What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?

After a heavy night’s partying at Download Festival in 2017, Jimi decided to have a morning(ish) cup of tea from a food van. The server handed over a polystyrene cup full of lukewarm water and a tea bag and said ‘milk and sugar is over there for you to add, the tea will be £2 please’. A TWO POUND TEA? That he had to put my own milk and sugar in? When we were jamming later that year it came back up and stuck. It’s our small way of raging against greed, profiteering and poking a bit of fun at ourselves too. After all, he paid for it. That same cup of tea now at Download Festival? £3. We will not be adjusting our name for inflation though.

How do you approach songwriting?

We believe it is our duty to provide some sort of social commentary on the realities of life and the hardships. We say what see. Society is force fed generic music made by the same group of rich people feeding everyone their narrative. But for 99% of people that isn’t real life. We’re not going to sing about dancing in a club or use unadventurous ways to rhyme unimportant words. People are dying in order for others to get rich. Real life issues – good and bad, it’s not all doom and gloom but it’s about highlighting this moment in time through our music. In 50 years if you wants to know what the 2020s were like, listen to Two Pound Tea. Not Taylor Swift!

How do you approach songwriting?

We believe it is our duty to provide some sort of social commentary on the realities of life and the hardships. We say what see. Society is force fed generic music made by the same group of rich people feeding everyone their narrative. But for 99% of people that isn’t real life. We’re not going to sing about dancing in a club or use unadventurous ways to rhyme unimportant words. People are dying in order for others to get rich. Real life issues – good and bad, it’s not all doom and gloom but it’s about highlighting this moment in time through our music. In 50 years if you wants to know what the 2020s were like, listen to Two Pound Tea. Not Taylor Swift!

Why?

To represent the people we know and the people that matter most. To let them know they are not alone, we are the same and so are many more like you.

Live?

If there’s an orchestra or cello or acoustic guitar or piano on it on the record, then we won’t play it live! We could just play to a backing track, but that’s not what live is about. When we play live it’s real. Every note, whether it’s hit perfectly or a bumnote is played in the moment. We try to represent the band when we play live. All our personalities, it’s 100% real what you stage. There’s nothing planned. It’s drink, get on stage and see what happens. We have a rough setlist that we’ll follow, usually the most energetic songs make the list. We also rotate covers in and out of our set, depending on the crowd. If they’re older or more sing along, we’ll play teenage kicks and blitzkrieg bop in between our originals. If they want to mosh or head band, we’ll play the clash or the sex pistols as our cover songs. When I see a band, I feel like they focus so much on playing the right note at the right time, they completely destroy their stage presence. Fuck that! Get out and rock like no one is watching! The crowd will respond to it.

Live?

If there’s an orchestra or cello or acoustic guitar or piano on it on the record, then we won’t play it live! We could just play to a backing track, but that’s not what live is about. When we play live it’s real. Every note, whether it’s hit perfectly or a bumnote is played in the moment. We try to represent the band when we play live. All our personalities, it’s 100% real what you stage. There’s nothing planned. It’s drink, get on stage and see what happens. We have a rough setlist that we’ll follow, usually the most energetic songs make the list. We also rotate covers in and out of our set, depending on the crowd. If they’re older or more sing along, we’ll play teenage kicks and blitzkrieg bop in between our originals. If they want to mosh or head band, we’ll play the clash or the sex pistols as our cover songs. When I see a band, I feel like they focus so much on playing the right note at the right time, they completely destroy their stage presence. Fuck that! Get out and rock like no one is watching! The crowd will respond to it.

What plans do you have for the future?

We’ve got two singles out from our upcoming album – Generation Medicate and Jane Doe. These are pop punk in nature musically but still very much commentary on real life issues or real life people and they are going down so well! There’ll be another single before Christmas with the album out in February 2025. Then it’s up to Download Festival, Glastonbury, Reading Festival. Come get us if you can handle it.