, as a band we have been very busy this year, writing new material recording our first ever EP which as you know is Dare I. Touring was a laugh promoting the track, met a lot of nice people on the way and altogether had a fun year playing some awesome shows. So I’m defiantly not complaining about the progression this year, we’ve come on leaps and bounds in our sound, appearance and performance.

You’ve just released your debut single as you say, it must be great to get that out?

Yeah it was. Nice to know a lot of people have downloaded it and are now really supporting and backing the band. I believe when you release something people take you more seriously as a band, because they know you are serious and passionate about what you do.

When can we expect another release from you?

Hopefully early next year. Were sitting on some great material if you come to one of our gigs you’ll hear it lol. But yeah I can’t wait to get back in the studio because I know it’s catchy and should do very well. So yeah come to our next gig to hear it, The Cockpit Christmas show 19th Dec, you can’t blame me for plugging can ya!

Do you prefer the creativety of the studio or the blood and thunder of playing live so far?

Oh my god, as if you actually asked me that, if you came to our gig you would know the answer, its definitely playing live. Nothing can compare to getting up there and rocking out!!!!!!!!!

I came down to review you at the Elbow Rooms recently but you had what we’ll call fairly un-rock n roll issues that stopped you playing, that must be gutting for you as a band?

Yeah I had a tantrum didn’t you see hahaha. Not our fault we were all gutted but that’s life I guess. You move on. I was up for that gig too. Like I said I live for the stage and when you can’t get on it, haha it gets you very annoyed.

You’ve played a lot of gigs locally where the core of your support is, how have you been going down in other towns and cities?

Leeds and Wakefield area we do well yeah, we’ve got a strong following, and a lot of people I don’t know, talk about us so that’s good to know. When we went on tour we got a great reception and everywhere we played we got positive feedback and we were asked back. I guess it goes on how much promotion you get. Runcorn was a very warm reception and underground is a very good venue too.

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