Prepare to eat your words, Portsmouth's Crystal Tides are no headcases

Since forming in early 2018 (including the brief period when they were named Koala), the ambitious four-piece have proved to be one of Portsmouth's more popular recent musical exports.

Started by frontman Billy Gregory and guitarist Harry Knowles, following a couple of changes, the line-up has (sorry) crystallised since the addition of bassist George Regan and then drummer Joe Knight.

The band quickly headlined their own show at The Wedgewood Rooms, as well as the same venue's stage at Icebreaker Festival in January 2020. There were support slots aplenty and radio, both local and national, fell for their indie-pop charms.

So when the first lockdown arrived, the band were determined not to lose momentum.

‘It's been really difficult in places,’ admits Billy, ‘but one area in which we've really flourished over the past year has been our writing.

‘We've had a load of time for that, but we've also been trying to keep busy in the sense of trying to release music, and still just trying to drive on while there's no gigs, and it's really hard to promote what you're doing.

‘We've realised we're on our third single release now during lockdown, but we're starting to crack it a little bit further each time. Hopefully it's something we won't have to keep doing much longer – hopefully we can start releasing music when we’re not in lockdown soon!’

With the bandmates unable to get together to collaborate, they’ve been using technology to help them on track.

‘Usually, one of us comes up with an idea, and we're all fortunate enough that we've got recording stuff at home.

‘At the moment I've been part-time furloughed, so on my days off all I do is write music, then I record it. We've got a shared demo drive on Google Drive, we put everything in it. We’ll all listen to that, and add our own bits on top of it, and mix it.

‘We thought, we've got to try and stay creative during this process.’

When restrictions eased last summer, the band wasted no time getting into Old Chapel Studios in Emsworth to record some of the new material.

‘We were lucky – we're good pals with the studio and said we want to get something ready and recorded, just in case we do go into another lockdown and we've got nothing. I think we made the right choice.

‘We booked a big block of days and got the full EP recorded in one.’

The first fruits of those sessions was the single Courtney Love, released last November.

Although it shares the name of the erstwhile Hole frontwoman and Kurt Cobain’s widow, the band say it actually relates to a more ‘personal’ story.

‘I won't dive too deep into it – but it's focused on people in the industry who take advantage of musicians, there tend to be a lot of them about, especially at grass-roots level.

‘There's a particular story which really drove the songwriting. We're musicians and the best way we can express ourselves is through our songs, and we're just lucky it came out the way it did.

‘It's something so common nowadays, and it happens everywhere – not just to us and not just in Portsmouth. I think that's what helped spark the interest in it and it's amazing that the overarching message was getting blared out on national radio.’

The song made it on to Virgin Music's daytime playlist for six weeks, and picked up airplay on Radio X and Amazing Radio among others. It also made it onto some of Spotify's more prominent playlists.’

Billy says the band have created long-term plans in the bid for global domination.

‘We’ve got our goals, and if you roughly stick to that, it really propels what you're doing. We're already working towards the next single while releasing this one.

‘Don't get me wrong, we've had tonnes of help from people, support-wise, and our manager Billy (Fitzjohn) has been fantastic getting us various opportunities.

‘It's something you dream of doing – it's all one step closer to being a real-live job, rather than just something you're working towards.’

They were also named by influential clubnight/promoters This Feeling as Big in 2021, and have been included on a vinyl album with the others on the list.

‘It's huge - some of the artists which started there, like Catfish and The Bottlemen, and Blossoms and bands like that, to be in that sort of league is a big step for us – it's really exciting.’

And last Friday they released new single Headcase, with a full EP, Eat Your Words due out in late May.

‘This one’s more of a general relationship song,’ explains Billy. ‘Headcase is about being led on by a person who is obviously using you which causes you to go a little bit insane.

‘The emotions you deal with alongside the mental battle inside your own head because you can't figure out why you can't stop thinking about that one person despite the fact they’re just playing with your head.

‘You know it's wrong but you think somehow you can make it work.’

With the recent news of a ‘road out of lockdown’ the band are hoping they will soon be back on stage, including at the Golden Touch Festival in Southsea.

‘We're absolutely praying for that one to go ahead. And we don't know about Victorious yet, but if that goes ahead and we could get a slot there again, that would be incredible.’

The band did get to appear at one festival last year – the curious but aptly named Socially Distanced in Norfolk last September.

‘It was really strange, at first,’ recalls Billy. ‘It was really good to get that gig feeling back – even loading your stuff in the van.

‘We stayed up there together – this was when hotels were opened and we weren't fully locked down, so we were lucky enough we could drive up there together and go sit outside a pub beforehand.

‘Just the experience of getting out on the road again, even if it was just for one gig, that was enough to make the year,’ he laughs.

‘You forget how those little things make it so much fun. The gig was good – the soundsystem was brilliant – but you're stood on a stage and then about 20m from you there's loads of little fenced-in areas where people were sat.

It looked like there weren't many people because they were all so spaced out, but if they'd all been squashed together down the front, it would have been a fair whack of people.’

And as always, they’re looking further ahead.

‘We are currently in the process of planning what's next, whether it's another EP or a couple of singles, then something bigger like an EP or album. But with the current restrictions, we can't even get into a room to rehearse yet.

‘We don't want to hit a block of a few months without doing anything, as that's when we’ll lose the momentum we've worked so hard for over this period.

‘We need to get into a practice room together and work out which songs we want to do next, but we've still got a bit of time to do that.’

Headcase is out now. Follow the band on Spotify here.