Interview: The Wholls talk inspirations, gigs, fans and more

Posted on by Original Rock

The Wholls.jpg

The Wholls, consisting of Tordy Cocchiarella (Vocals/Guitar), Santino Cocchiarella (Guitar/Vocals), Joe Stevenson (Bass/Vocals), Daniel De Feo (Drums/Percussion), are 4 piece alternative rock music group who are quickly making their presence felt across the UK – Writes Isabelle Pollock. The lads have performed gigs  and played at festivals all over the UK and even performed on BBC Introducing in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire earlier this year. You can listen X21 from the band below.

We managed to catch up with the lads from The Wholls to ask about how the band started, their music influences and more!
Tell us bit about yourselves…How long have you been together? And how did you come up with name of the band?
We all joined a pirate lego club together when we were 8 and 3 years later here we all are. Doing a band. But pirate lego is still our main focus.

All we can say about the band name is that we urge you to look it up in an Italian slang urban dictionary. Then teach us how to spell proparlee.

What made you decide to want to be in a band and create your own music?

It was a lack of pocket money. We all wanted to chip in together and buy Bluebeards Prison Island Lego Adventure Set For Boys but all we could afford was some rhythm and a couple of big riffs so we started to play with them instead really. That and girls.

What music inspires the band?

We’re on a continual quest to find new and inspiring music. Being able to take a retrospective look at certain bands careers and see how they’ve developed and continued to change and grow over time is something we aspire to in the long run (Primal Scream and Arctic Monkeys for example have been amazing at that over the years) but in the now we could be driving to a show listening to Anderson Paak, playing pacman and eating a pack up whilst spraying paco rabanne. If you get me. There’s actually a bunch of incredible new, young, hungry guitar bands around in the UK right now. Strange Bones, Paves, Jackals Rose, Hello Operator, Broken Witt Rebels…we could go on and on. Dig a little and ye shall find.

What has been your favourite venue to play at so far?

Probably Isle of Wight Festival as a show and Brixton Electric as a venue. Amazing experiences for different reasons. But the best show is always the next one.

If there was one music artist/band you could go on tour with, who would it be?

Can we say Chuck Berry?! Or if we’re talking now then I reckon us on tour with Foals would be a match made in Devon.

Do you have any gigs coming up soon?

This weekend we are playing Secret Garden Party and Tramlines Festivals, Y-Not festival next week and we’re even over in Germany next month at Reeperbahn Festival. Big London show on 12th August at Nambucca plus loads more. Check out all our internettings for that (@thewholls). We basically do our sleeping on the motorway. Saves on rent.
And what would you say to you fans who come to your gigs and buy your music?
Nice one! Would you like a gin and tonic?