HALFCUT, composed of Lucas Shaw on vocals and rhythm guitar, Max Heslop on lead guitar, Ollie March on drums, and John Pimlott on bass, are an Exeter-based rock band. They’re known in the local scene as talented performers with the energy and drive to truly make a name for themselves. Having played every venue in Exeter and recently expanding into Plymouth, a HALFCUT gig is guaranteed to be a great time. The band practice constantly, and it’s paid off with their September 2024 single, “Glass House.” On February 4, I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with them to see what’s next for some of Exeter’s finest.
Maya: What are your favorite gigs you’ve played?
John: My favorite is probably the Battle of the Bands last year. It was a very short set, but it felt like the most creative work to fit everything into that short span of time. It was just really fun.
Ollie: Mine has to be the first Phoenix gig, because of how unique of a stage and a show it was, and we got to debut some cool originals.
Max: Mine is the second Cavern gig we did, supporting James Sebastian.
Lucas: I also look back fondly on Battle of the Bands; if all of our sets were fifteen minutes, we’d probably be a lot better. My favorite was probably our first Cavern gig, we got to play with Sid Plus One supporting Parasitic Mind, so it was nice to lose our Cavern virginities together.
Maya: Last interview I did, Sid Plus One called you their biggest rivals, and Sid Rai said that with “malicious intent.” Off the record, they called themselves the Blur to your Oasis. What are your thoughts on that?
Lucas: I definitely agree with that, because Blur are much shitter than Oasis. Sid Plus One are forever chasing our tails—we’ll have them support as many times as they like. But we love them, they’re our band best friends. Sid talks a lot of shit but there are no two bands in Exeter closer than HALFCUT and Sid Plus One, we’re all in love.
Max: Lucas made me read out a poem about how Sid Plus One are shit at Firehouse on Sunday.
Lucas: “Roses are red, Sid Plus One are shite, dramatic pause… Is everyone having a good night?” I thought it was great. But Max didn’t, and he didn’t really come through with the delivery, to be honest…
Maya: Talk to me about how the band formed.
Lucas: Back in year ten I met Ollie. We both ended up going to Exeter and made a plan to jam over the summer and then try to start a band. We threw ourselves into Campus Bands when we got here and ended up at the first jam night. I dragged Ollie off his prog-rock high horse, and I forced him to play Cocoon by Catfish and the Bottlemen. We roped in Matt Smith to play bass for us, and he sat on the floor with the tab playing. I saw this big ginger guy [Max] and his four-eyed mate [John] and they were both singing every single word of Cocoon back at us. We recognized Max from a lecture, then he messaged us on Facebook, and that was it.
Max: Matt was in the band with us for about six months, and then he left to pursue other creative endeavors. John joined to replace Matthew basically as soon as he left because we had gigs coming up. And me and John have known each other for ages, since we were ten.
Maya: So how has your sound evolved through these lineup changes?
Ollie: It’s gotten better because it’s gotten less indie. I’ve taught them how to not be an indie band, but have been unable to teach them any Rush. We’re much rockier, but we’ve still got a unique little spin on it.
Lucas: No regrets though, starting out indie.
Ollie: A few regrets…
Lucas: Ollie is technically a lot better than all three of us, and we’ll all admit that, so indie rock was sort of where we had to go. But as we worked our way up, we wanted to push ourselves, so we’ve been playing more interesting stuff. I still have a very big soft spot for indie. I still think Catfish and the Bottlemen are the best band in the world. And Vann McCann is the greatest frontman ever. He breaks a lot of stuff.
Max: Yeah, [Lucas] definitely takes after him.
John: We’ve got “Glass House” out, but the next couple we’re releasing are quite different, so that’s sound evolution as well.
Maya: Who are your guys’ biggest musical influences? Please don’t say Catfish.
Ollie: We’ve recently found a nice middle ground in Led Zeppelin. They’ve got technical parts and quite a heavy sound, but they’re still catchy. We’ve taken that influence, and these guys mixed their indie spin into it, and I’ve tried to sprinkle in my more complicated fusion jazz, prog-rock influences. It’s been tricky, I try to push them.
