The Fifth Year Without Viola Beach: Friends to Release Charity Cover of ‘Swings & Waterslides’

Friends of Viola Beach to release charity single cover of ‘Swings & Waterslides’ to mark fifth anniversary of the band’s death. The charity single will be released on Friday 12 February 2021.

Viola Beach and their Legacy

Viola Beach was a four-piece indie-rock group from Warrington consisting of Kris Leonard (vocals, guitar), Tomas Lowe (bass), River Reeves (guitar) and Jack Dakin (drums). Viola Beach were that band that was about to BLOW. They were going to be massively successful, and we all knew it. They were in the line to become the UK’s hottest new indie band after the release of their debut single ‘Swings and Waterslides’ on 27 August 2015. Everything was going their way - sold out gigs, national airplay, an album in the works and their first European tour dates booked. 

                                                                    Viola Beach

However, the future was cut short for this band, and unfortunately it has been five years since the band and their manager, Craig Tarry were all tragically killed in a car accident whilst on tour in Sweden in the early hours of 13 February 2016. The Warrington indie-rock four-piece brought about the absolute belter of ‘Swings and Waterslides’ a tune that would be played at every single indie night for years to come. 

Due to it being five years since the band and their managers death, a group of musicians from their hometown of Warrington have come together to record a cover of their fantastic debut single, ‘Swings and Waterslides’ to mark the fifth anniversary of their deaths. All of the revenue from the single’s release will be donated to charities chosen by the families of the band, and hopefully it will also reignite the legacy that Viola Beach had left. The cover of Viola Beach’s single ‘Swings And Waterslides’ is to be released on Friday 12 February 2021.

                                                   

                                                 Viola Beach' Manager: Craig Terry - R.I.P

Shockwaves Through the Nation

When the news got announced; on the radio, in papers, on the TV, it sent shockwaves through the nation. Four young lads and their manager about to make it the big time - ended in an instant. The BBC reports that, “They were killed when their car plunged more than 25m (82ft) from a highway bridge into a canal.” Viola Beach fans created a campaign the week the band passed away to try and get their debut to Number 1, which well-respected and well-known musicians such as Liam Gallagher and The Stone Roses also supported. The track didn’t quite make it to Number 1 but it made it to Number 11 on the UK charts. However, their self-titled debut posthumous album released by Communion Records on 29 July 2016, eventually, and deservingly got its Number 1 on the UK Ablums Charts. Coldplay also paid an emotional tribute to the lads, covering their single ‘Boys That Sing’ while headlining Glastonbury Festival in 2016. 

The Single

The charity cover of 'Swings and Waterslides' is a beautiful rendition of the track, still keeping to its uplifting joyoys tone; there's a variety of different voices both male and female reciting the lyrics to the bands legendery debut single. The instrumental has been perfected to a fine art and this cover really is such a heart-warming tribute to the band. All of the different voices plead the chorus "won't you come home?" - which is heartbreakingly relevant. This charity cover is so well put-together with so many different talented individuals who really pulled it off. Viola Beach would be so proud.

Organisers of the Project

The project was organised by Lee Harman, Editor of [WAM] Magazine, and supported by Viola Beach’s former sound engineer Cal Bate, who both wanted to create a suitable tribute to the band. Together the pair created a band of musicians who have grown from the Viola Beach legacy to record a cover version of ‘Swings And Waterslides’, and all proceeds from the single’s success will be donated to charities of the Viola Beach’s families’ choosing. 

Lee Harman of [WAM] Magazine has said of the project: “Viola Beach left their own legacy despite their short time together. They were the first of a new wave of bands who were proud to be from Warrington, and all the artists involved are honoured to be involved. We should have seen Viola Beach headlining the biggest festivals five years on but despite the pain and sadness getting easier every year, they put Warrington on the map, and we want to show they’re still an important part of the town’s culture.”

Sound Engineer to the band for six months, and now working with Blossoms who had Viola Beach as their tour support, Cal Bate said: "Viola Beach are a huge part of my life, the big stepping stone to my whole career. So to be able to produce a version of one of their songs with amazing musicians from Warrington meant the world to me. I was lucky enough to hear their songs and mix them a lot whilst working with them and they were always songs which you could tell they wrote for people to dance and love forever. The boys’ legacy will live on forever and they left us some beautiful music. They will never be forgotten and they are everything to Warrington and its music scene.”

