“IT’S CRAZY, BUT IT WORKS!"

Inside the weird world of Tigercub – catchy songs, ‘stinky’ riffs and oddball experiments in tone building

- Ellie Rogers

As purveyors of abyssal drop-tuned riffs, grizzly tones and unsettlingly spiky leads, there has never been anything soft or cuddly about the Tigercub sound – despite what the name might suggest. And their third album, The Perfume Of Decay, sees the Brighton-based trio becoming a fully grown, snarling beast of a band.

“The manifesto going in was to be as big and as unapologetic as we could,” explains Jamie Hall – the seven-foot-tall, self-described “weird dude” who masterminds the band’s ever-enthralling creative output in his capacities as guitarist, songwriter, frontman and producer. “I am who I am, and I just have to try and let my personality come through on whatever I’m trying to do,” he smiles.

Jamie’s penchant for juxtaposing soft but sinister lullaby vocals against colossal riffs has led to frequent comparisons with Queens Of The Stone Age leader Josh Homme. “It’s so hard not to get compared to other guitar players,” Jamie says. But he has a theory as to what makes his band such a stand out in the somewhat overcrowded ‘detuned rock space’. “There’s a lot of wrong-footing people in Tigercub songs,” he explains. “Every so often it’ll go a little bit weird, but it does have that ultimate accessibility. That’s just who we are.”