After playing road-block rock shows at Forest Gate Festival, The Cider House and most recently a rollicking show at Tracks, Forest Gate's garage rockers Post Office will be back blasting blues, punk and hard rock covers along with their own original material down the Avenue Road Arches at Tracks on Saturday 28th January.

Alistair Simmons catches up with the young band to find out about how they formed, their influences and future aspirations...
‍
‍
Introduce yourselves and your role in Post Office...
‍
Antonijus Tiskus: I play guitar in Post Office.
‍
Michael Arnold-Sudbery: Bass and vocals.
‍
Ezra Coy: Drums.
‍
How long have you been playing together? How did you meet?
‍
AT: Two years.
‍
EC: Almost two years.
‍
MA-S: About that, nearly two and a half.
‍
A: We started Post Office in year 9, but we played a bit in year 8.
‍
M: But we don’t talk about that!
‍
E: Yeah that was so bad.
‍
A: We started playing together a bit in year 8, but it didn’t go anywhere until we formed the band in year 9. That was when we started the band properly.
‍
A: Me and Michael were friends for a while.
‍
E: And I made friends with them at some point in year 7.
‍
A: As soon as we met we wanted to start a band.
‍
How would you describe your sound? Which bands do you draw inspiration from?
‍
A: Rock and roll is the simplest way to describe it, and for me I’m pretty sure we all love Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Blues is a big influence, as well as bands such as Van Halen. Great rock anthems you know!

E: Yes definitely Led Zepellin.

M: Blues and anything to do with blues, first era and the people that covered this, and the people who covered the people who covered! Anything to do with blues! And also a lot of proto-punk and garage rock I’m a big fan of. Obviously there’s a very strong hard rock that goes into Post Office, bands like AC/DC. Hard rock pretty much
sums up our sound.
‍
E: I really like The Stooges, they have been a big influence for me. And blues that I heard from my parents like Muddy Waters. I recently went to a gig which was drone metal, which was really cool and that’s now got me into heavier metal.

What can people expect from a live Post Office show?

M: Mistakes!

A: That, and a lot of pentatonic licks and solos. Simple but very fun rock and roll.
‍
And are you playing originals or covers?
‍
E: Both, we have a few good covers.
‍
M: We do a few good punk rock covers and some blues covers along with some more rock and roll tunes.
‍
Do you have any peers the same age who play in bands too?
‍
A: There’s very few people in our school that listen to our sort of music. We have become friends with some who have started listening to music that we listen to, because of the fact that we’re in a band. So a lot of people come to our shows because they know us and that it will be good fun.
‍
M: There’s one other band I know of but we’ve not played with them, and they’re not at our school.

Has being in the band given you more confidence because you are doing something different?
‍
E: Yeah it makes life more interesting and exciting.
‍
A: When we go to school now people know us as the musicians who are in a band. It’s what we’re known for now.
‍
And people from school come to your shows?
‍
A: They do. People see our Pink Floyd shirts and it isn’t music they really listen to, so when they see it they start talking to us about it. This then gets them interested and they come to see us play.
‍
M: And plus everyone who stays to the end of the show gets a free kitten.
‍
Tell me about the demo that you’re recording...
‍
A: It’s going to be two of our best songs, and a really good cover. Once again, good old fashioned fun rock and roll that shows what we can do.
‍
And where would you like the band to go in the future?
‍
A: More gigs. This is what the demo is for, to have something on the internet that we can send to people for more gigs.
‍
M: And it would be great to make an actual album.
‍
E: And maybe play at a festival eventually.


You catch Post Office playing live again at Tracks on Saturday 28th January with doors open at 6pm and music from 7.45pm. For further updates follow @post.office.the.band
‍
Interview by Alistair Simmons
www.heliosflyingstudio.com