Kent rockers Karobela aim to get you dancing on your toes with a catchy indie rock, disco and electronica fusion that boasts soaring melodies and heavy riffs.
The quartet of Katie King, Rob Freeman, Ben Gower and Lauren Gadd – whose names form Ka-ro-be-la, smart right? – formed from the ashes of a previous group, with the addition of Katie. And it’s hard not to be hooked on their infectious grooves, delicious empowered vocals and feisty riffs.
On the sound they’ve honed, the band told us: “In terms of what we sound like, we take a rock four piece and then try to keep it upbeat with the use of disco drum beats and carrying bass. Then we add a sprinkle of electronic music in the form of samples and effects, which helps add another layer to the tracks and allows us to segue between the songs easily.”
Our latest taste of this is Afterthought, which was released at the end of last month. It opens up with a cool stabbing bassline that continues alongside chunky stabbing guitars, dropping into a laid-back verse supported by more stabbing guitars and cheeky cowbell hits. The vocals build in intensity alongside a funky darting riff, feeding into a big catchy chorus “Well I won’t ever be an afterthought, So please don’t give it a second thought, I know my place and it’s standing on the edge, No I won’t be an afterthought.” The cowbell returns as another building verse feeds into another singalong chorus, which ends with cool little licks and funky electronic beeps. The pace suddenly drops with delicate, high-pitched renditions of the chorus feeding into a couple of big final blasts of it.
On the track, the band told us: “Afterthought has gone down really well. It’s the last in our current run of singles from recording toward the start of 2024, and we’ve had a lot of buzz surrounding this release, we hope you love it.” Check it out in the stream here:
The track follows on from a couple of singles released last year, the feisty Imposter Syndrome that sees engaging vocals supported by fuzzy guitars. That was preceded by the excellent Get Hard, which again opens with fuzzy guitars supporting delicious vocals feeding into the chorus repeats of “I know it might sound hard that I might just turn you down.” The second verse starts with the brilliant line, “You think you’re just a lover, But boy you’re just a creep,” and a second chorus gives way to a driving guitars and drums setting up a final chorus. Check it out in the video here:
We also have a lot of love for their previous track Red Light Green Light, which counters a filthy little fuzzy riff with dreamy guitars and gorgeous vocals. And if you like the sound of that, go back and check out their solid catalogue of singles and their self-titled EP, released back in 2020.
The Karobela sound is influenced by the band members’ varying tastes, but a shared love for alternative female rock bands like Pvris, Marmosettes, Cassyette, Yonaka, South Arcade. “Our songs are written in the hopes that people can relate to them,” the band told us. They’re about shared experiences, types of (exaggerated) people we know and love or hate, all with catchy hooks and vocals lines that people can belt along to and enjoy.
“As a band, we are all very different people with different life experiences but that’s only ever a good thing with collaborating because it helps us to see others’ points of view and how different people can relate to different things. Also, as a result, we have a huge array of influences, but at the moment we do love a bit of Pvris!”
Karobela have a big year ahead, with a few gigs booked across the UK and on the lookout for more. And they tell us: “We’re in the process of writing and modernising our set for this year so we don’t plan to be out on the road until the end of March, so please do come along, it’ll be a blast.”
You can follow Karobela on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud and YouTube.
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