Chesterfield band Alpaca Factory taking small steps towards their big dreams

Alpaca Factory release Face of God tomorrow – with dreams it could attract music industry attention.

“Our hopes are to reach new fans and build a fan base,” says frontman Tom Gannon. “We’re focused to be a good live band so we had that in mind with the song and hopefully might get people in the industry interested in us.

“I originally began writing it over the summer of 2020 and then finished it as a college project about September/October.

“We then took it to the studio as a band in December 2020 to record it and have been waiting patiently for a good time to release it.

“Now was intended to be the good time as we were playing Y Not, before it was unfortunately cancelled, but it still feels like a good time as it’s now summer and, with restrictions easing, hopefully we’ll be able to get gigging again and see how people react to it live.”

He says the lyrics, including “I’m stalking your presence online but I can’t help it. I hate myself for it” and the chorus “I have seen the face of God. And she looks just like you” are some of the favourites he has written, even if he declines to elaborate on their meaning.

“I’ll leave them up to others to decipher – it seems like half the fun,” he says.

With influences including The Killers and Kate Bush, Tom says Face of God has a different sound to what fans may expect.

“I went for a more pop/’80s vibe then the sound people may have expected us to make, after being inspired by ’80s’ pop, as well as Americana rock.”

School friends

Alpaca Factory are 19-year-old singer/guitarist Tom, from Wingerworth, a former pupil at Chesterfield’s St Mary’s School, alongside Brampton trio James Vardy, also 19, on synth/guitar, bassist Jono Vardy, 22, and drummer Rebecca Church, 19.

They formed after Tom and James met through mutual friends and both wanted to start a band.

Tom, from Wingerworth, says: “He then introduced the other two members as they all went to Brookfield School.”

The band’s memorable name was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

“It was made up by my older brother,” says Tom. “We had our first gig and the promoter needed a name and we hadn’t come up with anything yet, so we were forced to make the decision rather quickly, but luckily people seem to like it.”

For now, Alpaca Factory are content with small steps – but they are dreaming big.

“Our plans are to carry on releasing singles and hopefully getting back gigging to build up a fan base until it’s big enough to release an EP,” says Tom. “Obviously we’d love to make it into a full-time career so we’re just setting small goals at a time. We hope to build up to bigger gigs, supporting bigger bands at bigger venues and a dream would be to do our own tour.”

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