We had a chat with one of our favourite emerging new bands about their incendiary and incredible track ‘Ren Man’ and its video
Music is often at its best when it feels distinctive and new and when it makes a statement. With their self-titled EP out now to rapturous acclaim to those in the know, The Byker Grove Fan Club are an outfit that tick both boxes in an emphatic way. A track that we are thrilled to be honing in on from the release is the wonderfully sardonic ‘Ren Man’. A sarcastic, acerbic and forcefully resentful take-down of “fake woke” manipulators attempting to weaponise their performative feminism and use it to their advantage, set to a backdrop of gleefully noisy riffs.
“The sluts all get wet for a feminist” frontman Huw Allen sarcastically remarks, wholly embodying this character through the tracks lyrics and its genuinely horrifying video. This is such a thought-provoking elephant in the room to make a track about, and is sure to create some uncomfortable feelings among friends and peers who hear it, as it should. The manner in which the band hit the nail on the head with the lyrics and the tone of the track feels both masterful and intensely unsettling. We all know a ren man, and the more people that call out this kind of behavior, the more it can hopefully be eradicated. We had a chat with the outfit about what is rapidly becoming one of our favourite new tracks.
We love your track ‘Ren Man’, what was the inspiration behind its cutting lyrics?
As with a lot, if not all of our songs, it deals with the toxic masculinity that we see around us. More specifically Ren Man tries to shine a light the growing number of faux woke, virtue signalling ‘Soft Bois’ who are staunch feminists when it’s advantageous for them to be so. We wanted to point and laugh at these twats and in the process highlight that this behaviour is problematic and you should be aware of it. Sexism is not dead, predatory men have not vanished, they have just learned the terminology
What was the process like putting it together?
Cathartic. As with a lot of our songs, Ren Man comes from a place of frustration and anger, so it feels great to put words behind that anger. It sounds odd but the best songs we write usually take the least time. I think we wrote Ren Man in maybe ten minutes
What was the thought process behind the music video?
We just wanted to laugh at these knobheads, I think everyone knows someone like the guys in that video.
How have you found the response to your initial releases and debut EP?
It’s been amazing, humbling, and honestly a little surreal. We didn’t form Byker with the intention being a ‘proper’ band. We just wanted to hang out, escape the world and vent our frustration. From our perspective these were just songs we wrote at Connor’s, so to have people we don’t know sing the lyrics back to us at shows, feels amazing. It lets us know that maybe we are saying stuff that people have needed to hear, and maybe we aren’t the only people pissed of with the state of things. It’s really nice.
What else do The Byker Grove Fan Club have planned for the near future?
We have new material in the pipeline, and a ton of shows booked it, 2022 is going to be a killer year!
