The Roebucks On Origins, Influences And Dream Support Slots

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Following two new singles released this year, we chat with Brighton indie/Americana band The Roebucks

Brighton-based four-piece The Roebucks blend alt-country, Americana, and indie with rich harmonies and jangling guitars. Formed in 2021, they’ve quickly gained a growing national following for their warm, heartfelt sound and dynamic live shows. Songs by The Roebucks tend to stop listeners in their tracks, as they take a beat to appreciate the band’s emotive depth.

With a lineup featuring Lola Gordon, Tom Cotter, Henry Brown, and Sophie Moloney, the band continues to build momentum following recent festival appearances and a string of new releases.

How would you summarise your journey as The Roebucks to date?

We started off in 2021. Since the addition of ‘powerhouse’ Sophie Moloney on drums and vocals in 2024, we’ve improved our range of harmonies and our live sound. We’re constantly writing songs making an ever-changing live set.

How did The Roebucks form?

Tom and Henry met at Varndean School in Brighton and were in other bands together. They asked Lola to join in 2021 and all asked Sophie to join later; becoming fans after watching her in her previous band.

Do you have a favourite spot in Brighton collectively as a band? Or anywhere else in the UK?

The four of us spend most of our time at Brighton Electric Studios (where we rehearse), in Henry’s garden or at any pub in Brighton… we’re not fussy.

The thing I always take from your music is a sense of community. You’ve got ‘Sable‘ that pulls the listener as if they’ve just been transported into a jam session. And then you’ve got ‘Mona‘ where the video shows you all playing in a tight space. Do a lot of your songs come from jamming? Or do you have a different process?

Yeah, a lot of our rocky songs come from the four of us jamming around. But other songs are written separately although they never really take shape until the four of us play it together.

Now that ‘Sable’s been out for a few years, do you find you’re connecting with it differently at all, to when it was first released?

We know ‘Sable’s‘ our most popular and well-known tune so we try to get it into every set as a crowd pleaser. But we also try to give the song a little makeover so it fits nicely with our newer songs in the set.

We at CLUNK love ‘Mona‘ and covered it as a CLUNK Recommends recently. The music video for that song has got a really cool style and suits the song beautifully. What were the ideas or themes you wanted to convey when you set out to make that video?

Basically we were inspired by The Shadows video for ‘Apache‘ – we like it in black and white and how the band were just sat in a circle playing and looking very cool.

It was great to see the string of shows you lined up last month, in June. How were those shows and were there any standout moments for you or favourite venues?

We’ve had such a great time travelling around the UK! We loved playing in Eaton Park in Norwich – we were under a stone dome with columns surrounding us, it felt like we were in Rome. And the people we met in Portsmouth were a great crowd and we were super happy with the show we put on there.

Do you have a favourite song to play live and why?

We all love to play the songs where we can really go for it live – so ‘Great British Pig’, ‘Gone Gone Away’ (our regular set opener) or ‘Dimples‘ where we each get a little solo.

For anyone wanting to start with all things The Roebucks what song would you suggest they start with and why?

Probably ‘Sable‘ – everyone seems to like that one and it’s good a mix of pop and folk.

Were there any artists who were pivotal to shaping your sound/ identity? And who are you into at the moment- anyone we should be listening to?

We’re very influenced by guitar and harmony bands from the U.S. like The Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Mama and the Papas. At the moment we’re all into Sierra Ferrell; she writes great country songs and has a voice like a honky tonk angel.

Who would The Roebucks like to open for (alive or dead)? Are there any bands, for upcoming shows perhaps you would like to open for you?

If we could open for anyone live it’d probably be for First Aid Kit or Sierra Ferrell, Lynyrd Skynyrd or Fleetwood Mac wouldn’t be bad either. Other bands from the past would probably be The Allman Brothers or The Band! And we’d always have Duskhouse open for us if we could- they’re a Brighton band.

If you had unlimited budget, what would a Roebucks’ show look like?

With unlimited budget we’d build a time machine and play at Fillmore East in the 70s or Monterey Pop festival in the 60s. Today we’d love to do a show at the end of Brighton Pier!

What’s next for The Roebucks? Is there anything we should look out for?

We’re playing Dedfest in August. Then after that, we’ll be releasing a new single on Goo Records in October 2025 that’ll be coming out on vinyl (to be announced) and accompanying that with another UK tour which we can’t wait for.

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Listen to ‘Mona’ here:

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