The Bachelorettes are an alternative rock band based in Exeter, comprised of students Lauren Witherden (vocals/guitar), Charlie Bass (guitar), Gabriel Lee (bass guitar) and Rueben Thomas (drums). They recently celebrated their one-year anniversary as a band, so it felt like an apt time to reflect on their progress and projects thus far.
Despite the band’s existence for little more than a year, it is evident from their impassioned rhetoric that music has forever been an important part of their individual lives. Both Rueben and Lauren started out learning the violin but quickly turned to their respective instruments and Charlie describes his earliest memory as that of ‘wanting to play the piano.’ In fact, Gabriel and Rueben were in a band together during Sixth Form and doubtless this relationship has carried them in good stead for their more recent musical projects.
The band have an eclectic mix in their personal music tastes, citing New Order, Muse, Taylor Swift and Hozier, to name just a few. While it may be hard to see the influences of such artists in their own output, in many ways it speaks to their creativity and deep understanding that they are able to take inspiration from these musicians and create something completely new. This is part of a conscious effort, as Charlie says though his main inspiration is Queens of the Stone Age’s John Homme, ‘I do try and steer away from ever copying him. I find myself trying to the use the principles he’s talked about.’
The band find it easier to point out their worst gig than their best ones, but I would argue this is because the worst one stands out as being different in a crowd of really great gigs. Despite this ‘egregious’ gig at Exefest 2026, they have played innumerate others all over the city and even recently ventured out to Bristol. Some of the highlights have been supporting Smokebreak and Torrocol at Cavern and their most recent gig at Bomba celebrating the release of their EP ‘Masquerade’.
They describe ‘Masquerade’ as ‘an extended project in very much not an extended time frame,’ recorded in the campus studio in ‘a grand three days at the end of term three,’ and later mixed and mastered by Rueben. Evidently the time crunch has not put them off as they coalesced at Rueben’s home in Portsmouth over the summer to write for an album, which they elusively say will be released ‘at some point within the next year.’ For them, the album feels like the epitome of their collaboration with all four members writing and producing songs for the project. They believe that, ‘if we’d done this with our skill levels a year ago it would have been rubbish. But we came out of it with tracks that have held up surprisingly well and we all still like the songs.’
Despite all this time in the studio, the band primarily value playing live and find that it significantly informs their songwriting and production. As Lauren states, ‘I feel like when we’re writing songs or arranging parts its always with the idea that it’s going to be played live,’ and ‘I find that when we play live, it makes the songs sound better than when we’re recording.’ For Gabriel, ‘it is the most fun part of being in a band. And there’s the whole community aspect of it too.’
Exeter’s musical community has been ‘a fantastic place to start because there are good venues here,’ and ‘because there’s less of a scene, there’s not as much competition.’ Likewise, Gabriel says, ‘I also feel like all the bands here, because we’re all at the same level we all kind of bring each other up as well,’ and that in a bigger city ‘it’s a lot harder to build connections.’ In particular, they shout out Campus Band Jam Nights at The Stoke for being ‘such nice confidence boosters. It is lovely to have that space where everyone is just kind of supportive and people are there just because they like live music.’
Unfortunately, The Bachelorettes will be forced to break up at the end of this academic year as all four members embark on various next steps in their life stages. Despite this end on the horizon, they are keen to finish the album as an ode to their time together; ‘we wanted an actual recording of what we’d done.’ Therefore, I urge you to make the most of this year and see them perform as a collective while you still can. They have an upcoming gig at The Old Firehouse on 29/11 which is free of charge and Rueben says, ‘we’ll try and get a single out from the album in the not-too-distant future,’ so keep an eye out on their social media for that!
