Formed in February 2025, but with a live show which outshines that of groups five times their age and experience, the north are the latest and greatest export of Leeds’ longstanding, fervent indie scene. Fronted by singer/guitarist Billy Memphis, the group have spent the past 12 months building up a reputation as one of the country’s most exciting new acts - though they’re not too fussed about the hype train. “Fuck trying to be cool or mysterious, we wanna be us,” says Billy, “If it’s to ten people or ten million.”

After convincing his mum to move the family home from Scarborough to Leeds in search of culture at the age of 16, Billy spent the past three years traversing the city’s music scene, eventually forming the north (completed by drummer Sian Keates, guitarist Kobi Griggs and bassist Mecca Boylan) after cherry-picking the finest young talent in the city.

“I found Sîan playing her first ever gig completely by chance, covering for a friend in a bar,” he explains, “Kobi I discovered on TikTok playing Stone Roses covers.” Macca and Memphis, meanwhile, had spent their late teenage years in the “darker corners” of Leeds’ punk scenes.

“To be honest I picked Leeds to go to because it was the closest city to home and to my grandparent,” he says, expressing his desire for his songwriting to tell the stories of those dark corners. “However, two years in I’m in love with this city. Without it I wouldn’t have the three other people that make up this band, as well as the experiences that I’ve had here that are the voice of our songs. I just love the city, the shops, the people, the Thai food, Brudenell pies and the many different cultures that make this city the city that I love, and that the band love.”

Freshly signed to Communion Records (Wunderhorse, Overpass, Catfish & The Bottlemen), and with a new EP under their belt helmed by Kev Jones (producer of Wunderhorse’s Cub), the band’s heart-on-sleeve approach is refreshingly direct in a world too often plagued with pretenders.

“I write about real experiences and the stories and emotions of those experiences,” says Billy. “Things that have happened to me as a child that I would rather have not have happened, and have dealt with later on in my life; my broken family and the burden that has held against so many people; those dark corners of Leeds that I have previously mentioned; the love I feel for my friends; I write from the perspective of the people I love sometimes too. I write for me at the end of the day - to get things off my chest that I can’t really talk about, but can write about and hide in imagery. But I really do hope that people can depict the feelings and emotions of our songs and feel them as their own too.”

With a growing fanbase and whispers of a you-have-to-see-this live show, there’s no shortage of people flocking to feel the north’s music. “I want people to just get soaked and obsessed with the north,” Billy enthuses, “the way I’ve been obsessed with bands, and continue to be. There’s nothing quite like that feeling.”

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