Colour them red

Photo: Anthony Miller

Musical cousins Will Brooks and Roxie Mawdsley

THE SKY’S the limit for up-and-coming band Paintbox Fires, ready to rock their way to victory at the Indie Week Europe Festival in Manchester in May.

By day, 16-year-old cousins Will Brooks and Roxie Mawdsley from Milnrow are studying for GCSE exams at Hulme Grammar School. But in their free time, the talented teens are tearing up the airwaves with fellow band members Jake Higginbotham and Alex Goodall, who attend a different school.

Playing what the band calls “straight-up rock with a powerful twist”, drummer Will and lead singer Roxie are currently performing at gigs around Manchester.
The band, which cites musical influences including Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters and Arctic Monkeys, has performed on University of Manchester student radio station Fuse FM and features on the SoundCloud platform.

In February the group went into a studio to make a pro recording of three tracks:Cordelia, Lies and Laws and Yours to Find, which are available to purchase at Paintboxfires.bandcamp.com. And now the band is preparing to take on 75 others after making it into the first round of Indie Week Europe, which runs May 27-31.

Will has been writing songs since he was 11 and created the band together with pal Alex. He said: “Normally you have to pay to get a place on the competition, but the promoters were so impressed, they put us straight through. The winning band gets to headline Indie Week Canada, which is a fantastic prize and a great opportunity.”

Paintbox Fires members are setting their sights on snatching the Indie Week crown and hoping for a future filled with rock and roll glory.

”We want to go as far as we can,” Will said: “I want to make a career out of music, because it doesn’t feel like a job. Sell out gigs at the Manchester Arena would be brilliant.”