Having recently moved to Sheffield, I’ve been on the lookout for exciting Steel City bands and we’ve only gone and found exactly that – thanks to their management company holding one of their meetings in my pub! Emerging indie rockers Cargos are on a mission to get music crowds moving with an increasingly heavy sound they describe as “energetic, chaotic and memorable” and live shows that are “energy, choruses and moshpits.”
The main spark for Cargos’ formation was then schoolmates Archie Slann (vocals and guitar) and Zak Clapham (drums) going to Arctic Monkeys’ gig in Hillsborough in 2023. They realised that they wanted to pursue music performance and picked up their instruments the following month. After playing and practicing together, they looked to expand things with a full band, starting with fellow former schoolmate Connor Hill (rhythm guitar). Via Connor, they discovered London-based guitarist Jadon Frazer, who could also play bass, before completing the lineup in October by finding Sunderland resident Evan Watson through a Facebook post.
They’ve had a rapid rise in less than a year as a band, getting signed to Aggressive Management before they’d played a gig and are now on the company’s label. Their first show was at Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield supporting Scottish band Copper Lungs, where they had the crowd wearing their t-shirts and singing their debut single back to them, and this is their very first interview.
On the sound they’ve crafted since, the band told us: “We want to make you move. We’re sick of going to gigs where the crowd is static and we want to make music to get everybody on their feet and not care who’s looking. Our sound isn’t fully formed yet as we’re so new and the new songs we are writing feel heavier and more alt-rock than straight up guitar indie. It’s exciting as we honestly don’t know where we will end up in terms of having a specific ’sound’ for our band.”
Cargos released their debut single Incomplete last December, and it opens up with a few cymbal hits introducing repeating guitars that continue under a delicious little high-pitched lick. That gives way to an engaging opening verse “He’s already up and out, He’s already thought it out, Why doesn’t he just go, To the place where she ain’t known.” That flows into a catchy chorus “I knew you were not there for me, I knew you were just off to cheat, I knew he was just far too sweet, But clearly he’s, He’s Incomplete” supported by a thick bassline and intersected by funky little guitar licks.
Faster guitars and drums and an ascending bassline feed into a second verse and another lively chorus, which ends with big driving guitars and drums that continue under a noodling guitar solo. That drops into a final blast of the chorus, before lively guitars bring the band’s first track to a highly enjoyable conclusion.
On the track, they told us: “Incomplete was written based on an old mate one of us used to have and his past relationship, written from both his partner’s perspective and his own. It goes into his questionable decisions which we didn’t agree with and where we found inspiration for the lyrics.
“When we dropped the song we were honestly blown away with the fact people were even listening, Watching the numbers of streams go up each day was such a great feeling and meant people were interested in what we made. To anyone who hasn’t listened, it’s a really early and raw representation of who we are and is our first ever release, so should be seen as such. It sounds better live!”
The Cargos sound draws influence from indie rock bands like, unsurprisingly, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes and Muse. But they also draw on diverse music tastes from heavy metal to Britpop and classic rock, which we can expect to hear more of as they continue to release new music.
And on what inspires their music, the band explain: “Mainly writing comes from anything that’s happened or is going on in our lives that we feel strongly about and think maybe other people might do as well. This spans from relationships to grief to bad decisions etc, so I guess pretty universal themes.”
There’s plenty more to come from Cargos, who’ve just wrapped up recording and mixing their second single Gone Too Far, which should be out in a few weeks. They also have some big gigs coming up, including supporting Billy Bibby, a founding member of Catfish and the Battlemen, in Mexborough on 12 September and supporting Matilda Shakes at Foundry in Sheffield on 3 October.
And the band added: “As you might have guessed, we’re only just getting started. We’re writing like crazy and have so many new songs we’re just finishing off after working hard on them. I guess we’d just like to thank anyone reading this for taking the time out of their day, and come and see us live at Foundry on 3 October!”
You can follow Cargos on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
GigRadar 
Leave a comment