A Scouse band went from playing gigs in small pubs to touring around Europe.
Courting formed in 2018. They have taken their mix of indie rock and post-punk around the UK and the world, and their second studio album, No Last Name, was released today.
A reason for their success might be the band’s combination of Scouse humour with the utmost seriousness for their craft. This was demonstrated when the ECHO spoke to two of its members, Sean Murphy-O'Neill and Sean Thomas.
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When asked where the name Courting originates from, Sean Murphy-O'Neill, 22 from Hunts Cross, said it was from his nan Lily. He said: “My nan always used to go, are you courting? Are you courting? It’s a very old fashioned phrase.
“And she's very proud [of the name], she thinks she should get like a split of the profit for this. But she just kept saying that and I was like, that's quite funny actually. Are you courting? Okay, yeah we are. And we just went from there.
“I cannot overstate how happy my nan is. I cannot overstate how much every time I see her, she's like, ‘you know when I think I could get paid a little bit of that, it could trickle down.’ I’m like, nan, it will.”
The Wikipedia page for the band also states they have “become known for their frequent references to car parks throughout their songs”. Sean Thomas, 24 from Childwall, said: “It's one of those things – other people pointed it out to us and we ourselves didn't realise. I guess we love car parks. It wasn't intentional.”
Sean Murphy-O'Neill added: “I just find myself romanticising car parks frequently. I don't know why. Maybe there's something I could say there's something cool in how we rely on cars and parking. But it's completely unintentional.”
But behind the jokes lies hard work for making a career out of music. The pair feel that, as a band that has had to make their own opportunities, they recognise the chance they have to make a success of themselves.
Sean Murphy-ONeil said: “I think a lot of people, maybe when they start bands when they're like 18 or whatever, they just want a bit of beer money. They want to play a gig, go out with their friends. And I think what we did is even though we were quite young at the time, we just treated it like a business.
“So we were constantly trying to like to contact people and make it a big thing. Maybe I'm undercutting how serious we take it a little bit by saying it's all an accident because we are like really bothered about what we do
Sean Thomas added: “We'd finish the gig with like £50 and rather than splitting that four ways on beers, we’d put it away, and were like next time we've got to do something, practice, transport, whatever, then money was for that.”
The strategy appears to be working, with the band taking their unique blend of sound to Germany and Spain in recent years. However, they are keen to retain their Scouse identity.
Addressing Sean Murphy-ONeil, Sean Thomas said: “I was actually talking to your brother yesterday, and he was saying how it's mad that five years ago, you used to play in gigs on Smithdown Road. And now you've got the second album out, doing big shows and European tours. It feels good.
Sean Murphy-ONeil added: “We're playing a show at Hangar 34 on May 24, which is a big celebration for us. Last year we decided to scale it down in Liverpool and play some free shows because we wanted to make sure people knew that we are from Liverpool really.
“I think like too often, if you're a British band and you don't shout about where you're from, people just presume you're from London. And it was p****** us off a little bit. We did two free shows here, to just anyone who wanted to come, to try and make sure everyone knew what we were about.”
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