Passion Aplenty with Worlds Apart

Powered by the impassioned vocals and strong lyrics of band leader Rob Lee, Worlds Apart rocks with a brawniness just south of first-wave punk, but with room a-plenty for first-rate melodicism. The music has all the thread s that tie so much of the music we write about here on Garagerocktopia. 

Today, we live in an age where rap has supplanted rock as the music of choice for young people, and when much of the mainstream rock that’s left has the life airbrushed right out, it’s not so easy for a band playing honest, snarly no-BS rock and roll to get noticed. But Lee made clear that those circumstances have not deterred him in the least.

“I’ve always liked this kind of guitar music,” affirms Lee, who talked to Garagerocktopia via email and by phone during Garagerocktopia Radio. “Sharp and punchy, but not heavy. Power Pop, I suppose. And you have to enjoy what you do. Whatever your tastes are, they will inevitably find their way into your work. I always wanted to play guitar and be in a band, and I think a lot of kids will always want to do that, irrespective of mainstream appreciation.”

The Scottish band’s most recent album is Songs For Sons and Daughters, which blazes from its anthemic title song to the album closer, “Silhouette,” with no apparent weariness. It’s a solid collection of rockers, with none that push you to haste for the skip button.

Of course, no songwriter ever cops to writing filler, but one listen to Worlds Apart’s music tells you that as a songwriter, Lee puts his everything into everything.

“I’ve never done ‘throw away’ songs,” explains Lee, “Everything I write is personal or principle. Friends, family, experiences, and politics. I know the meaning behind the words, and I know how I feel about them. I just think of those things when I sing them. I can be quite an angry, cynical and melancholy guy.

Lee explained that the songs all pretty much reflect where his head is -- musically and otherwise -- at any given time.

“It is a solo effort, but that’s just how it’s worked out,” said Lee. “There’s no ego trip, and I’m not precious about sharing. The other guys are just happy to let me get on with it. Ideas come at any and all times. Usually, a few chords or a riff leads to a melody, and that will tie to a subject that’s been on my mind. If there’s no guitar to hand I’ll record something – basic melody or lyric – on my phone.”

“I’m not really one for traditional love songs as such. Romantic, I’m not. Just ask my wife!”

Much like his lyrics, Lee says the hooks are very much what he feels at the time. In addition, he submits that maybe he’s involved in the subconscious channeling of some of the UK’s greatest bands of decades past.

“The hooks just seem to appear,” detailed Lee. “How, I don’t really know, but again, I can ‘hear’ them very quickly most of the time during the early writing phase. I guess years of appreciating masters like The Jam, on albums like Setting Sons or Sound Affects, and a little practice must have had some positive effect.”

When talking about influences, more than a touch of second-wave British punk bands such as the Ruts and the Skids become apparent. But much more, Lee professes an affinity to a movement that had some overlap with Punk in both in time and in style.

“You could pretty much throw in the whole Mod revival period around ‘79,” Lee revealed, “as well as a few that followed in the ‘80s, such as The Chords UK, Squire, Secret Affair, The Prisoners, The Moment, and The Direct Hits. The accompanying new wave period, with Elvis Costello, XTC and The Clash, also yielded some different musical interests and pleasures. A few left-field favourites of ours would be The Smiths, Therapy? and The Redskins.”

But perhaps the biggest inspiration of all lies in one of the primero numero uno OG mod bands, The Small Faces, whose name comes up more than once in the two interviews and whose music leaves visible impacts all over the place, a circumstance Lee makes no effort to conceal.

“A very singular love of the Small Faces is always there as something for us to aspire to,” declared Lee, who said he still very much considers himself a Mod. “The band’s name comes from the song “Long Agos and Worlds Apart”, from the Small Faces Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake album.”

As noted before, so many of the bands from whom Lee and company take inspiration are raw and powerful, and many -- especially those not into Mod, Punk or Garage Rock, make the mistake of thinking just anyone can pick up instruments and sound credible. And, truth be told, as country musicians discovered 100 years ago, three chords and the truth will get you pretty far. But there’s nothing newbie about the band’s sound. Members have been playing Mod-ish music for a long time, and it shows.

The group also includes drummer Mark Bridges; guitarist Ramsay Clark; and Scott Coutts on bass. The band is based primarily in the Aberdeen area, where they’ve kicked out the jams the last four years.

“We all played to some extent in a variety of original bands when we were younger,” Lee confirmed. “Two bands were Second to None and The Leap, both Mod/60s type outfits, as was Mad John. Sons of a Baker was an early version of Worlds Apart. There were also a few covers bands - just to keep playing – between then and now. Scott and Ramsay also currently play with a band called Stanley.

Songs for Sons and Daughters is not Worlds Aparts’ first album. The band has achieved a powerhouse sound, but it by no means has happened overnight.

“Songs for Sons and Daughters is our second album,” Lee confirmed. ”Our first EP (The Hard Times That Make You) and album (Change My Grey Skies To Blue) are both titles lifted from Come on Children by the Small Faces. – were recorded at the same time and released in 2016. They comprised songs that were written over a number of years, many of them before Worlds Apart even existed. Containing a very varied mix of styles – even instrumentals – it was literally a purge of my accumulated creative output at the time. But it was still very much a positive process in order to move forward. The next release, (the single “Stop” b/w 2 more brand new songs in 2017), was a significant marker in the song writing and an indicator of what was to come, namely this current album.

Fortunately, the music of Worlds Apart does seem to be getting out to the right audiences

“We do get some airplay on local radio and some other independent outlets around the UK,” Lee explained, “as well as shows like Glory Boy Mod Radio Show and Ice Cream Man Power Pop. Mark and Ruth at Mod Radio UK have also been very kind. I like to think about people listening to our music in ‘far flung’ corners, and imagining they like it.”

Our website is a good place to get to know us. There’s an interview we did, amongst other things, with a local radio station, 57 North. We’re a band that has fun – and a sense of humour -- but takes our music seriously.” 

Don't Forget to listen to Garagerocktopia Radio, alternating with Blue Mood, Tuesday nights on KUCR Radio, 88.3 FM Riverside, California. We play artists like Worlds Apart, plus many others who have appeared on our hallowed pages.

We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

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