The single is being released under the name 'Warrington Music'. A music video featuring all of the artists who contributed will also be released. The full line up of contributors to the recording is as follows:

Vocals: Jamie Boyle (The K’s), Joe Banks (The A.V Club), Lucy Bell, Liam Hillyer, Jessica Luise, Calan Nickle (Sienne), Olly Thornton (Uno Mas)

Guitar: Amy Woodall (Crawlers) & Nathan Greenfield (Aligners)

Drums: Chris Peake (Filthy Tricks) 

Bass: Ed Dowling (The Zangwills)

Mix: Cal Bate (Former Viola Beach sound engineer)

Artwork: Cameron Brown

‘Swings And Waterslides’ will be released on Friday 12th February 2021 on iTunes and all streaming platforms. All sales and streaming revenue from the cover version will be donated to charities chosen by the families of Viola Beach.

Speaking with Onyi Moss, from Chartered Accountant to Professional Photographer Turned Singer/Songwriter with EP in the Line-Up

                                                                        Twitter: @mossonyi

A Creative Visionary, I Bring to You - Onyi Moss

Multi-talented, qualified chartered accountant, professional photographer and short-film maker living in Manchester, Onyi Moss has ensued a new creative endeavor into the music industry. Although Onyi released her debut single ‘In Your Eyes’ on 22nd January 2021, she’s not new to creating and writing music. Onyi had written her first song at the mere age of just 12 years old. Having been sent the press release I was eager to learn more about Onyi, and the tale behind the song of ‘In Your Eyes’. During the interview we discuss the inspiration behind her debut single, the songwriting sensation that is Tracy Chapman,  Onyi’s bad experience with religion, her new EP in the works, opening up about a friend who is still missing, and her life path starting from becoming a qualified chartered accountant to becoming unemployed, then securing a job in finance whilst simultaneously ensuing a hobby in photography, soon turned professional photographer and short-film story teller to now entering a career in singer/songwriting. What a ride.

Career Before Music

Onyi has a huge online presence with a whopping 164k Instagram followers and 35k Tik-Tok followers, so her creative risk of changing career paths really paid off, and it gives her a good standing when releasing her music to a large following (that she already has). We delve a bit further into her career before music, Onyi jokes, “I would say that my career is a bit of a funny one.” 

Moss expands, “So my background is in finance - I’m actually a chartered accountant. I used to work for the co-op as a financial accountant - at the co-op bank.” However her creative urges began just before she got the job - whilst unemployed - Onyi expands, “I stumbled upon photography whilst watching one of these reality TV shows, but that was before I got a job; because I was struggling to get a job. After I completed my qualification - so when I was unemployed - I was watching all of these reality TV shows and one came up and it was a show about women who taught themselves photography and they took these amazing pictures and would tell really beautiful stories with them and I said ‘wow! I think I’d like to do that.’ Rather than pay the rent that month, I decided to order a camera and then I started teaching myself photography and before I knew it, I was able to get a job in the bank but I carried on doing photography on the side. Then I started getting brands contact me and ask me to shoot campaigns for them.”

When a hobby that you love could potentially turn into a great career prospect you have to take those opportunities. “Eventually I quit my job at the bank and I set up a creative business where I create content for brands. I do a lot of videos and I try to tell stories with them; make short films if you will. And I realised the music is quite important, and it kind of reconnected me back to my love for music.” 

Onyi expands, “Now I’m 34 and during the lockdown I said ‘oh, you know, since not much is happening now might be a good time to start working on my EP' and that’s how it all came about. And I have booked a studio session with a local producer in Manchester and we’ve just been trying to work on some songs for my EP.”

Inspiration Behind Debut Single ‘In Your Eyes’

I noticed Onyi spoke a lot about story-telling, so it seemed that it was rather important that she had a narrative behind her songs - a story to tell. ‘In Your Eyes’ is an endearing acoustic track with some ominous sentiment to it, it was obvious there was more to it - a deeper narrative than appeared on the surface. When asking Onyi if she agreed, and felt as though a narrative behind her music was important she agrees, “Yes. I feel it’s quite important, like the work I do, I make it quite personal to me. So I would say in my creative work, I would try to describe it as an introspective lifestyle editorial because it’s something that relates to me in my life and my own personal experience and that shaped my view as to the way I see things - so with regards to my music; the song ‘In Your Eyes’ was inspired by loss. It’s basically about the hope that is sometimes found in loss.”

Moss opens up, “Because I had a friend, a close friend at uni, who went missing and we have not found her from up until today, and her parents are still looking for her, of course, but no one’s found her.”

