AFTER more than a year working hard behind the scenes, a new ‘trip hop soulful funk’ band are sharing their music.

Stocksfield’s Tom Chapman (22) has teamed up with three fellow students at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) to form Spring Tempest, who are producing their unique blend of music.

Having formed at the back end of 2015, the four-piece have been writing and planning the launch of their debut EP Five Nights Sleep, which they launched recently at Manchester’s Band on the Wall venue.

Added to the schedule to warm up for Church Face, Spring Tempest, which features Tom on bass guitar, played the five tracks on the EP from start to finish as they showcased what they have been working on for the past 16 months plus.

Tom, a second year student in popular music, said: “We formed a really long time ago, just before Christmas in 2015, but we didn’t want to release anything until we had a really good amount of music.

“We based the EP on a whole concept, so we spent a lot of time writing together and developing ideas before we were ready to record the five tracks.

“We basically wanted to get stuff recorded and didn’t want to rush everything, because we have all been in bands before where you want to play as many gigs as possible, and that just leads to quantity over quality.

“It was a really collaborative process, and half of the time spent writing the songs wasn’t behind instruments, as we would take a note pad into a cafe and draw up mind maps.

“The EP release was a long time coming, but it’s really exciting and satisfying to get it going.”

While a concept runs throughout the product, the band is leaving it up to the listener to make their own minds up about what that theme might be.

Tom said: “Part of the reason behind the band is that we wanted to make music with a meaning, and a lot of people have their own interpretation of what that is.

“When people hear it, they will take their own meaning from it and we’d rather that then them being told what it’s about.”

The coming together of four musical minds has proved the right recipe for Spring Tempest, and the group’s tastes mix together to roll a variety of genres into one.

The band mix jazz with funk and soul, rock and hip hop, and their music is already hitting the right note with fans.

Tom, a talented musician who used to teach at Hexham’s Core Music, said: “It’s going really well, and I’m working with a good set of guys who are really cool.

“Phoebe Taylor (vocals) is truly excellent and is very creative, and she’s a really good singer and a really good guitarist.

“Jack March is a guitarist who I have worked with on a lot of other projects, and he is a blistering guitarist who knows lots of music.

“The drummer, Caleb Choo, is really tight and pulls it together, and the whole thing just works well.”

Spring Tempest is the latest project for Tom, who has worked with some top bands within the North-East.

The former Prudhoe High School pupil became interested in playing music when he attended a rock music class at Newcastle’s Dame Allan’s School.

With his appetite whetted, he headed to Core Music and enjoyed jazz jam sessions with Jonny Carr and drummer George Hutton, and he started to teaching courses at the organisation.

He then joined North-East band Soul Central and it was at that point he decided to go to RNCM to develop his music even further.