Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been speaking to Leeds Crossover band Sidewinder who have just announced their most recent release Demons!

Through 2026 Sidewinder have been through essentially what would be a reset for the band. With their recent line up changes they have managed to create more freedom in their style as well as different musical influences to form what is now Demons.

With roots set down in Leeds and being a staple at BOOM. Sidewinder have supported some great bands from Grove Street, Inhumane Nature, Cro-Mags…

So what’s next for Sidewinder? You’ll have to find out below.

FIRST OF ALL WHERE ARE YOU GUYS BASED & HOW DID YOU ALL MEET?

Yo man thanks for having us!

Sidewinder are based in Leeds & started with Jonesy back in 2019 after his old band Blood Sweat & Beer fizzled out [Think Municipal Waste but with extra gravy] Like most bands it came together quite organically through mates who’d met at shows getting together to play riffs & hang out. But in the past few years it’s turned into something more than just a rad dads club and something we should start taking more seriously.

Damo came in mid 2023 having not played in bands for a while after Hardships folded when our old vocalist stepped down due to being stationed overseas with the RAF. Oscar jumped in last year after overhearing our old drummer had to leave due to work & family commitments, previously of a band called Distort from Bradford.

Callum & Francesco who we knew from their previous bands Resist and JackKnife both joined earlier this year to replace our longtime bassist who’s decided to concentrate on another project, and our OG guitarist ‘Ginner’ Joe who’s missis has just had a baby. Congratulations brother!

It’s a band with it’s roots firmly within the Leeds scene for sure. So it’s kind of built itself over time.

Go to shows kids it’ll change ya life!

WHAT WAS THE SCENE LIKE WHERE YOU WERE GROWING UP & HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN IT?

For me personally (Damo) and I can probably say the same for Jonesy we grew up in a period when you had bands like BMTH, Enter Shikari, The Seventh Cross, Clone the Fragile all doing little bar shows in Huddersfield for like 50p. I got dragged to these little shows by my best mate and eventually ended up going to see Sinking Ships and Ruiner at the packhorse in Leeds which was my gateway into hardcore, from there it was Hatebreed, Walls of Jericho, Sworn Enemy etc.

There was a divide back then between metal heads & hardcore kids that doesnt really exist anymore which is awesome.

Both had solid scenes, but just ran parallel instead of crossing over, now you get more mixed bill shows, as it should be, it’s been great for bands and the scene in general. Would like to think us as individuals and as a band have helped that happen.

Oz fell in love with hardcore through Malevolence coz he’s a baby and Fran got a Motorhead cassette in the early 90’s and was hooked from the get go.

THIS MIGHT SOUND LIKE A DUMBASS QUESTION BUT HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME SIDEWINDER?

It was our old guitarist Joe who threw it to the room. It’s one of those words that you always heard in movies & cartoons through the 90s, and it just fits.

We are a little different to what people would probably expect from a Crossover band, a little bit of a Sidewinder if you will. Also our original vocalist was in bomb disposal lugging old Sidewinder Missile casings around, so it just stuck.

Those AIM-9’s are terrifying by the way if you haven’t seen them.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND TO SOMEBODY WHO HASN’T HEARD YOU BEFORE?

I put it like this,

If 2000’s Hardcore & metal was chucked in a blender with 80s thrash.

So Crossover Dark; think Shadows Fall playing Stormtroopers of Death, or Terror playing Exodus songs.

That’d be sick that tbf.

WHAT HAS BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU’VE BEEN FACED WITH?

The biggest challenge for us has been the change in members, there’s no animosity or anything it’s just unfortunately life.

With us all being mates growing up playing music together then becoming parents or just adult life in general, alongside the band, they’ve just had to part ways with us.

All the love to the old guard tho, we’re all still boys. Joe even jumped up and played a song with us at Boom the other day which was wicked. He’s basically gunna be our stand in from now on too so you will probably see him at some point.

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE ARTISTS?

