Few bands manage to find that perfect balance between raw emotion and cinematic sound quite like LASTELLE.
Hailing from Oxfordshire, UK, the quintet - made up of Adam Rigozzi (vocals), Mike Hayden (drums, vocals), Jonjo Williams (guitars), Rich Lester (guitars) and Freddie Whatmore (bass) - has been making waves in the post-hardcore scene since 2018. And if their latest EP 'Exist Vol. 1' is any indicator of what's to come, we have no doubt LASTELLE will continue to impress and surprise an ever-growing fanbase.
We had the privilege of catching up with the band as they gear up to support Caskets on two UK shows, and co-headline an EU tour with Defences at the end of the month. Whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering their music, trust us, this is a band you won’t want to overlook.
It’s been a little over four months since your latest EP release Exist Vol. 1. First of all, congratulations on a stunning EP. The atmospheric melodies combined with those more intense, heavier moments alone make for a deeply emotional listening experience (in the best way possible, of course.)
But I imagine for many of your fans, it’s the lyrics they really connect to when listening to your music. What does the writing process usually look like for you? And how do you find the balance between writing from personal experience and making sure the audience can still connect to the message you’re portraying?
Thank you! The response to the Exist Vol. I has been amazing, and it's great to see the songs resonating with people in the ways that we hoped they would.
The songwriting process usually starts with me in my little bedroom studio, laying down demos, then I'll share and discuss the demos with the rest of the guys, and then we'll write the lyrics. We share the lyrical side of the writing between a few of us, but a song is usually spearheaded by one of us and then put forward for us to discuss and rejig so that we're all happy.
I think by making the lyrical part more collaborative, the final version ends up being something that we can all relate to, and I think that might reflect in how the lyrics sit with listeners. We often choose to focus more on the emotions felt, rather than the specifics of our personal situations, which might make the songs more relatable for listeners. Whilst we haven't all experienced the same origins of these emotions, the emotions themselves are something we all know.
Your Europe co-headline tour with Defences is fast-approaching. What are you most excited about? Any specific city you’re particularly looking forward to?
We're just excited to finally be making our way over to mainland Europe for a tour! It's been a long time coming for us. The landscape of touring Europe as a UK band has seen a lot of change during our existence, so because of this, it's definitely taken longer than we'd like it to, so we're definitely ready!
How do you guys like to prepare for tours, physically and mentally, especially considering the intensity of your performances?
We don't have a lot of mental prep really, it's more just once we know the set is good to go and we have our gear ready, we just get to it. We just try to remember that it's what we love to do, and that helps elevate the stress of the preparation.
We pride ourselves in the energy of our performances, so two big ones to remember are to stretch before going on stage, and to have water on stage. Both of which I regularly forget...
You’re also set to perform at Download Fest again this year. 2025 has quite an impressive line-up, and no surprise you’re on there with some other incredible bands. What did it feel like the first time you saw your name on that poster? What would you say is your favourite part about performing at festivals?
Yeah, it's our first time playing the main arena, so we're very excited! It was a proper 'are we a real band?' moment seeing the poster. As an independent artist too, it felt like a real sense of personal achievement and growth.
Festivals definitely have a different vibe to them, as there's no guarantee that the crowd there will know us or want to see our style of music. We're very aware that, despite its intensity, our music is not fast or upbeat, so we always wonder what the reaction will be, but that's part of the fun. In general, they're always a great opportunity to win over a new audience.
LASTELLE is especially unique given that your drummer, Mike Hayden, also does vocals – this isn’t something you see too often. You’ve also incorporated a trumpet into your music, which adds a refreshing spin to the usual post-hardcore sound. What’s the biggest challenge of delivering your sound live, given the complexity of your instrumentation?
Mike's cymbals are always the biggest challenge... but only for the poor sound engineers! That's always been the most commented on thing, as Mike's vocal mic will pick up a lot of cymbal bleed, and they're already verging on too loud acoustically in some of the smaller venues we play. This just an unavoidable reality of having a drummer that sings, and so we deal with it.
In general though, we've always written our music with the intention of being able to carry it off well live, so I think we're all proud of how our recorded music is portrayed by us on stage
Following on from that, how important is experimentation for you as a band? Do you think you’ve found your “sound” or are you open to that evolving as you perform, learn and grow?
There's no 'end' to finding our sound. Although we know our preferences and values within what we want to portray, our current tastes and situations will ebb and flow and that will always impact what is written. The next track written may lean more towards a radio friendly banger, or may be a long-winding cinematic song.
I find that the more pressure I put on myself to write something particular, the harder it is for me to enjoy the writing process. We do it because we love it, so I want to write what I love at the time of writing, whatever that may be.
Also, as we don't write our songs in a room as a band, looking back on songs after we play them as a band for a while might influence how we approach similar things again in the future. Some songs just feel better in the room than others, and that can push us in a particular direction too, but we don't know it until it happens.
What’s one piece of advice you wish you could give yourselves when you first started the band?
Not that I think we were that guilty of, but it'd be to 'never wait for things to come to you', and take everything into your own hands as much as possible. We handle a lot of LASTELLE in a DIY manner, but I don't think we realised how important that was when we started.
We like to do a quick “finish the sentence” at the end of our interviews:
If we could have any guest musician feature on a LASTELLE track, it would be…
For me, Jonsi from Sigur Ros! One of my all-time favourite bands, and his voice is so unique.
Our guilty pleasure bands/musicians include…
I don't think he'd call it a guilty pleasure, but Adam is a proud K-pop fan!
The toughest part about being musicians is…
Organising other musicians...
Some of our biggest inspirations are…
For me, Sigur Ros and Underoath would probably be my biggest musical influences.
Lastly, any other upcoming projects, shows or releases you’re excited about that you can share with our readers?
For LASTELLE, beyond what was already mentioned, we've just announced that we're on tour around the UK in April supporting 'never easy' from Canada!
Outside of LASTELLE, I'm personally excited to hear more from a lot of great UK bands that we've either played with or discovered recently, and off the top of my head, some of them would be Sleep Outside, Helga, Love Rarely, and Lonesome.
Watch LASTELLE live:
23.02.25 - Leicester, UK - w/ Caskets
26.02.25 - Oxford, UK - w/ Caskets
27.02.25 - Ghent, BE - co-headline w/ Defences
28.02.25 - Dortmund, GER - co-headline w/ Defences
01.03.25 - Odense, DEN - Headlining HxC over HCA Festival
02.03.25 - Hamburg, GER - Co-Headlining w/ Defences
05.03.25 - Takedown Festival @ Guildhall, Portsmouth
25.04.25 - Glasgow, UK - w/ Never Easy
26.04.25 - Edinburgh, UK - w/ Never Easy
27.04.05 - Manchester, UK - w/ Never Easy
28.04.25 - Leeds, UK - w/ Never Easy
30.04.25 - Birmingham, UK - w/ Never Easy
01.05.25 - Southampton, UK - w/ Never Easy
02.05.25 - London, UK - w/ Never Easy
03.05.25 - Brighton, UK - w/ Never Easy
04.05.25 - Bristol, UK - w/ Never Easy
13/14/15.06.25 - Download Festival
Follow LASTELLE on Instagram here.
Listen to LASTELLE here.