7 kids, All 12 Year Old Sign To Fierce Panda > Pesky! unveil new single

7 KIDS.  ALL 12 YEARS OLD.  SIGNED TO FIERCE PANDA.

RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FINEST SHOEGAZY-POP OF THE YEAR

NEW SINGLE UNBELIEVABLE: VIDEO

OUT – OCTOBER 16th
The Guardian – ‘it uses grunge and shoegaze, forms normally known for their, respectively, nihilism and ennui, and invests them with vim and brio’
Vice / Noisey – ‘a rare and brilliant glimpse into how pure music can feel when it hasn’t been tainted by the gifts of ennui and self-loathing that puberty brings’
Dazed Digital – ‘the most thrashing, stormy pop music of the summer’
Shortlist – ‘one of the most joyfully euphoric – and well-written – indie anthems we’ve heard all year, putting bands twice their age to shame’
Clash Magazine – ‘Cute, innocent and naive, the shoegaze-inflected songwriting has a candy cotton feel which other, older, groups can’t possibly match’

The Truth: Pesky! are seven kids from Ulverston, Cumbria, a small market town on the edge of the Lake District. They consist of Megan Cooper (vocals), Niamh Angell (vocals), Patsy Gillam (bass), Kate Stamp (guitar / vocals), Joseph Jackson (guitar), Jessica Webster (keyboards) and Harry Angell (drums).
You may well have heard Pesky!’s ‘Keep Me’ track, a lovely blizzard of shoegazing guitars, twinkling keys and sweet vocals which received rave reviewings from The Guardian, Tipping Point and over 30something blogs. Over in radio land Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne and John Kennedy have all enthused on air about the Pesky! kids. And on Tuesday August 18th the entire Pesky! pack appeared on BBC Breakfast News.

So far, so indie. What is pretty hecking remarkable about this entire heavily charmed project however is that most of Pesky! are 12 years old. And the ones who aren’t 12, namely guitarists Kate and Joseph, are even younger, both being 11. Recognize their age – it’s a tweenage rampage.

Unbelievably, next radio track ‘Unbelievable’ is an even more coherent, confident surge of luscious girl-fronted alt.pop, which is the classic indie formula which runs riot through their six-track ‘Smells Like Tween Spirit’ mini-album. Because, working on the heroically simple philosophy of writing pop songs with loud guitars, Pesky! have come up with a sound which mixes the youthful naivete of Kenickie with the harmonic lushness of, well, Lush.

Better still, while the digital version of ‘Smells Like Tween Spirit’ came out on July 24th, ie the start of the school summer holidays, due to public demand there will a physical CD version of the mini-album coming out on October 23rd, the day the schools break up for half term. And it’s precisely that kind of simple, innocent logic which has propelled Pesky! so far from playground obscurity to the BBC Breakfast sofa.
Indeed, Pesky! are an off-shoot from Croftlands Junior School Guitar Club (itself not an entirely shoddy indie band name), where they were taught to play classics by The Beatles and Beastie Boys. Although this caused the odd raised eyebrow at the school summer concert and sent some of the younger children home crying it definitely fuelled the kids’ enthusiasm for more of the same.
As their confidence and skills developed, it became apparent that something special was slowly but surely bubbling to the service. It began with singer Megan, who brought her first attempts at song-writing to the group where it transpired she had a real talent for squeezing a marvellous melody out of a couple of simple chords. Spurred on by this, both guitarist Kate and co-vocalist Niamh started writing and bringing songs to the table as well, and the seed of the band was starting to germinate.
There Pesky! cobbled together those pop tunes with loud guitars (the louder the better) and a keyboard, because they had one. Rehearsals were limited to one hour a week to fit in with homework, Scouts and dance club and consisted of writing songs and eating sweets…sometimes more of the latter than the former. Then they set up in a classroom and over a weekend recorded ‘Smells Like Tween Spirit’ on an iPad. Sounds simple, right? Right.

Come join the tweenage fanclub…
www.facebook.com/wearepesky
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