By Casey Brockbank
Photo Credit: James Varley
“We shan’t be boxed!”
Theatrical pop sibling duo The Incident have made an indelible imprint on the music scene. The Halifax band comprises 20-year-old Tom, aka ‘Cab’, and 15-year-old Emma, aka ‘Eise’. The pair have had music in their veins from an early age, and they write about all things teenage angst and heartbreak. With just two singles in their discography, they have already received praise from big household names such as The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins, Noel Gallagher and Richard Ashcroft.
This summer, we had the honour of speaking to Cab and Eise about their musical inspirations and backgrounds, what goes into producing such sonically textured music, and the secrets behind the creation of their newest single Red Flag Ruby.
Do you both share similar music tastes. If you don’t, how do you combine them both in your style?
Cab: Yeah, we really do. I think we have loads of similar music tastes.
Eise: I think we’re really lucky. We’re obviously siblings so we’ve grown up listening to the same music.
C: We’re both big Fleetwood Mac fans.
E: David Bowie, too.
In your songs, you’ve written about drug use among young people and about toxic relationships. Some may say these are particularly complex topics for such young musicians. Where do you get your inspirations from? Would you say it’s lived experiences?
C: We haven’t done any drugs! (laughs) No, it’s lived experience in the sense that we’ve got a lot of friends that have gone through those experiences. So, they’re definitely shared and lived experiences. I mean, we live in the Happy Valley, for Christ’s sake!
E: For my writing, I think I take a lot of inspiration from my friendships, social media and my struggles with my own mental health, hoping that other people can relate to it.
Cab, how have your early musical experiences influenced who you are as a musician?
C: Thoroughly and completely. In the early 2000s, our dad was working with a really cool band called One Minute Silence (Irish rap metal band). When I was 7 years old, I went down to London to go see them rehearse in this big, loud rehearsal room. I mean, the rhythm sort of shook me, and I’ve been rocking away ever since.
Eise, you started with acting, and then you transitioned to music. Does your theatrical background influence your stage presence and your storytelling?
E: I started with musical theatre, which obviously is acting and music together. I started that from watching Cab do it. I watched his first ever show, and I saw how fun it was to do both at the same time. So, I feel like that’s kind of the roots of our foundation for our liveperformances, and me personally for my writing, because that’s where we started.
C: We are the quintessential, weird neighbour-next-door theatre kids!
You’ve had a lot of recognition already from quite big household names. It’s quite impressive. How does it feel?
C: Not just the household names, I was recognised in Tesco’s the other day!
E: It’s all encouraging because when you’re an up-and-coming band, there’s no money in it when you’re working class. Even being able to have an interview with ADRENALINE, it feels great to have that exposure.
C: We always jump into the deep end with any opportunity we get.
What would you say is your biggest ‘pinch me’ moment?
C: We went down to master ‘All The Kiddies Doing Drugs’ at Abbey Road Studios in London. For any musician, that’s church. That’s like the Vatican for Catholics. Oh, and meeting Harry Gregson Williams as well, who is one of my all-time favourite composers – he did the Shrek 2 score! He invited us into Studio 1, and we got to see Gladiator 2 being scored with forty-odd strings.
E: I would have to say supporting The K’s at The Leadmill, because that was the biggest gig and stage we’ve ever done. It got me really giddy, and it was such a special night.
The Incident’s most recent single, Red Flag Ruby, was released on 18th July and is the song that truly encompasses the sheer talent this musical pair possess. With musical layers akin to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, the wonderfully chaotic track tells the story of the ebbs and flows of navigating the end of a toxic relationship. Its driving basslines and ethereal vocals invite the listener in gently, drawing them into a false sense of security of a warm love song. Then, as the song progresses in intensity, the change of vocal tone alters the direction and feel – it is certainly a ‘crash-out’ worthy tune. For musicians that are so young, they have the musical flair of someone with senior experience.
Congratulations on your release of ‘Red Flag Ruby’. Tell me how this song first came about and what your initial creative approach was.
C: It started off as a love song, and then just as the relationship went tits up, it sort of evolved into the song that you get today.
E: I remember when he was in that relationship, he would skip around the house humming this melody for a love song. It was this really good feeling, and yet he still managed to craft it into, well, this!
C: That was the most fun I’ve had in years. We’re working-class musicians but we wanted to do it right. I roped in my friend Graham Young to help orchestrate the strings. We mapped out where we wanted to take it dynamically, and in textures, using tension graphs. One of our favourite songwriting techniques is to write something depressing and put in the most joyful lyrics over it. If all else fails, slam a bunch of half written songs together and see what you get!
How do you want people to feel when listening to the song?
E: When we had our music video premiere, one of my friends was at the front of the audience. She turned to me and said, “I’ve been listening to the song all night. It really makes me feel seen.” I think it’s really important that people listen to it and relate to it in own way.
C: I’m very careful not to reveal meanings of any of the stuff we write because I don’t want to ruin whatever’s going on in someone’s head.
What’s it like playing it live?
C: We don’t go on stage and recreate exactly what we did in the studio live. They’re two different mediums. Live is much more guttural and on edge. That’s the unbridled joy of it, we rock hard.
How do you find the balance between dramatic flair and emotional honesty?
C: We’re all on the spectrum in our family, and we’re emotionally thorough people. So, there’s a lot of slamming doors and flouncing out.
E: I think that comes out authentically through our music. People like the power. We are quite dramatic.
Will you be continuing down the path of theatrical pop or exploring different genres?
C: The Incident is a great vehicle where we can be anything we want to be.
E: It’s cool because it gets to grow with us as we develop and expand.
C: We shan’t be boxed!
Cab and Eise are tight-lipped about concrete future plans for their band, but they urge that The Incident’s ‘cauldron’ is brewing with a lots cooking. With a promising start to a career like theirs, it seems the world really is their oyster.
Red Flag Ruby by The Incident is available to stream everywhere.
Kate Davies 
Kelsey McAndrew