After over a year-long hiatus, The Ride are back, better than ever with more genre-bending, concussion-inducing music.
Frontman Aidan Bishop says the band is excited to return to the live arena after such a long break. “We are super pumped. We used to play all the time and having not done it for a year-and-a-half, we are ready to get back there.
“We are very high energy. There’s a lot of movement coming from the stage, and lot of enjoyment, a lot of energy and a lot of light. You just have to see it and then you’ll know.”
The history of the band can be traced back to their high school days. “We all went to school with each other, but we didn’t really know each other. So, a couple of years later, through friends of friends, we just randomly ended up hanging out together; we [began] jamming at night and went to open mics, played cover gigs and thought we would start a proper band, so we started gathering a few more people in.
“Some people have left, new people have joined. I just heard Liam [Brizee] play guitar and thought, ‘I’ve got to stick with this guy’. So I made that my mission.”
The band blends multiple genres into their music — rock, soul and funk — but Aidan says these various styles were not planned. “We just played together and that’s what happened. We’ve always been careful not to contrive something, like ‘let’s try and do this’. We just couldn’t help it. No two songs ever came out in the same genre. People would always ask us what style we are playing in... it’s hard to pin down because there are so many different styles.
“I just think it’s like a journey; you start with this, then at one point we’ll go to a lot of different places through the show, then we’ll end up somewhere you never expected at the end.”
The group’s dream is to pursue a long career in music, and they are prepared to work hard to achieve this goal. “This is our thing. It’s what we are best at. Anything else would be a compromise.
“If we ended up taking some other kind of work, we wouldn’t get to use what we cultivated for so many years. The plan is to really go for it. The time has come to just push every day. New songs, work harder, more gigs, more energy ... We are going for it now.
“I’ll get as realistic as I have to when the situation arises, but right now I’m [only] thinking about putting all my eggs in one basket and let’s just see what happens.”
The Ride make their return to the stage at the New Globe Theatre on Thursday 2nd October.
