Band launch first album after falling in love with Chesterfield recording studio where Richard Hawley and The La's Lee Mavers have done sessions

Sura Laynes specialise in original songs with strong melodies and vocal harmonies. Shades of The La’s, The Libertines and The Beatles are detectable in the Derby rock ‘n’ roll band’s sound.

With the album slated for official release on July 5, lead singer and chief songwriter Tommy Walsh shared why Sura Laynes chose Chesterfield studio owner and producer Liam Walker to record it. Tommy said: "We had all these great songs that were going down really well live, but we were a bit of a loss as to how we were going to record them - it felt like a great responsibility that we needed to get right.

"I saw a picture of Liam Walker and Lee Mavers together at Groovefarm Analog Recording Co in Chesterfield. The La's are probably my favourite band, and I think you can hear that influence in some of the songs that I write. Then I found out that the studio was completely analogue, and I decided that we had to try it. I'd never recorded analogue before and I'd never been truly happy with anything I'd ever recorded.

"So we went for it, initially just for one day to record a couple of singles. We fell in love with the place as soon as we got there. The vibe and Liam's methods just put us at ease and got the best out of us as a band.

"We did that initial session and quickly decided that the two tracks we recorded were going to form part of the album, so we booked in as quickly as we could to get the rest of them down.”

The album was recorded to eight-track cassette which was mastered to quarter-inch stereo tape by Liam and digitised by sound engineer Paul Blakeman.

Tommy said: “For some artists, the pressure of recording to tape can expose frailties in their songs or the musician’s ability to perform them – not so with Sura Laynes. The tracks for the album were recorded live with minimal overdubs, in order to capture the heart and soul of the music. The results are a “Perfectly Imperfect” debut album.”

Their new release comes just in time for one of Sura Laynes’ most prestigious bookings – at Y Not Festival – during an eventful year which has included a spot at Liverpool Sound City and radio airplay on BBC Introducing.

Tommy’s songwriting style is heavily influenced by a deep love of poetry and people. The subject matter is diverse; alongside the more traditional love songs are compositions inspired by the free diver Alessia Zecchnini, a solider's last thoughts as he dies in the jungle during the Second World War and an autobiographical song about a doomed romance which led to the writer being threatened with a beating. Tommy said: "The common theme that runs through these songs is a desire on the writer's part to reflect the struggles of people in a way which highlights the darkness and light of their everyday lives."

Sura Laynes was formed in late 2022 when founder members Tommy and guitarist JJ Marriott met through a mutual friend. Both had been in bands before – Tommy with The Third Round and JJ with The Telephones. Thommy and JJ developed a unique rootsy sound and performed mainly as a duo in the early days as they were struggling to find the right comrades to convey their music as a full band. The pieces of the jigsaw finally came together in late 2023 with the arrival of Paul Harrison on drums and Paul ‘Pablo’ Whittington on bass.

Asked what inspired the name of his band, Tommy said: "The name doesn't mean anything in particular - a "Sura" is a chapter of the Koran and "Layne" is an old Sottish word for the uncanny and mysterious. It does have the advantage of being very Google-able - we're the first thing that comes up on a search of that name."