by Amos Wynn

YOUNG four-piece Night Café have Vincent Van Gogh, no less, to thank for their name.

The band were originally called Canvas, but had to change it after they discovered a band in Australia with the same name.

“It took ages coming up with a new name, at one point we were nearly called Velvet Café. Then one of us saw a Van Gogh painting called The Night Café. At the time I was unsure because Canvas felt right at that time but now I proper love it and it’s just what we are now,” says drummer Carl Dillon.

The band, playing at Bingley Music Live next month, say they’re going through their best period yet, as they look towards releasing more music and a debut album. Carl, along with Sean Martin, Josh Higgins, and Arran O’Connell, have had a hectic start to 2018, with two tours already under their belt. The first was a headline nationwide tour, which Dillon describes as “a dream come true”.

They also supported fellow Liverpool band The Wombats on tour. For Dillon playing alongside his boyhood heroes was a “game changer”, with a gig at Alexandra Palace sticking in his mind. “They are the soundest lads, just nice genuine fellas to have on tour, they just made us feel proper welcome. Growing up, they were our heroes, all our mates used to listen to them when we were young. The first time we met them it was just mad. Being around them and watching them, we have taken in a lot.”

They’re looking forward to Leeds Festival. “When we were told we’d be appearing on the Republic Stage, it left us gobsmacked. We’re going to smash our set, we’re preparing well for it, to get a good show in line,” says Carl, whose first ever festival was at Leeds. “Watching someone else on stage made me think it was what I wanted to do with my life.”

The band’s second EP, following last year’s Get Away from the Feeling, was released earlier this year. Now they’re aiming to have their debut album finished by autumn, with the aim of releasing it in 2019.

Their songwriting process is to go into the studio and “get as many ideas on the table as possible”.

“We’ll just write and write to give us the best possible selection when choosing tracks for the album. We want this to be a conceptual thing and for the songs to tell a story, not just one single after another,” says Carl.

The idea of forming a band was on the cards back in their schooldays. “Originally Sean and Josh had a little thing going together and they asked if I wanted to be the drummer. Arran came round one night and things just went from there.”

They have a range of musical tastes. “Sean likes a lot of John Mayer’s stuff whilst Josh likes Pink Floyd, you can hear that in the way they both play their guitars. Both me and Arran are into house music.”

The future for Night Cafe looks bright.

“It’s all snowballing,” says Carl. “We’ve had a lot of help from people in our management and we hope things will continue like this and that it’ll keep getting bigger and bigger.”