From Newbury to New York, Dry The River have come a long way, says Tim Hughes

Expansive and elemental, Dry the River project soaring folk through a widescreen lens — sweeping from gentle to giant, like a gathering storm.

So it comes as some surprise that this majestic four-piece should have started out not in some stark wilderness, but in Newbury’s Waterside Youth Centre, which was a focus for the local music scene. “It was this cool, grimy little venue,” says frontman Peter Liddle.

“You could rehearse there, and they always put on local bands alongside touring artists, which helped cultivate the scene.” Their roots as a post-punk hardcore band explain the passion that pervades their work, elevating the band, with their tattoos and beards, beyond the standard acoustic folk band. “I think people are surprised when they come to see us live.” says guitarist and tenor horn player Peter, who admits to being heavily inspired by Leonard Cohen. “They expect us to be calm and quiet but in some ways, we’re the opposite. I believe there should be an emotional underpinning to all music and all performance.”

While finding shape in Newbury, Reading and neighbouring Hampshire, where he, guitarist Matthew Taylor, bass player Scott Miller, drummer Jon Warren and violinist Will Harvey (who quit earlier this year), were familiar faces on the emerging live scene, Dry the River’s lyrics nod to Peter’s transient childhood. Born in Norway, where his father worked in the oil industry, the young Liddle was always changing homes and schools. “I have a fixation with community and belonging, because that wasn’t something I had as a child,” he explains.

Things could have turned out differently— with Peter — swapping the stage for a lab. After graduating with a degree in anthropology from Bristol, he enrolled in medical school at King’s College, London. “I don’t know if I wanted to save lives in a hands-on way,” he says. “I saw myself more as a lab doctor than a people doctor. You know; spending a lot of time in a white coat looking down a microscope. I think I also wanted to look illness and mortality in the eye, to see how things like human dissection would affect me.”

But, music remained his calling. “I was off touring with bands while I was writing my anthropology dissertation,” he recalls. While studying medicine, he was unable to leave his guitar alone — and called on those old friends from the Reading scene, who were by then all living in London — to record them. “Initially the emphasis was on it being something distinct from our old bands — really gentle and lo-fi,” says Liddle.

“Every time Jon tried to rock out, I’d say, ‘No, no, keep it stripped back!”

After a solo tour playing as Dry The River, he assembled the full band for a debut show at London’s Lexington. The band flew, and Peter decided it was time to stop telling them to hold back. “When we started live shows, we found it felt wrong to restrain ourselves,” he says. “Playing in a heavier way brought the songs a fresh intensity — it was more fun for us and for the crowd.”

Success came quickly, and with their record deal they quit their jobs and studies. “We went on tour straight after and went wild for six months,” says guitarist and keys man Matthew. “We partied the whole time.” When not on tour, they lived together in a house in Stratford, East London, in less than salubrious conditions. “Pete slept on a mattress on the dining room floor,” Matthew says. “You had to climb over his head to get to the toilet in the night.”

But, he admits, close living and hard touring have fostered a tight bond. “We know each other well enough to tell when people are actually annoyed,” says Matthew. “It’s like living with four brothers — we rip it out of each other relentlessly, but know when to leave each other be.”

Things improved with the release of debut album, Shallow Bed, recorded in Connecticut three years ago with producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol). “We were looking for someone who could strike a balance between lo-fi and hi-fi,” says Peter. “We wanted to record the bulk of it to tape, to use analogue stuff in favour of computer wizardry where possible, but without it sounding like an old folk record. I think we tried to preserve the fragility and honesty of the more stripped-down tracks, but still get the intensity of the live show — to marry those two aspects without it sounding incongruous.”

Things grew exponentially for them, with packed-out shows in New York and London, and storming sets at Texas’s South by South West music convention — initially without a drummer, due to visa issues. “We decided we’d still use our amps and still be loud,” says Peter. “We played as if Jonny was there. For a couple of shows we put some drums on stage and kind of hit them when we could.”

On Saturday they play the O2 to showcase their new second album Alarms in the Heart, a louder and more diverse follow-up but one which, like their number-28 charting debut, highlights that crazy journey – from Newbury to the world. “I’d be pleased if people felt that it’s not just another indie folk record,” says Liddle. “I think we’ve agonised over every note. It has hooks and big melodies but it is contemplative and considered too.”

Dry The River
O2 Academy Oxford
Saturday
Tickets £12.50 ticketweb.co.uk