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The Crookes consist of George Waite (vocals / bass), Daniel Hopewell (guitar), Tom Dakin (guitar) and Russell Bates (drums). They live in Sheffield and infamously found (most of) each other, bleary of eye and dancing alone, on the indie dancefloor at the city’s Fuzz Club near the close of the previous decade.

‘Soapbox’ saw the band forego the studio-related home comforts of South Yorkshire and instead drive their gear and recording facilities to the Alpine wilds of Italy at the start of winter. “We recorded at the very top of a mountain – quite literally in a cloud – in a very old church dedicated to San Antonio,”

You certainly couldn’t accuse The Crookes of shirking their tidy shirt-wearing duties: on September 27th 2010 they released the ‘Dreams Of Another Day’ mini-album; in the spring of 2011 came the ‘Chasing After Ghosts’ album; the spring of 2012 saw the release of the ‘Hold Fast’ album. Spring 2013 was relatively quiet – they merely released the ‘Bear’s Blood’ / 'Dance In Colour' standalone single and headlined London’s Scala. “This is definitely the bravest collection of songs we’ve ever written,” states a steely Daniel. “Musically we’ve definitely grown up, It certainly isn’t a happy, carefree album. But again, the intention has never been to make people like us…but simply to make music that we like.”