10 Questions with Kane from The Sheratons

Written by: Brooke Eboule

As someone who came of age in a punk rock heyday, all it took was one listen to The Sheraton’s 2022 bop, ‘Truly Gone Fishing’ to reel me in. It’s practically textbook: driving drums matched with short, repetitive chord progressions on the guitar, and the kicker: vocals that manage to be both raw and robust. As the band’s 2023 singles ‘Bravo’ and ‘Mystic Pizza’ prove, the guys have a real bent for creating off the hook hooks that really lodge themselves inside the brain and keep bashing around pleasantly – not unlike the moshers at the band’s sold out hometown headline show in Leeds back in October.

Since I was going to be in the area, I wasn’t about to miss out on the opportunity to be among the revelers at the iconic Brudenell Social Club. With a capacity of 400, it’s not the biggest venue, but it does represent a significant milestone – some might even say right of passage – for those who have made their way up through Leeds’ vibrant music scene, and other indie artists throughout the UK.

The evening kicked off with an opening set from fellow hometowners, Backspace, followed by a solid support set from Manchester’s Rosellas, before The Sheratons really brought the raucous energy to a head. Drummer Tom’s shirt didn’t even make it through the second song. The band offered up a setlist of their own originals intermixed with a couple of covers including The Clash’s ‘I Fought the Law’, demonstrating why they’ve since been pegged by Unheard Indie as an act due to blow up in 2024.

While the bulk of the lineups for UK’s summer festivals have yet to be announced, it would seem there’s a good chance the Sheratons will find themselves on some bills again in 2024. They had sets at some of the best indie music festivals in the UK in 2023, including both Truck and YNot, as well as headlining the new music stage at the Bingley Weekender.

Since the show in Leeds, I’ve had the chance to catch up with frontman Kane Byllyment. Here’s what he shared with me.

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Next Wave: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and the band?

Kane: I'm Kane, lead singer of The Sheratons. Like so many creatives in the music industry I do a bit of everything, from joinery to extra work on TV and film. Our guitarist Fin has been in the band near enough since inception. I’ve known him for probably 20 years now and drummer Tom not even 20 months. He joined the party last year. All the same, we have a great bond in the band and we all want to carry this project forward the best we can, after many years of effort from all of us in music.

Next Wave: What does music mean to you, personally?

Kane: Music means passion and expression. Just like I enjoy reading certain authors' thoughts and convictions about life, I absolutely love expressive thoughts and feelings from people who grew up in a different place or time period to myself. I enjoy group created music just as much as solo songwriters. As long as whoever created the music did so with genuine emotion and integrity, I can get behind most things and I like a wide range of music

Next Wave: What’s your proudest accomplishment outside of music?

Kane: I suppose occasionally, due to having been an extra in a few TV shows and films, I get the odd message from someone asking if that was me in a certain programme or film. It's always good fun to be involved in those projects, but the reward is the people I've met through it and the friends I've made. I've met so many great upcoming and aspiring actors through that and it's nice because they are all fellow creatives but on a different corridor to me, as of course my focus is and has always been music.

Next Wave: Indie music life can be a grind. How do you balance it all and cope with the hustle required?

Kane: If I remember correctly, Nike founder Phillip Knight opened his memoir with a quote from the Red Queen in Through The Looking Glass. "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!". That quote made me laugh as it reminded me of the music industry and trying to make our way in it. All we do is keep running forward, there's no other secret to it!

Next Wave: When you’re working on a song, how do you know you’re on the right track?

Kane: A lot of good productive Sheratons songwriting comes out with the other respective members of the band. We pull the best out of each other and from a vocal perspective when we are trying out songs they really get involved and push what I can do melodically and expressively on a track. There's usually a growing consensus that is along the lines of "well this is quite interesting". We all of course have slightly different opinions and interpretations as to what's standing out to us, but sometimes we all just know undoubtedly when we have something really cool to take to the studio and all agree unanimously that it's our best we can take in, like with ‘Mystic Pizza’.

Next Wave: How do you think your sound has evolved over the last few years? Is that something you have shaped, or do you tend to let that happen naturally?

Kane: I think due to mine and the guys' quite different influences there has always been a mix of lighter and heavier in our stuff. We hit the ground running with the punkier ‘These Kids’ and followed it up with the lighter ‘Part Of A Picture’ which was then followed by the unapologetically punky ‘Raving And Drooling’. Funnily enough ‘Part Of A Picture’ and ‘Raving And Drooling’ are quite different yet are both our top streamed songs, so do with that what you like. For me, the two tracks which absolutely create the perfect blend are ‘Mystic Pizza’ and ‘Truly Gone Fishing’

Next Wave: What is the most meaningful experience you’ve had so far in your musical career? Why did it mean so much to you?

For me and probably on behalf of Tom and Fin, too I can quite easily say, selling out the Brudenell in Leeds. It was a dream come true and it meant alot as it really was a fruit of the labor kind of moment. We started off playing in Leeds for the first time ever downstairs in Verve Bar to three people and to be one of the bands that has navigated its way through the scene and been lucky enough to not only play the legendary Brudenell, but sell it out?! We won’t be forgetting that anytime soon. It was the best gig yet and I'm glad you got to be there to witness it. We are very lucky and grateful for where we are, but it's been a long road too.

Next Wave: What’s the best show you’ve been to as an audience member?

Kane: I've been to so many it's difficult to say, but let's go for The War On Drugs at Halifax Piece Hall last summer. That was good fun indeed.

Next Wave: What’s the last album you bought?

Kane: It was a double purchase actually, both Genesis Albums. The legendary Live Album Seconds Out and 1980s Duke.

Next Wave: Mystic Pizza is on the menu. What are the toppings?

Kane: A layer of Nostalgia, subjective experiences, and the label from your favorite 90s VHS. Usually tastes best when wearing rose-tinted glasses.

Next Wave: “Come on your lover cried, Well sing me a song” (‘Bronze Tonight’). What song are you singing?

Kane: Oh, that would have to be Cole Porters "I get a kick out of you" sung by the one and only Frank Sinatra.

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Recently, the band shared that they have been invited to play at Polifonik Sound in Barbastro, Spain next July. “Going to be absolutely unreal this, we can’t wait,” the band shared on social media. “Roll on Summer 2024”.

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