Genn Tickets

The band is a royal flush: all different cards, but all belonging to the same suit – and of course, when you play that hand, it’s of the highest possible value. Preserving their own individuality has always been their greatest strength. Guitarist Janelle has a taste for the kaleidoscopic sounds of neo-psychedelic rock and post-punk’s intensity, while Leanne, their bassist, is driven by the desire to play her instrument in a way that is distinctly her own, walking the line between the prog-bass she loves and the sensibilities of the jazz musician she learned from. Drummer, Sofia, grew up in the world of jazz and blues but found the freedom to experiment she was looking for in a psychedelic approach, and Leona’s vocals have theatrical command which channel the Eastern vocal tones of her native Malta.

Always present in their minds and music is a sense of feeling like outsiders. With Janelle, Leanne and Leona’s Maltese roots, no matter how hard they try to assimilate into their adopted hometown of Brighton, they always felt that they remained on the margins. Sofia’s background is Jamaican, Portuguese and British, and while she was raised in Brighton, she experienced a sense of otherness through a unique lens: being part of something while still being separate from it. unum grapples with questions of selfhood, the contradictions of identity and ancestry.

The four of them had a vision in their head and were hellbent on executing it, losing sleep often over how to translate their ambition for a song into reality when they jammed together. Working seven days a week to make ends meet and invest resources back into the band is another fact of their reality. unum was an act of escapism from the heaviness of day-to-day life. The album’s tracks came thick and fast in the jam sessions to the point where, Janelle jokes, it felt like they were “puking music”.