Villanelle Are Carving Out Their Own Lane in Rock Music

“It’s going incredible!” Gene Gallagher says as he leans back comfortably on a sofa, arms stretched behind his head with an effortless confidence that instantly feels familiar. With oversized Kurt Cobain style sunglasses and an easygoing rock star attitude, the resemblance to his famous family background is hard to ignore. Sitting alongside guitarist Ben Taylor and bassist Jack Schiavo in the basement of their label’s offices, the chemistry between the three feels surprisingly natural considering they only crossed paths through a random meeting during the summer of 2023.

Since forming, the NME 100 newcomers have spent their time crafting a gritty, distorted sound that first came through on debut single ‘Hinge’, a track heavily inspired by early Nirvana. Rather than leaning into Britpop comparisons, Villanelle have embraced a heavier, rougher direction that has quickly earned them a loyal fanbase. Constant touring has also helped fuel that momentum. Speaking to NME in early April, the band had just wrapped up dates supporting Miles Kane. “It was great, man,” Schiavo says. “We were playing the Academies and those kinds of places. It was great to be doing that and trying to collect some more fans as we hadn’t done a support slot for a while.”

A tour involving Miles Kane and a Gallagher might sound like total chaos, but according to the band, things stayed relatively calm. Schiavo jokes that Kane was mostly “on the waters” instead of drinking heavily. “I was desperately trying to corrupt him, but he was unflappable,” he laughs. During the tour, Gene stayed sober because he was taking antibiotics, leaving Taylor and Schiavo to carry the drinking duties for the group.

Even while sober, Gene still managed to stay awake all night, earning himself a certain reputation within the band. “He’d remember everything we’d been up to and we wouldn’t necessarily, so he’d always have something over us the next day,” Schiavo explains, while Taylor adds, “Me and Jack were acting like all three of us were drinking, because we normally are, then the next day Gene would be like, ‘Do you remember when you did that…?’”

The band jokingly describe him as the living version of a hangover, while Gene calls himself their “sleep paralysis demon”. Instead of partying, he spent nights obsessively playing the game Dave The Diver on his Steam Deck, staying up late “fishing and making sushi.” If the others tried ending the night early, he would immediately call them out for it. “You can’t be going to bed when I’m fishing, bro,” he says with a laugh.

Gene did eventually join in properly during the band’s ‘Punchbag’ university venue tour last year, which the group says was important because they wanted to help bring live band culture back to younger audiences. The run was exhausting, but also rewarding because of how close they were able to get to fans. “You see the whites of their eyes, you can see their reaction to what you’re doing, and it really can be fulfilling,” Taylor says. “There are so many degrees of separation when you’re playing arenas. If they’re yawning, then you can’t really tell.”

Gene recalls one show in Leeds where he temporarily lost focus after spotting someone in the crowd casually scrolling through Instagram Reels during the set. “That is peak,” he says laughing, “and fair, because I would do that.”

“You’d scroll through reels on stage if you could – even between songs,” Taylor jokes back. The thought of someone using a Steam Deck in the audience sends the band into hysterics. “That’s just pathetic!” Gallagher laughs. “Having a Steam Deck in the crowd?” he says in disbelief.

Not many new bands can say they have already experienced such a wide range of stages, but Villanelle were thrown directly into the deep end when Liam Gallagher invited them to open his 2024 anniversary tour celebrating Oasis’ ‘Definitely Maybe’. Remarkably, those arena dates were the band’s first ever gigs. “If you’re about this life and you want to do it, then fucking do it, right?” Gene says about accepting the opportunity. Looking back now, Taylor admits the experience feels surreal in hindsight. “We look back now, having got a little bit more experience behind us, [and] it felt insane, but we weren’t so aware of what was going on at the time,” he says. “It was slapdash, and we were doing it off our own backs. Now we’re doing smaller gigs, but we’ve got a tour manager, a guitar tech and all this. It was blissful ignorance.”

The trio explain that they never really felt connected to London’s current art rock scenes or any existing indie movement, so instead they have focused on building something completely their own. Through touring, they have noticed younger audiences increasingly gravitating back toward heavier guitar music. “There’s a hunger for a previous age of rock that’s definitely coming back,” Taylor says. “You’ve got Deftones and Oasis, but they’ve paved the way for the new wave of music, which we’re hoping to be a part of.”

As for whether their growing fanbase has an official nickname similar to “Swifties”, Gene shrugs it off. “Nah,” he says, “they’re just called ‘absolute fucking legends’.”

Their debut EP ‘Measly Means’ captures that rough around the edges energy perfectly. Filled with traces of Smashing Pumpkins and Black Sabbath influences alongside plenty of gritty ‘90s swagger, the project moves from the pounding paranoia of the title track to the emotional vulnerability of ‘Squeeze’. One standout moment arrives on ‘Opportunity Arising’, where Gene reflects on wasting time “sitting facing backwards”. “That song’s just about getting your shit together,” he explains.

That mentality seems to define where the band are right now. Villanelle are already working on a second EP, while saving some larger ideas for a future full length album. Even so, Gene insists there is no rush. “I’m like a footballer, man,” he says. “I take it game by game.”

“People know who Gene is. We’re a band that own that and appreciate everything that’s coming from that, but we also work extremely hard at the same time” – Ben Taylor

The group also openly acknowledge the inevitable “nepo baby” conversations surrounding Gene’s background. “We’ve never not been open,” Taylor says. “We’ve always just said what we are. People know who Gene is. We’re a band that own that and appreciate everything that’s coming from that, but we also work extremely hard at the same time. People can not like the music, but we’re making music that we really enjoy. We work really hard in the studio, and it’s something we take a great deal of pride [in].”

Gene shares the same outlook. “I’ve always stuck to the ethos of doing stuff that I like and that we like, because then it never gets old,” he says. “If you start listening to what other people say, then you’re just going to drive yourself fucking crazy. As long as I like what we put out as a band, then I’ll never get bored of it and keep that drive forever.”

Although he has already experienced arena crowds thanks to the Oasis anniversary tour, Gene says he has no obsession with returning to huge venues anytime soon. “I was happy just to play The Lexington because I used to go there all the time,” he says with a grin. “That’s my one little box that’s been ticked now, so all this afterwards is just fine. I’ve officially made it, lads!”

Villanelle’s ‘Measly Means’ EP is out on May 6. The band play The Great Escape on May 15.