Talking Indie Rock and Devoted Crowds with The Guest List

By Allegra Cuomo

The Guest List are a band making waves in the indie rock scene. Having formed in Manchester and leaving school only a couple of years ago, the band quickly made a name for themselves with their profound lyricism and electric performances. Providing a guitar-driven background to songs with themes close to their hearts, their latest EP 'When The Lights Are Out' shows that they are a band that wants to make an impact and is here to stay. After a busy year touring and performing at festivals around the country, RareFM had the chance to speak to the band in London at The Grace, Highbury during their 2025 tour.

MARCH 3rd 2025 - THE GRACE, LONDON

RARE: Allegra Cuomo

The Guest List:

• Cai Alty: vocals

• Tom Quigley: guitar

• Sid Wallace: bass

• Angus Gilchrist: drums

• Leio Hunter: guitar

RARE: So to start with the first question, what was the process of forming the band? How did you guys meet and how did you start making music?

Cai: Angus and I were in a band with two others from 2021, starting just after that first lock down. Those guys left and we sort of continued progressing from there, reaching out to Tom and Leio for guitars and eventually Sid as well. We were all still at school.

Tom: We were all at school together other than Sid. This line up came to completion May/June 2023, which is when we did our first gig with this collective of five.

Cai: We've been going for about a year and eight months as this line up and I don't think this will change now.

RARE: That's good to hear! What's the story behind the name of the band? Why The Guest List?

Angus: It's not terribly exciting. We had sort of been playing together and just doing a couple of songs that we liked, and we were setting up an Instagram account, social media stuff, so we took a month of so writing down names. Some had meanings, some not as much. The Guest List, we liked it, it sounded good and we stuck with it. It originally had no space but on Spotify there was already a Guest List out there with no space, so ours could not had a space.

Cai: It doesn't have any kind of significance to any of us really, but we did like the exclusivity element to the name and that people feel part of something.

RARE: Awesome. At the start of your musical journey together, what were some original inspirations and how have they changed?

Tom: So at the start we were kind of doing more of an indie rock thing, bands like The Strokes, Stone Roses, stuff like that. But now we think we've developed sonically, maybe more alternative rock, taking inspiration from Radiohead, Joy Division, bands like that.

Leio: We've always liked Pink Floyd haven't we. More atmospheric stuff.

Angus: Big thing is that we were all musicians before we joined the band so we've always all cared a lot sonically about how developed our songs are and how complex they are.

RARE: Speaking about how you guys develop sound and music, what is your usual approach to recording music and to songwriting.

Cai: On the majority of songs, I would come up with the melody and the lyrics with an acoustic or sometimes on the piano. That being said, some of the songs are more collaborative. 'Steel Police, that was collaborative. I remember Leic showed me the first ideas to that song at school. Usually it is more of a private thing, in the bedroom with my acoustic, coming up with ideas and then I'll show the band and we will put together the instrumentation around it. In the studio we usually record it all live together, other than the vocal which is separate.

RARE: Has this music making process changed over time - would you say now when you are coming up with songs, you approach it differently than in the past?

Cai: Well, when I first started writing I never had people in mind because I had not really been in a band before so it was a more shot in the dark process, bit more random. Now, instead I think ‘well Tom is going to be playing this part, Leio will be playing this part’, imagining Angus on the drums. It gives it a bit more identity when you know the character and the people who will be playing each part.

RARE: Talking about the other side of music and performing live, do you guys have a favourite aspect about when you perform on stage?

Tom: I quite like when we first come on to stage, the rush that you get just from walking out. Such as, in our latest tour when we were playing with Inhaler, playing in front of that many people, there's no other feeling like it really. Pretty in-sane.

Angus: When you finish it too and you know you've enjoyed it because you've nailed it, that rush after you come off stage is unmatched

Cai: Also when you play released music versus unreleased music, it's very different. With released music you can see the impact you have had on people's lives when you play it and they recognise it and that it means something to them. You can never control who's going to like your music, so it's great to see the complete variety of people connecting with the same thing. Then with unreleased it's always nice to get a bit of recognition for something which you think is good, and then you play it to an audience and they give it back to you.

RARE: Touching on your recent participation on Inhaler's tour, how was it opening to crowds of those numbers?

Leio: It was the biggest indoor stages we had ever played at, including O2 Brixton Academy in London and around the country.

Cai: Also the Inhaler fans aren't quite like any other fan base that we had ever come across be-fore. We played 5 nights and l've never see quite committed fans before.

Tom: The reactions people were having to the songs, when we would finish songs and hear a roar coming from the crowd. It was mental. Some of them queued from the night before at venues, or had been following [Inhaler] around the whole tour. By the time you got to the 5th night you would start recognising the people on the front row.

RARE: You're the youngest band I've inter-viewed, and freshly out of school. Thinking about some of our own readers who are around your guys' age, what advice would you give to someone at the start of their music career?

Cai: The best advice I can think of would be to not get drawn into aspects of the music business which aren't really what it's about. Everyone gets into it originally because of the music, and it can be quite easy to get distracted by social media or other aspects of it. There are so many ways to lose sight of what drove you to start in the first place, the love of music, the love of songs, the love of writing. The advice I would give is to focus on that and not get distracted by all the noise surrounding it.

Check out The Guest List's 2025 EP 'When The Lights Are Out', with dates for their 2026 tour starting soon!