Druids are a recently formed Ipswich band on a mission that meld titanic hard rock with glam-pop hooks. The three-piece have an impressive pedigree in former B. Goodes members, Jay Goodrich and Richard Tyler, alongside ex-Blacktop Harrison drummer, Joel Kurta. WE-SUGGEST-YOU-FOLLOW-THEM…

IP1: Alongside Ipswich’s Habu, Druids have a progressive rock sound. How would you describe your style and where do you get your inspiration from?
Jay Goodrich: Joel and I started jamming together in a studio not so far away and thought it a good idea to record our noises, some of which were quite musical. Albeit primitive sound-wise, the recordings gave us a good platform to edit our ramblings into music.

Joel is a big Maiden fan and I like T. Rex and other stuff like that. Rich kinda glues that all together with his mastery and he sometimes plays the guitar too. I used to listen to Yes lots (like Alex Body from Habu), so I guess that’s still an inspiration, especially bass-wise.

How did you meet each other?
We’ve all known each other for a while and played together in different bands. Although those bands split, we still kept in touch. We decided to form Druids as a band to allow ourselves a creative canvas to express whatever we want musically.

As a new Ipswich band, how many shows have you done? And has the band got more gigs lined up for 2016?
We’ve only played a couple of shows so far. We wanted to test the water and firstly see if it worked well – if we enjoyed it and if the audience liked it. All of the above went tippity top, so we are in the process of arranging dates for 2016. We will probably play a couple of shows in Ipswich but we’ll be going elsewhere too, as meeting new people in new places is a blast.

And finally, if there was one gig or festival you could play at, what would it be?
I’m not so sure really, Latitude is a great one and feels special and I’ve never been to Glastonbury. So I guess Glastonbury.

But let’s be more ambitious – maybe we’ll be the first band on Mars and we could host Druids in Space Festival 2018 (allow us a little while to get there and soundcheck etc.)

Follow Druids @druidsmission

Interview: Matt Catling