What started out as a conversation about possibly playing a few gigs in pubs has snowballed into a a 1990's boy band reforming, positive tabloid headlines, a new single and a confirmed booking at a music festival next summer. And there may be a collaboration with the drummer of one of the biggest rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s in the pipeline as well.
“It’s mad, it’s completely mad,” smiled Lee Murray as he reflected on a whirlwind few weeks. “My feet haven’t touched the ground but it’s lovely because it’s been so positive, so I’m very happy.”
The Watford musician shot to fame in the 1990s as one of third of Let Loose. The band, who had seven UK top-40 hits including the Number 2 smash Crazy For You in 1994, have reformed and their new single If The World Was Ending is due to be available to stream and download from September 29.
“I like slightly darker, edgy music,” Lee explained when asked about the new record. “That’s how my taste has developed as I’ve got older, but if you write songs sometimes you write for a certain project.
“I’ve written for other people as well and you think ‘What’s their sort of vibe? What’s their band about?’ and you tailor your writing to a degree for that. So when you write for Let Loose it’s got to be a little bit like it was which is essentially a guitar pop band.
“I initially wrote it about an apocalyptic message, climate and things like that, but as the writing’s developed it’s gone on to be something a little bit different.
“We wanted it to be really uplifting and very melodic and catchy and I’m hoping everybody else thinks along those lines as well.”
But reforming the band, let alone releasing a new single, was not on the agenda when the drummer and vocalist had a chat with his bandmate, guitarist and vocalist Rob Jeffrey, about the possibility of playing live again.
“I’m a teaching a lot and I thought maybe it would be nice to go and play somewhere,” the 53-year-old told the Watford Observer this morning. “We initially just thought let’s go and do pubs just to go and play. And then it kind of snowballed.
“As soon as the word got out a promoter got in touch with us who does all those 90's festivals. In fact we’ve just been booked for one next year, it’s 8,000 people in August (at the Back 2 Festival in Nottinghamshire).
“It went from a little germ of an idea where we thought let’s go and play the Slug & Lettuce in Hemel or wherever and now we’re starting to be booked by this huge agent and we’ve got a record that’s gone to radio. It’s happened within the space of two or three weeks. It’s mad, it’s completely mad.”
Lee and Rob have been joined by a new third member of Let Loose, Matthew James Pateman, who also experienced chart success in the 1990s as part of Bad Boys Inc. He replaces original front vocalist Richie Wermerling, who Lee said had “retired” from the industry.
“He’s just got a fantastic voice,” Lee said of his new bandmate who he has known for around 25 years. “He wasn’t used to his potential at all in that band. They were manufactured and he was quite unhappy with it.
“I knew he’d got a really good voice and he’s a good writer and he’s fitted in brilliantly. We all get on, there’s a lovely atmosphere and vibe when we write and this song – we’ve actually written two now – has come together really organically and naturally. There’s no arguments or anything, it’s felt really good.”
As well as the Back 2 Festival, Lee is hoping Let Loose will get to perform at other festivals on the “nostalgia circuit” next year, with the possibility of also staging their own concerts depending “how much traction we get”.
The band may be back in the spotlight but Lee is continuing to go into schools to teach drums as well as having his own drum school in which he uses the instrument to help improve the wellbeing of others.
He spoke to the Watford Observer in January about the academic studies that have been carried out into the positive effects learning to play the drums can have on mental health, and it is through this he is hoping to work with Clem Burke, the drummer with legendary group Blondie.
“I’m a big fan of Clem Burke and he runs something similar but on a larger scale with drums and mental health,” Lee explained. “I’m hoping there’s going to be a collaboration somewhere along the lines with him. He’s a fantastic drummer and I love Blondie.”
Lee admits he is finding it a challenge to juggle multiple plates currently but the “overwhelmingly positive” reaction to the news of Let Loose getting back together is making it more than worthwhile.
He said: “I can’t be negative about it because it’s been so good but I suppose the only thing about is there’s a lot to fit in your brain and organise because I’m obviously committed to the teaching, and then there’s the thing potentially with Clem, then there’s the band.
“If I was just doing one of those things it would take up a lot of head space. It is a lot but we’ll see how it pans out.”
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