Loz Campbell formed in 2014, hailing from Wakefield, UK! The Alt Rock band have gained a loyal fanbase in the last few years following singles such as “Bad Girl” & “Beautiful Liar” with airplay on the BBC, Amazing Radio & Planet Rock. In recent years the band have toured with the likes of Cherie Currie (The Runaways), Richie Ramone, Eric Martin (Mr.Big), Mungo Jerry and had the chance to play Planet Rockstock, HRH Ibiza, Live at Leeds + Many More.
2024 looks to be a huge year for Loz Campbell with the release of two new singles, numerous live shows & festivals and continuing to work on her new album which is scheduled for release before early 2025. We caught up with Loz as she prepared for another UK tour on the back of latest single ‘Can’t Get Enough’ to discuss her rise in the rock scene, the forthcoming album and her love for the flute…
Sean: It’s fantastic to finally get to talk to you Lox. We’ve been following your journey from here in Australia, a lot of which has been through one of our UK reviewer/photographers Dave Pickles who talks very very highly about you. A great start to 2024 with the release of your latest single ‘Can’t Get Enough’ which was released on May 5th. How’s the rest of the year looking for you? Judging by your website you have plenty planned.
Loz: [laughs] Well, it wasn’t supposed to be this busy to be honest with you and because obviously we’re still writing the album but I struggle to say no and there’s a lot of festivals this year that have come in that I just can’t say no because I’ve been waiting years to play them and just like you never know when they’re going to come again, do you know what i mean? yeah well i think the song sums it up can’t get enough
Sean: Well I think the title of the single sums it all up, ‘Can’t Get Enough’ of festivals looking through the list of live appearances [laughs]. I even see you are playing shows with the legendary Marco Mendoza. What a CV that man has got, playing in some of the biggest bands of our generation.
Loz: Yeah definitely. I’ve seen him play a couple of times within various different bands. I think the first time i saw him he was with The Dead Daisies which is a band I love! I truly love that band and then he was in the Marco Mendoza Trio the second time I saw him wonderful.
Sean: We are huge fans of The Dead Daisies here at The Rockpit especially the earlier albums with Jon Stevens and John Corabi. There are plenty of names I am seeing that keep popping up on my radar; Kira Mac – love what she has been doing and her album was a real solid release. FM are buzzing again on the live scene. It just seems that live music in the UK is thriving at the moment again, and you seem to very much be one of those names that keeps coming up too.
Loz: It’s nice to be included in in that group, and I have noticed myself, yeah FM have had a sort of a massive comeback and we’re playing with them at Whitby Rocks later this year, so yeah there’s a lot going on. I know some people that are going to gigs are like, “oh my god there’s so many clashes. Which gig do we go to you?” but it’s good and I’m glad it’s that way rather than the opposite.
Sean: I think I’m right in saying that this is the first of two that you might be releasing this year. Has it been quite easy to write for the new album or do you really have to sit down and apply yourself when you’re song writing?
Loz: Yeah. These two songs that we’re releasing were written probably this time last year, if not a bit earlier and so I wouldn’t say it’s been an easy process but we’ve made it harder for ourselves because we’ve put a lot more expectation on ourselves. We’ve gone, “Right, this is what we can do. This is what we’ve done. Now where do we go?” and our producer always pushes us. He’s like, “You’re not coming in and just recording at the same level as you’ve always done” because every time we’ve recorded with him over the past five years I’m proud to say, it’s got better and better and I don’t know how he does it but he pulls so much out of each of us. We thought, “Oh God, Christ I didn’t never know how to play like that!” You know what i mean? So it’s not been easy but that’s our own fault. It could have been easier but sometimes it’s nice to have someone that just gives you that extra drive. And then of course the worst is you then realize what you can achieve and you know the next time you go back in with him he’s gonna push you even more. And that’s where I am at now. I’m okay. These two singles are the next level but how do we then keep pushing on above that because what we really want is an album full of singles.
Sean: I think a lot of people are doing that now rather than it being skip tracks and filler tracks, some bands are producing their best work. I was worried that after Covid we were going to get drab and dreary songs about the end of the world and doom and gloom but we seem to have had the opposite. It’s been like a giant reset in some respects.
Loz: I think there’s people that sort of thought, now I can’t do this anymore and then there’s people that have thought right let’s do this for as long as we’re allowed to do it, you know and it’s added a bit of extra fire I would say.
Sean: I was looking back through The Rockpit review archives and saw the last time we covered your show was at The Pub in Lancaster back in November 2022, the 11th to be precise. You played with our very own Cassidy Paris.
