Jumper Boy Band Explains Why DIY

By Eve White

Owen, Henry, Gareth and Matt have been in the Sheffield DIY circuit since 2018 when they formed ‘Jumper Boy’, playing at venues like Hatch. So, what is it that’s so good about the grassroots scene that it makes bands stick around?

Lead singer Owen and drummer Henry warming up at Hatch

Lead singer and guitarist, Owen Lyons, begins by explaining the difference their band has noticed between DIY and mainstream interviews, saying they definitely prefer the former- “We played some much naffer gigs which were not great vibes. People just show up for the band that they know and then leave for everyone else. At the DIY stuff, it’s much more about the whole line up and the whole event.”

Owen goes on to say that with the mainstream indie circuit, Jumper Boy has experienced a lot of commercialism and there wasn’t enough attention on the art: “There’s a lot of like, ‘oh how many people can you bring out to a pub in Nottingham on a Thursday night? Because, I need a band that can bring at least 30-40 heads and I’ll pay you £4 per ticket that you sell’. If you’re a small band that’s not how that’s going to work- like you need to get on a stage with people who think that the crowd who are already there would like to see you play and that’s what we’re trying to do with these shows.”

The shows the singer’s referring to are the ‘Wake Up, Bro’ events he’s hosted at Hatch in Highfield. The last one was in November, titled ‘Wake Up Bro, It’s 2007’ and showcased four bands plus a faux French MC.

“It’s all tickets” Owen says when asked to explain how grassroots events make any money. “We use the money from the tickets to pay the bands based on what we’ve agreed. Typically, it’ll either be a live guarantee or a split of the total amount of money remaining after the guarantees, and then pay Hatch but it all just funds itself like I didn’t have to funnel any money into it. I took on the initial risk of both of the touring bands had guarantees which is pretty standard for DIY because you know if you’re in a touring band, you need to budget the tour in advance.”

Guitarist Matt Watt then adds- “And you need to pay for your fuel.”

Owen continues, “Exactly right. You can’t show up to a show and not know if you’ll be able to stay the night, but I took on that risk and then the show sold enough tickets, so I didn’t lose any money because I had enough money to pay all the bands promptly after the show. It’s funded by the people that go there and pay seven or eight quid or whatever.”

Guitarist Matt and bassist Gareth with Callum, their MC for the 'Wake Up Bro, It's 2007' event

With limited government funding, though, DIY venues are difficult to maintain in the long term. Matt, working for a data company that cooperates with the arts sector, thinks this is down to too much red tape. “There’s a lot of bureaucracy in the way of the money going from the funding to in theory what the funding is supposed to promote which is you know communities and culture” he answers, before going on to discuss funding in the North. “Sheffield got so much less funding this year through the arts council versus Leeds and Manchester and it’s because Leeds and Manchester have these big bids that they do for culture across the city whereas Sheffield had basically Sheffield theatres and Sheffield museums.”

“We don’t need money to put on the events, as much as we need venues.”

But money isn’t just a problem for bands in the DIY scene, it’s a problem when touring too.

Jumper Boy played at some major UK cities back in July; Owen saying he’s ‘flabbergasted’ that they didn’t lose money in the process.

“You hear about bands touring- like touring is expensive, it’s hard” he sighs, describing how the band stayed with family and friends just to make the tour profitable.

“Paying for one night in a Travel Lodge would’ve meant that we were losing money like there was no way to do that. There’s so many things that can go wrong when you’re touring or before you even start the tour that make the whole thing unprofitable so we were really lucky to be able to do it and not bankrupt ourselves!” the singer laughs.

The lads had been touring with the Leicester band Pillow Fort, playing songs from their new EP entitled ‘Songs About Furniture’, which was released in September.

When discussing the vibe behind it, Matt smiles- “I feel that whenever we talk about ‘why did you make your music like that?’ I feel like I’m trying to back solve from like- I just thought it was good!”

Owen, however, portrays how it stemmed from things that happened the past few years, “They’re all things that surround you and you live and around and live with. So, these things are like furniture where you get used to them and you forget about them, or you notice them again.”

Matt tacks on that it goes hand in hand with the band name: “It’s about some sort of intimate language. It fits well with that atmosphere.”

Drummer Henry chimes in saying ‘Green Lake’ is his favourite song from the EP because “It’s nice, I just like it!”

“I wanted to just write a nice simple song and ‘Green Lake’ was just like two chords, three minutes, one little riff, got a bridge, bash it out” Owen answers, “It just flows really naturally, and it’s got that nice outro where it settles into itself.”

The band performed songs from their new EP 'Songs About Furniture'

As for the future, Jumper Boy have some plans in the works, including some new music, live sessions, music videos and remixes, which Owen is really excited for: “It’s not something that we’ve done before- see how people mess about with our music, and I’m excited to see people come up with all sorts of weird stuff.”

The boys haven’t forgotten about the grassroots scene, though, as Matt plans to host another show at Hatch next year. “I’m considering my options. I don’t want to announce prematurely” he smiles.

All in all, there’s no sign of the band slowing down anytime soon, Owen says- “I definitely feel like this last year gone we probably got the ball rolling in a lot of ways, and I want to keep momentum moving into 2024 for sure.”