A tragic story lays beneath the surface of ‘In Your Eyes’ but the song was completed through the eyes of someone else’s story, Onyi started writing ‘In Your Eyes’ in March 2016 but explains, “ I was only able to finish off the song last year, so that was when a really close friend of mine had experienced a really tragic loss - so from their own experience I was able to like get the words to finally finish off the song.”

Debut EP in the Line-Up

“I was raised in a religious background and sometimes it would be used to kind of like, guilt you. It was used as some form of control to get you to do something - so I lived with guilt for a very long time.”

With talks of Onyi finding inspiration for her new EP, it would be rude not to question it! So what can be expected? Following her inspiration of Tracy Chapman she wants to continue a reflection of her own personal experiences and key moments of her life through song. 

Onyi says, “I would say the EP would be about key moments in my life that brought about significant changes; so me losing my friend” However she also goes into detail about another track off the EP where she reflects on her bad experiences with religion, sin and the religious lifestyle, “and there’s another one about - so it’s not a gospel song - but I was raised in a religious background and sometimes it would be used to kind of like guilt you. It was used as some form of control to get you to do something - so I lived with guilt for a very long time. I battled with my lifestyle, even though I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but I just constantly felt guilty. So this song is about just coming out of that basically and almost releasing the guilt knowing that, yeah I keep hearing this - but I’m not going to remember it or stick to it. So that’s one aspect.” 

Onyi’s music has a very emotive aspect and really will hit home for some, leading to Onyi’s music being incredibly relatable to a lot of people, “Then there’s another one of me almost finally coming out of a very toxic relationship and being able to let go of someone who wasn’t quite right for me at the time. It’s almost like key moments in my life - yeah.”

Release date of EP

Despite the whole covid lockdown scenario over here in the U.K., Onyi still has hopes to get her debut EP released in 2021, “The way things are going, you know with the lockdown. I’m hoping I can get back into the studio. I would say probably in October? If all goes well. We say aiming for October because I don’t want to release anything around December, because around Christmas, it’ll get lost.”

Music Influences

Interested to know more about her music influences aside from her creative influences Onyi expands,  “I don’t know if you will be familiar with her, but her name is Asa (pronounced: ash-a) she’s a Nigerian singer-songwriter - so same background as me but she’s Nigerian-French so her music is very similar of the style of Tracy Chapman as well so that’s one person I also like. I actually quite like Dido - not many people talk about her these days but I still like her.”

Why Onyi? What’s Different About Onyi Moss?

The music industry can appear to be a carbon copy blueprint of a band from the 90s or a world full of one hit wonders, artist after artist. Longevity and consistency within success is becoming more of a distant memory in the music industry. Those in the music industry want to be refreshed, they don’t want something that is already out there, despite how good you may be - we want something DIFFERENT. This can be a tough question to ask a lot of artists, as they stew on their thoughts for a moment but Onyi was prompt with her answer, quickly saying,  “I would say what’s different is my creative background because it enabled me to use it to tell a better story. I noticed that a lot of artists tend to follow a script, that’s why a lot of songs sound the same even though it’s different songs because they’ve  followed ‘this is the way it needs to be done in order to like sell records’ or something?”

Onyi isn’t concerned about fitting into the confined norm in order to sell records, she continues, “Yes. So I’m not worried about that. I’m an artist who’s willing to experiment. Even my producer says to me “I’ve never seen anyone arrange a song like this.” and I say, “I want to” and “I don’t care if no one’s done it that way and it doesn’t do well, but this is the way I feel like it should be arranged.” A strong business woman and creative vision who knows exactly what she wants and doesn’t want to be shackled by the chains of creative restriction within the music industry, she continues about her being different from other artists,   “And because I’m actually not looking to be signed. I don’t want to be signed. I want to maintain this creative freedom where I create something that I know is true to my soul and who I am because I do not want to conform to what the norm is in a sense. I want to be independently produced, just keep making music and just doing more of what I love.”

What The Next 5 Years Has in Store for Onyi

A lot can happen in five years, heck, a lot can happen in 12 months in the music industry but Onyi has the focus more on her work as to opposed selling millions of hits.  “So in the next five years I do hope that at least I will have two albums out there. And one that allows me to share more of my journey.” Onyi is still yet to perform live as a solo artist but has ambitions to perform in the future, “But what I would like to be able to say is to perform my songs as well, and get to meet people who love my songs too, and just connect on a more intimate level. I would love to do an open show for I don’t know...  maybe Tracy or someone? Maybe I’m going too big!” Dream big Onyi, dream big.

Follow Onyi on Instagram @mossonyi 

Listen to ‘In Your Eyes’ below