Jersey's Sunshine Festival does exactly what it says on the tin. Held at the popular surfers hangout at The Water Splash, the day will see four popular artists play through the night. Among those artists will be the British alternative rock band, Reef, headlining the festival.
Bassist Jack Bessant reminisces the last time they played here;
"We’ve been there a couple of times, we played a festival there last year, I think it was underneath the dam was it? Can’t remember what it was called now. Can’t remember it’s name but you could more or less walk to the beach from it. We played that and I’ve been there a few times with playing music, you know I’ve really enjoyed it and am really excited about coming back here again. I didn’t really give it a second thought to be honest with you.
We were offered a gig out there with Reef, you know it's going to be a great night, we'll rock out, and I’ll probably get in the sea. I’ve heard about a heat wave coming. It’s at the Water Splash, is that the venue that’s on the beach? We’ve been there before and we hung out in that restaurant and then there was a band playing but I think we played some other night club before with a different band me and Gary were in you know? It’s cool, I’m really excited about coming out again and so looking forward to getting in the sea as well. I met a guy out there called Gordon, really good English long boarder and he showed me his farm last time I was out there. Growing all sorts of things like chillis, peppers; I grew up on a strawberry farm here. He was showing me round his green house, all that, it was really cool you know? It’s just nice to see a bit of what’s going on out there and he’s also a surfer who’s done really well, traveled the world surfing and competing. Going to get some boards, we’re bringing our wet suits, and hopefully go for a surf on the Monday, see what the waves are doing.
Your old guitarist, Kenwyn, said that you guys wanted your first album, Replenish, to be an honest statement, 4 people playing in a room in the most basic way possible with minimal effects. Your last album was also recorded at arm’s length from your record company and took another basic approach to recording your music. Do you think the commercial success of the band changed the way you recorded the albums in between, with more technology and money at your disposal compared to your first and last album?
"I don’t know really. I think the 4th album we did sounded a little bit commercial, we used a different producer and I don’ think we were getting together enough to write great songs. I don’t know, it’s hard to say really but I think that last record we did, we were trying to write an album, we were about to be dropped by our label which we didn’t know at the time, so they only really gave us a budget to record a few songs. Maybe we didn’t hve enough great strong songs anyway but we went to L.A. to record the last album and it was going to be the greatest hits with some new songs on there. But those last songs we did were pretty stripped back, I really liked Stone For Your Love, it worked so well live. We’ve always been a stripped back sort of band, but with those middle albums we may have added in a bit more backing vocals and a bit of keyboards on that Get Away album, I don’t know."
After building your success together, how did you feel about the departure of Kenwyn House?
"That was just a natural thing. He was more keen to do the other project that he was doing and we were keen to do a bit more writing with Reef and he said, ‘I’ll help you guys out by just leaving really, ‘cause I’m only just going to hold you up,’ it was kind of amicable. It worked out for the best ‘cause we had seven years off after touring really strong for 10 years and did those four albums with the greatest hits on the end and that was really good fun. We had seven years off, or split up or called it quits for a while, and in that time me and Gary did other projects. It was the chance to get grounded a little bit again after being away. After that we were offered to do a tour but didn’t do any more writing and then the drummers wife was making a film and asked us to write something for that film and that was quite good fun. After that though Kenwyn didn’t want to do anymore writing so that’s why we started to audition new guitar players so we could carry on doing some writing. We’ve got a load of songs now, so we’re just trying to record another album now. We’re just waiting for some financial support and also some marketing support too. If you want to record an album you also want to follow up with some marketing. We’re still looking for a deal at the moment to put another record out. We’ll be playing a lot of the new songs I expect on Sunday as well as the ones that always go down well. We’re really excited about working with George Drakoulias again because he did our second and third album. He also helped us record the songs on the greatest hits and helped us achieve that gospel sound on How I Got Over, which got a lot of radio play on Radio 2 and had a lovely response. People really enjoyed the soul feel that that song had to it with it’s nice groove you know? The energy... a lot of it’s about energy! Giving it out there and giving it some, it’s great fun and I love Reef. Jesse’s fitting in really well."
Kenwyn has a very distinctive style guitar style that heavily shaped the overall tone of Reef’s sound. How do you think Jesse has shaped your sound?