Loz: Ah yeah, I keep forgetting that you’re in Australia – it’s the English accent [laughs]. She’s coming over here quite a lot and I think she is due back here soon in fact.
Sean: There is a such an amazing array of female fronted bands on the festival scene, especially in the UK & Europe – it’s so refreshing to see line-ups that aren’t just making up the numbers so to speak. It must feel great to have a bit of healthy competition, but more importantly your pushing all the bands on the bill each and every time.
Loz: Yeah and I think as well, all the girls that I’ve come across, all the front women are really friendly as well, so it’s not a case of there’s cat fights going on. Do you know what I mean? In the background everyone’s supporting each other and you know we’re in this together aren’t? So it’s a really good feeling.
Sean: You’re touched on the album that’s that’s being put together as we speak. How far away do you think you are before it will see in the light of day?
Loz: Obviously, we’ve got a very busy couple of months now, here there and everywhere and we’re not going to rush and put something mediocre out. So if it doesn’t get done before the end of the year that means that we’re really sort of working hard to make it the best it can be but if not the end of the year then definitely early next year it will be complete.
Sean: It’s also your tenth anniversary year too I see…
Loz: And hasn’t that time just flown by? God, I mean well, for quite a few years I still thought I was 18 and I’ve had a massive gap where I’ve thought right I’m 18 and now I’ve just turned 25 and I’m like, right okay, I feel my age now and 10th anniversary is coming up so I definitely feel my age [laughs] but I mean God yeah, in a way it feels like a short time but also looking back at everything I’ve done, everywhere I’ve been, I can’t honestly believe that I’ve crammed so much into 10 years.
Sean: Well, we can only hope that in the next 10 years you’ll get down to Australia to see us. With plenty of rock festivals and events we’d love to see Loz Campbell and the band come to visit.
Loz: Wouldn’t that be great. I’ll have to squish myself in Cassidy’s suitcase and see if she’ll let me come back with her [laughs].
Sean: I’m just taking you right back to before it all started – where did music come into your life? What was the first sort of conscious memories of music growing up?
Loz: I’ve always been surrounded by music and both my parents loved rock music as well. They used to take me to the theatre to see musicals so I was surrounded by it and almost had too many influences of all sorts of different genres. As I grew up I started to find my own sort of music that I liked and through my teenage years I listened to a lot of like heavier stuff like Korn but also mixed up with stuff like Skunk Anansie and Guns and Roses but I think having parents that love music is definitely where it comes from… yeah definitely.
Sean: And playing the guitar. Where did that come into the whole equation?
Loz: Well my first instrument was flute so I started playing that when I was about seven or eight and when I started listening more to rock music and stuff into my teenage years I thought I can’t replicate what I’m listening to on the flute and I really want to play guitar. As much as I love playing in an orchestra I just want to play guitar. I’d like get this itch to do it so yeah I just picked it up at about 11… I think I was 11, and started playing and just learning my favourite songs like Soundgarden and I think ‘Fell on Black Days’ was one of my first one riffs that I learned and started then writing my own music at about 14 and the rest is history.
Sean: We could have had the next female Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull if things had panned out a little differently [laughs].
Loz: Nobody picked me up quickly enough [laughs].
Sean: I’d love to finish off with a few general questions if I may and the first one’s my restaurant question – if you could invite three musicians dead or alive to join you for a bit of dinner one evening, who would you have sat around the table.
Loz: Oh my God!
Sean: …and you can’t have Jethro Tull [laughs].
Loz: I’d probably pick Lizzy Hale, Slash and… oh what’s my third one gonna be. God I’m stuck. I’m gonna say Jimi Hendrix. I think it should be a laugh.
Sean: What would have been the last album you listened to?
Loz: It will have been probably Slash’s new album because I just went to see him a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham. So yeah, I had to have a couple of listens today and it grew on me. I listened to a lot of The Warning recently too. I really like their new stuff. It;s really cool.
Sean: I’ve saved the easiest for last. If you’d be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Loz: Is that easy? [laughs] Oh God, right I don’t know and it’d change every day I suppose. The way you feel when you wake up, I mean this is the thing – I’ve got so many different people that I listen to that it’s really difficult to pick. It’s like picking a favorite band or it’s like a parent picking their favourite child. I don’t think I can answer that. Can I have a favourite album?
Sean: Of course.
Loz: I’ll just say the full ‘Appetite for Destruction’ album – one of the greatest debut albums of all time.
Sean: I have to agree. A great choice. Loz, it’s been so great to catch up and chat. Thank you so much for your time. We wish you all the best for everything and I’m excited to hear the tracks coming out later in the year with the album.
Loz: Thanks so much for the support Sean. It really is appreciated.