Lucas: When it comes to lyric writing, I’m quite fussy. I will often go over a song three or four times before there’s a final version. I can’t stand lyrics that are way too obvious but without much else going on. I really love Jim Morrison’s lyrics, and Rodriguez as well, where it takes you a bit more to see what’s actually going on there, and you can give it your own meaning. I don’t like people knowing what I’m saying, so I like to use fun little images.
Max: Arctic Monkeys got me into playing guitar, I just love those songs, like AM. A lot of indie songs. Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Royal Blood and Tame Impala. I would really like to go down the synthy-psych rock route.
John: I play bass, but I started out playing guitar. I got into it because of Avril Lavigne; I wanted to learn to play Sk8er Boi. Since then, it’s been heavily focused on rock. I love Muse, I also love Catfish and Arctic Monkeys and all the indie rock bands the rest of the guys love, except Ollie. Some of my favorite bass lines to play are indie rock, like the first Arctic Monkeys album, because they’re so much fun to play on stage.
Maya: How has the music scene in Exeter impacted the band?
Lucas: The Angel Blues jams (The Angel unfortunately closed last autumn) opened a lot of eyes I didn’t even know I had. Stoke jams (bi-weekly Campus Bands event) are great, and they’re going so well this year, but there was something about the Angel where it was a little looser, everyone was a bit more into it. And hanging out with Bert Addison (Japan, Man; The Roxy Revival; Sid Plus One; White Rose), who’s incredible. Oscar Wooding (The Post), Ptolemy Jeffrey (King Louis), Toby Brooks (Mindbaby) – there’s some seriously good guitarists around who we can all learn a lot from. The local bands like Die Twice and FLAVOUR THE WiiCKED are really good. This year there’s been a lot more crossover between the local scene and Campus Bands.
John: There are cool venues in Exeter, with a lot of variety. You’ve got Cavern, Phoenix, and Firehouse, all these other great places where so many people will go to find music. I don’t think a lot of people think of Exeter as having a particularly big or good music scene, but when you’re involved in it, you do realize it’s good.
Lucas: People are pretty good about going to see new music here. Also, the new bands showcases that they do at Phoenix are great. We watched some great college bands the other week, Wasabi especially.
Maya: So, my last question is what’s up next for you guys?
Ollie: We’re gonna have a big fight and break up.
Maya: Great! That’s exactly the kind of reporting I wanna do. Interview’s over.
Ollie: We were just talking about Oasis…
Maya: Who would the fight be between?
John: Me and Max, and Lucas and Ollie. Just all of us.
Maya: Two breakups is doing too much.
Lucas: I’m going to end up dead in a ditch somewhere.
Maya: At 27?
Lucas: No, I can’t wait that long.
Maya: Sounds great… You guys mentioned a new song? Recording?
John: We’re recording in a couple weeks, three new songs and an extra bit that will go on the EP. It’s quite a lot of things that people will probably have heard before anyway, but it’s nice to actually have them on Spotify.
Lucas: We’ve got a nice string of gigs in preparation which will hopefully coincide with when we’re planning to release. On the 15th, we’re making our first baby steps out of Exeter, going to Plymouth to support The Outlanders at The Junction. March 8th, alongside our boys Sid Plus One and Pale Moon, Francesca Brown, a bunch of other talented individuals are all playing for Benny G’s Southwest Celebration at Phoenix.
John: 16th March we’re at Firehouse.
Lucas: The Retrospect are supporting us. So, recording end of February, and hopefully out some time in March! We’ll release some singles first, and then we’ll do the EP with a few treats on there for all our dedicated fans. It’s a big professional step for us. We’ll finally have more stuff for people to stream, which will help with getting us gigs and having something to show other than Glass House. Stream Glass House, though.
Maya: Anything final to say?
Lucas: Sid Rai, get off my [REDACTED].