For me (Damo) I’m quite eclectic with music, my favourite artists include, Slipknot, American Nightmare, Dead Swans, The Weeknd, Hans Zimmer, Billy Talent.

Jones & Fran are the Thrash/Crossover guys, Testament, Exodus, DRI Suicidal etc.

Oscars the mosher of the band so Cold as Life, Strife, Shattered Realm, and Callum is somewhere in the middle of everyone with Tool, Daft Punk and Turnstile. He also plays in an alternative rock band named after a Wetherspoons, big move.

Frans would be Metallica haha.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SHOWS YOU’VE REALLY ENJOYED BEING A PART OF & DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE VENUE?

One of my favourite shows we’ve played was my second show with the band at Disgraceland in Middlesbrough, something about playing a room the size of your nans front room really resonates with me.

Other notable shows were playing with Cromags and Harley filming us from the side of the stage, or playing with Cultura Tres and Paulo Jr [Sepultura] using Jonesys pedal board as a table to sign merch for fans…

Mental that, Jones said to him he was lucky he played on Chaos AD cos he was gunna take his head off.

Beyond cheeky that! He was cool though he digged us.

As for favourite venue it will always be Boom in Leeds, it’s a home for us as a band.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM TOUR TO GET SIDEWINDER ON? 

13 year old us would love to play Download, as for touring, we’d love to tour with Power Trip or Fugitive, we’d lose my mind every night.

Dream tour – Suicidal Tendencies, Power Trip, Machine Head, Municipal Waste and Sworn Enemy.

We’d play the after show party.

WHAT HAS BEEN SOME OF THE BEST EXPERIENCES YOU’VE HAD TOGETHER?

Legit everything. It’s just the most fun man!

Anyone reading this who hasn’t started a band but is thinking about getting involved, do it!

Hanging out with ya mates every week making music you wanna dance to is everything. Creativity is the spice of life. Celebrate yourselves.

But if you wanna hear a story I gotta say the three shows in one day was a mental experience. We played Millwright street mayhem at Boom, was a stacked show.

Pest Control, Combust, Mindwar, End it, Last Wishes, loads of mad bands, then hauled down the M1, played a metal dayer in Sheffield, then raced back up to Leeds to catch Spy & The Flex, then ended up playing an after party show back at Boom.

Crazy day man.

HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THE HARDCORE SCENE IN LEEDS CHANGE IN RECENT YEARS?

Everyone knows the Leeds scene, arguably the strongest in the UK. We’ve got some incredible musicians around here but I have to say there doesn’t seem to be that many high-school bands or young kids coming through these days like there used to be. When we were kids back in the early 2000’s, everyone was in a band, and there was a proper youth scene.

We had Saturday Matinee shows happening in Leeds specific for young bands to cut their teeth and play their first shows, and they were booming. Venues and promoters do what they can for grassroots music absolutely but there just doesn’t seem to be the stream of bands coming up anymore.

Maybe the conveyor needs kicking back into gear, or maybe video games have beaten the guitar in the priority list for this generation. Any young bloods reading this, put the controller down and go rip it with ya mates. You’re the future.

HOW IMPORTANT IS REPRESENTATION IN THE HARDCORE COMMUNITY?

Diversity and inclusion isnt even a conscious thought in our culture, its a given. Thats the beauty of Hardcore, it’s who you are not what you are.

Hopefully the world catches up quick.

But until then, do like Icepick, Fuck those who oppose.

WE MEET A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THIS SCENE. DO YOU HAVE A GREAT CONNECTION WITH ANYONE IN PARTICULAR AND WOULD RECOMMEND WORKING WITH?

We have a couple of really good relationships with people who have helped us out a lot, Chris at Boom, Cookie at Rhapsody, Mikey at the Parish, Paul and Ben at Total Print.

The list of promoters would be long though, everyone we have worked with have been super professional and genuinely lovely people and we love working with them.

WHO HAS BEEN SOME OF THE LARGEST INFLUENCES IN YOUR SOUND?