"It sounds good, people seem to be really enjoying it, we’re enjoying it as a band too. There’s a different feel, everyone’s got their own individuality I think. Kenwyn had his, Jesse’s got his, obviously Jesse’s had to learn the parts of the songs that we wrote with Kenwyn and make his own interpretations on some of the solos which is a kin to Jesse’s style. Jesse’s not so much of a lead soloist as Kenwyn, but that’s cool. We’re all having fun, putting energy out there, entertaining people and that’s what it’s about really. There’s no drama, we get on, Jesse’s a really lovely person to hang around with and he’s a great guitar player in his own way so there’s no hassle with it, it’s great."
You’ve also got a side project, StringerBessant. What opportunities does StringerBessant bring to you that playing in Reef never could?
"Me and Gary did StringerBessant in those seven years I was telling you about, we started a heavy rock band called Themisme and came to Jersey with that actually, that was good fun. Bit more heavy rock, four piece, but then we realised it was hard at this stage in our lives to go around trying to do tours with a new band because we’ve got kids now, and there’s four people. To actually get enough money to pay for musicians and stuff... it becomes hard you know because Reef’s got a name for itself. Me and Gary carried on song writing and just decided to go out there, real striped back with guitars, with one van, and me and Gary could manage ourselves, come to Jersey or go somewhere and surf and do these really intimate gigs which were really worthy for our song writing and also for our confidence because you’e got no loud distortion to hide behind. It’s just the two of you in a really exposed room and it takes so much more of a different approach with concentration and focus to make it work. It was really good for us and as for now, we’re not really doing as much StringerBessant stuff, I’m doing a thing called The Cheddar Experiment Band and Gary’s doing some individual solo shows where he gets different musicians in but we’re still doing separate things just not StringerBessant because I think we’ve spent so much time dealing with Reef right now. We’ve not really been doing StringerBessant since Reef came up now that Jesse’s in the band because we’ve been trying to concentrate just on this really. But it was very important for us to get to where we are now with our song writing. Our confidence has gotten better, even though we still get nervous and excited before a show, but we’re a lot more confident which means we have a much better time and more fun."
Do you prefer the festival environment or concerts purely dedicated to your own fan base?
"A mixture really, it’s really nice to be doing a mixture of it. When you play festivals perhaps you’ll win over some new fans that would be like, ‘wow I knew Place Your Hands but I didn’t know I’d enjoy the rest of the set even more,’ you know you get that quite a lot. I think we just come across as this really good fun rock and roll band, heavy rock, however you want to put it, a bit gospelly sort of feel with Place Your Hands. There’s nothing wrong with that, that’s really entertaining for people. It’s accepting that and going out there and really enjoying it because that’s who we are, that’s what we like doing, that’s what we get off on. It’s great to do that, perhaps at a festival there’ll be a few people who are really aware of us. We’re doing our own tour and that’s equally good fun but it’s nice to mix it up really. Sunday’s gig, is that going to be more of a club thing is it? That will be a right rock out that will!"
Have you ever had any negative experiences with fans?
"I mean there’s the odd fight which usually happens ‘cause people have all sorts of emotions and [laughter] people are drinking, pushing each other and some people get protective over their own space. Sometimes that still goes on now. I don’t think there’s any major negativity, they all seem to be pretty positive crowds we always get. If it’s a Reef gig people know what they’re going to come to. Sometimes these days it’s a bit tricky with the health and safety and the bouncers and security can be a bit much sometimes."
You’ve opened up for some of the biggest bands in world from The Rolling Stones, to Soundgarden and to Cold Play. Who have been your favourite artists that you’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with?
"Early on, for us, we were just a small band in one van and we did some shows with Paul Weller on his Wild Wood Tour, we did three nights at the Royal Albert Hall and that was an amazing experience for us. He was really cool and his band was brilliant and was a really good experience early on for us. We’ve been out with Texas and she was cool, her band was cool. The one with Soundgarden was epic, there were lots of bands on that tour. There were a lot of really cool rock bands like Blind Melon, Kyuss, Soundgarden so it was a nice little package of rockers. They’re more alternative as well with a more alternative sound which we’re all a part of. So that was an amazing tour with Soundgarden, I enjoyed that. That was a while back now we went all round Germany and Scandinavia in big ice hockey venues and there was an airport we played in Munich and it was just a great experience. It was a great feeling to be around those guys who were also in bands from different countries like America, or the poor guy from Blind Melon about two months after that he had his overdose and we had just been hanging out with him and that’s just the reality of being human."
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