Villanelle have spoken exclusively to NME about launching their debut single ‘Hinge’ this week, and their plans to resurrect rock.
The UK rock trio – consisting of frontman Gene Gallagher, guitarist Ben Taylor and bassist Jack Schiavo – met by chance encounter in the summer of 2023, before they bonded over a love of the harder side of music and formed a band.
Since then, they’ve been putting the hours in and touring the UK, ending last year with a sell-out UK headline tour on word-of-mouth alone without releasing any music so far. You may have seen them support Gene’s dad Liam on his ‘Definitely Maybe’ 30th anniversary tour in 2024.
“It was a genuine passion and drive to bring back rock music again,” Taylor told NME of what brought them together. “Bands have been in the culture lately, but it was indie rock for a long time. Then it plateaued into an almost ‘pop’ band-y culture. We wanted to bring something back.”
Gallagher agreed: “There was a big hole for grunge-y music, especially. It feels good to do this.”
Bassist Schiavo (who Gallagher described as having “the height of Krist Novoselic and the attitude of Duff McKagen”), said that while they all shared a love of rock, it was the differences in their influences that made for “something a bit fresh”.
“At this point, we’ve really started to dig into what our sound is,” he said. “Where we meet is this mix of grunge, shoegaze, punk and alternative rock. That’s right in the centre. Ben’s influences are more in that English alternative rock space, mine’s more of that ‘60s and ’70s rock space, and then Gene’s are like ‘90s American rock bands. In the middle is where we all interact.
“I’m bringing Black Sabbath, Gene’s bringing Nirvana, Ben’s bringing Arctic Monkeys.”
Taylor added: “I’m more into my Deftones-y, reverby, wall-of-sound kind of thing, while Gene is very much the opposite. He’s into grunge-y, hard-hitting, distorted guitars. We’re pulling in very opposite directions there, but it blends very nicely – or it would just be two people with the same view and tone. We all meet in the middle.”
The first official taster comes with ‘Hinge’, dropping on Wednesday (September 10). A blast of late Nirvana grunge where lo-fi grit meets arena-destroying swagger, the single is what Gallagher described as “a proper right-hook of a song”.
“It’s just all heavy guitars,” he told NME. “That’s my favourite tone of any song: just really chuggy chords and really fucking distorted. All my favourite songs are like that – very punk rock.
“It’s just an aggressive song. I want it to sound like having a freakout. The lyrics are anxious as fuck.”
Taylor added: “Coincidentally, it’s the first song we ever wrote and also a punch in the face, which is exactly what you want to bring for a first song. It’s got a bite to it. It’s abrasive, but in a really great way.”
Check out our full interview with the trio below, where they told us about building a fanbase, giving rock a kick up the arse, what’s next, and the influence of seeing the Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour.
NME: Hello, Villanelle. What do you make of the state of guitar music at the moment? Do you feel part of a healthy scene or do you feel like outliers?
Gene Gallagher: “There are definitely scenes, but they’re all very scene-y. If you don’t play the same place every night for three months then you’re not going to be accepted into them. I never really got into any of the scenes in London because I never liked them. I didn’t really like the bands.”
Jack Schiavo: “There were scenes particularly down in South London at places like The Windmill and stuff, where these bands are really interesting. They all have a niche, but they all have the same niche together. Those scenes were unique, but they didn’t really open up to other people. You had the same bands playing there every night for months. We want to explore different scenes and different stages. We never played there. We played other venues in London, joined different bills, played with different acts and started building an audience there – rather than creating a sound that fits another scene.
“We’ve done our own thing and picked up fans along the way.”
What do you make of the buzz? To sell out a tour without releasing any music isn’t easy. What can you tell us about your time as a band so far and how you built up that connection with the fans?
Gallagher: “There’s definitely a connection. We’ve played Manchester more than we’ve played London, we did three UK tours last year alone, and it always seems to be the same faces.”
Ben Taylor: “We have quite a few dedicated fans that come to every show and have every piece of merch; they know us all by name. For a band that are yet to release any music, that’s quite humbling.”
Schiavo: “Someone had made a bootleg of us playing live and was selling it on CD. That felt like something out of the ‘80s. It’s been crazy and very surreal.”
Taylor: A lot of people approach it more for curiosity, because there isn’t anything to listen to yet. It’s about retention. People go to one show, then they come again and bring their friends. That’s what’s nice – people finding it in an organic way.”
How would you describe a typical Villanelle fan?
Schiavo: “It’s a very diverse crowd. We get a lot of the rock fans who are interested in guitar music, your stereotypical 6 Music Dad types that you see all the memes about, who want to see a guitar band thrash it and drink a beer on stage. Then we’ve got quite a lot of young people. A lot of our fanbase is 14-18. Then we’ve got people just like us – in their mid-20s who just want to see music that’s exciting again.”
How would you describe yourselves as a live band?
Gallagher: “No one really knows any of our songs. Everyone’s just watching and working it out. They eventually all go crazy and let loose. I just want energy at concerts.”
Schiavo: “We were playing in Nottingham and there was a group of lads who’d learned all our lyrics from live videos on YouTube. They were starting moshpits and shit, and we were just watching going, ‘What?’ Their commitment was crazy. It just got us so excited.”
Taylor: “We bring a lot of energy to all of our lives shows. It will be really interesting to go back onto the road with tunes out there that they can expect. It will be really interesting to see the energy from the crowds really ramp up.”
Ben and Jack – has Gene got you into any Oasis gigs or has he been really tight on guestlist?
Taylor: “He’s been tight as fuck, man! I’m kidding. We’ve been and it was incredible.”
Schiavo: “We went on a trip the other week to Dublin, because we wanted to get some content of the band and go out and explore. We got to enjoy the gigs in the evenings, which was incredible.”
Gene, your cousin Anaïs said she’d done 12 Oasis reunion gigs on the trot and counting. What’s your total?
Gallagher: “I’ve been to the most out of all the kids! I’ve been to well over 12. I’ve done like, Toronto, Chicago, both New Yorks.”
The Oasis shows are a spectacle of euphoria. As artists and music fans, has witnessing the show in such a way inspired you in terms of what’s possible with Villanelle?
Gallagher: “Definitely. It makes you want to pick up a guitar straight away. It lights the fire.”
Schiavo: “It literally doesn’t wear off. The next night in Dublin, we were all just looking at each other like, ‘Jesus Christ, they are the best band in the world’. This is what we want to be able to bring out at some point. We want to have that kind of level of reaction. It’s so visceral and pure in that crowd – how gassed everyone is by it. That is what it can do.”
Taylor: “Even though they’re playing songs that are 30 years old, it doesn’t feel nostalgic at all. It’s what people want. With Oasis and Richard Ashcroft, those songs are timeless. It still sounds like the future of music.
“It’s really special as well to have been there with your bandmates and witnessing this. I’m sure thousands of people in the crowd would have been like, ‘Fuck, we need to get a band together’. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment, let alone a great gig. Being with your band, it’s hard to not get more excited about what you’re about to do and knowing what’s coming.”
What’s next for Villanelle?
Schiavo: “We’ve got an EP coming out next year, then we’ll probably look towards doing an album. We’ve got the library building up, so we’ll stick to writing and stay on the road.”
Gallagher: “Keep spunking out some tunes!”
‘Hinge’ will be released on Wednesday September 10, when Villanelle will also be announcing details of a UK tour.