Southern England newcomers Dead Jackals have built an engaging sound around the fundamental characteristics of good rock music: engaging vocals, chunky guitars, searing solos and driving drums. And the Basingstoke/Newbury-based band have honed those qualities nicely in a sound they summarise as “melodic, energetic and catchy.”
The band was born out of the COVID pandemic as vocalist and bassist Tommy K looking to put together a band that created a sound sitting somewhere between Blink-182 and Thin Lizzy. He brought in drummer Matt Jolly, who he knew from college, then guitarist Sugarman Sam, who’d been busy with his own Blues project, before the lineup was completed with guitarist Matt Hudson.
And on what to expect from Dead Jackals, the band tell us: “Dead Jackals is a no-nonsense rock band, we don’t shy away from guitar solos and we put on a great live show. And even though Rock is not popular anymore, that does not deter us, it’s what we love!”
The quartet got to work on writing an EP, which was their self-titled debut released in October 2021. That was followed up with the new single Insight, which was released last month.
Insight kicks off with lively guitar chords and drums under a funky lick, which drops into the catchy vocals “She’s cool, She’s cold, I really wanna get a hold, Tonight, when the feeling’s right, Insight.” It builds in intensity, with the guitars getting heavier and little guitar flurries, before big singalong vocals over drawn-out guitar chords and rolling drums.
The cool opening guitars return then, after a second chorus, a funky dual guitar solo takes over and drops into powerful vocals to bring the track to an enjoyable conclusion.
On the track, the band told us: The reception to Insight has been great. It’s been out for a month now and had just under 5,000 streams, including YouTube. We’ve had lots of great positive reviews describing it as energetic, feel good and epic.”
There’s plenty more where that came from on the EP, including the funky opening guitar lick on the first track Head For The Door and the edgy Cautionary Tale, which features a delicious guitar solo.
As mentioned above, the band take influence from Thin Lizzy and Blink 182, as well as the likes of Metallica, Foo Fighters and The Darkness.
And on what inspires them to write music, they add: “Typically when we write we start with the music first, the lyrics usually come as a story or it might be a deeper connection like mortality, relationship breakdown etc… Then we have songs about lusting after someone you can’t quite reach. And Broken Hearts is about Ted Bundy, so it can vary a lot.”
Exciting times await Dead Jackals with their next single Broken Hearts coming soon and three gigs lined up before the end of the year, ahead of meetings with small labels next year.
You can follow Dead Jackals on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, grab their merch here, and check out their music on Spotify and YouTube.
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