Hard to answer this. Whether it’s Deicide, Municipal Waste, Turnstile, Cro-Mags, Slayer, whatever or whoever you wanna say, riffs and hooks stick don’t they. But it’s not replicating it’s developing.

The biggest buzz for me with Sidewinder is creating something I wanna hear that I’m not getting anywhere else. But staying in the realms of what we love.

WE CAN’T ALL BE MUSICIANS 24/7 SO WHAT JOBS/CAREERS DO YOU GUYS HAVE?

Damo teaches Game Development in a College, Jones is an Emergency Gas Engineer, Oz is an Admin Assistant, Callum is a Lab Technician for construction materials and Fran is a technician in the Royal Mail.

HAVE YOU GOT ANY HOBBIES/INTERESTS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE PEOPLE?

Damos a video game guy, plays 40k, loves his movies and Leeds United.

Jones if he’s isn’t writing will be on some country lane somewhere on his Harley, Callum loves his video games and does some eSports, Fran says his hobbies are guitar and people but he’s a man of mystery.

As for Oz he spends a lot of his time either being the wristband guy at boom, drumming in the practice room or at festivals all over.

YOU’VE JUST RELEASED YOUR NEW EP ‘DEMONS’ TODAY. WHAT WERE YOUR INFLUENCES FOR THESE TRACKS AND HOW HAPPY WERE YOU WITH HOW IT CAME TOGETHER?

Lyrically I try to write it like poetry rather than like a song, the influences for this record came from real life experiences apart from Mutagenic Deconstruction that’s based on the books The Witcher. The Price of Purity itself holds the most meaning though as its about how it’s unfair that awful things happen to good people when nothing happens to bad people. That’s an abridged version of it but it’s the basic meaning.

Most of these riffs have been around a while now but for one reason or another they never stuck. With the recent lineup change it’s definitely given us more freedom to do what the majority of us wanted to do musically, so Jonesy just took to writing and this is the end product of those riffs.

The craziest thing was Sal Lococo’s [Sworn Enemy] guest spot on The Price of Purity, it’s so hard. Was a bucket list moment for sure. Legend that dude. They’ve been a big Influence to us, and a great example of how to crossover styles without being a throw back band.

We recorded at Stationhouse in Leeds with James Atkinson who has done all the hard work with recording, mixing and master’s and generally dealing with our nagging.

https://www.thestationhousestudio.com

We’re going to be putting Demons out through Rhapsody and Earache Digital distribution. As for our favourite track, for Damo it would be Demons as it went through the most iterations lyrically.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE FROM YOU GUYS FOR THE REST OF 2026?

2026 is essentially a reset for us as a band, we got 2 new members, we got the 3 track coming out and a 5-track coming later in the year too, we also have a split that is in the works, details to be announced later.

We’ve got a few shows coming up, Fuming Mouth in May, a weekender with Psychomosher in July, then a few unannounced shows that we have lined up.

We will be hitting up some new places this year which will be fun, we love going to new cities and finding food places & local beer!

Its all good in the camp though, we’ve found a new energy and going forward we want to push that into our music and shows. It’s an exciting time for sure.

HAVE YOU GOT ANY SHOWS COMING UP THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO PLAYING?

There’s some very cool opportunities on the horizon we can’t share yet but watch this space.

FINALLY, HAVE YOU GOT ANY OTHER ARTISTS/FRIENDS YOU THINK THE PEOPLE SHOULD CHECK OUT?

Definitely! Overpower, Expressionless, Prozpect, Machete Law, Armoured Virus, King Abyss, Seconds Out, Gype, Inhuman Nature, Flipside, Cryptic Shift, Tempers Fray, Exhume, Nerve Agent, Arkenath, Culturist, Last Breath Denied, Mr Shiraz, Inheritor. List goes on, there’s some great bands doing bits.

Appreciate you,

Thanks again for having us.

Sidewinders latest EP ‘Demons’ has been released today! So go and give it a listen.

For further show information keep an eye out on their socials @sidewinder.ukco

Until next time, I’ll catch you in the pit!

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