THEY MAY HAVE BEEN CONCEIVED IN CHELTENHAM, BUT THEIR TWISTED GOTHIC SOULS LIE ELSEWHERE. LET'S MEET SAINT SENARA...
Saint Senara are a two-piece rock band based in Gloucestershire (Chloe Gorman on vocals and Andrew Bate on guitar) They made their live debut at Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2022, and have been impressing audiences and promoters across Gloucestershire and the South West ever since. Due recognition has been earned for their unique sound with their tight harmonies and impressive song-writing. Sonically reminiscent of the fabulous Band of Skulls (when Emma Richardson takes the lead vocal), they have an infectious and urgent punk/blues rock undertow that drops them into the equally impressive White Stripes bracket but without the bloated pretension.
We caught up with them recently to discuss ghosts, folklore and Gretsch guitars…
So, how did you all meet and decide to form a band?
Chloe: We were neighbours during the first lockdown in 2020. I had just moved to Cheltenham around a week before lockdown to start a new job, then was immediately confined to working part-time from home.
I’d been through some major life changes and had recently started writing poetry again, but had always wanted to write songs — and seeing as I had a lot of time on my hands I decided that it was time to try. I essentially brought Andrew out of early retirement from the music industry to write some songs with me as a passion project, more than anything.
Andrew: I had been performing and writing music for years before we met. I started on the local music scene in Cornwall, then moved into theatre and film composition. But over time, the industry started to change to the point where I was feeling really unsatisfied, so I actually quit making music altogether.
When Chloe asked if I wanted to try writing a song with her, it started out as just helping someone realise a goal, but over time, I found the joy in it again. It just grew and grew into what we are today and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had working in music.
What’s the story behind your name?
Chloe:Andrew is from Cornwall, so its legends and folklore provide a lot of inspiration for our songs.
Andrew: The name Saint Senara actually comes from a church in Cornwall which is associated with a Cornish folk tale called The Mermaid of Zennor.
As the legend goes, a mermaid living in the cove at Zennor would come to the shore to listen to the music coming from the church. She fell madly in love with one man’s voice, which drove her to disguise herself and visit the church one night to discover who the voice belonged to.
As soon as their eyes met, he fell for her too and they ran away together back to the sea and he was never seen on land again, but sailors would often tell tales of being told off by a mermaid if they dropped anchor too close to her home and kept her away from her man and their children.
Who would you say are your contemporaries?
Chloe: We’re really lucky to have such a diverse and supportive music scene in Cheltenham, so we consider a lot of talented local bands as our contemporaries.
We love the DeadHeadz boys — they’re a psychedelic blues rock trio writing some really interesting songs based on characters they’ve created. Their song Gunslinger is a banger.
Andrew: I came up through the Cornish music scene with people like Ruarri Joseph from William the Conqueror, and if you asked me a few years ago I probably would have said folks like that. But we’re now standing shoulder to shoulder with a lot of new exciting bands and singers. We’re extremely lucky to be experienced enough to be contemporaries of some great bands that have gone on to establish themselves, and yet also be in amongst a vibrant new wave of performers that will be future fixtures of the industry.
You’re based in Cheltenham, but Louisiana sounds like your spiritual home. Have you checked the cost of the flights yet?
Chloe: We’ve had Nashville and New Orleans on our bucket list for a long time! But we keep spending all our money on studio time…
Andrew, what attracted you to the Gretsch guitar? Are there ghosts in there?
Andrew: Who knows what spirits live in hollow bodies…
I think it goes back to starting from scratch after giving music up. I started thinking about the music I wanted to make rather than what I thought I should be making. I’d always sort of resented having to play acoustic guitars as a solo artist and wanted to find something more fun to play that would still allow me to hammer away as I always had on the acoustic. I thought a hollow body would be ideal and no one does hollow bodies better than Gretsch. So I tried it and it was a revelation. It’s now the gold standard for guitars to me. The filtertron pickup sound, the commanding tone of the body, the playability and, of course, the look are all just perfect for the music I want to make.
How has the Flowers On My Grave EP been received?
Chloe: Flowers has had a small but really loyal following since we released it. We’ve got some wonderful, loyal fans who come to almost every gig and have had the EP on repeat for a year!
We put it out at the same time that we played Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2023 — we’d made our live debut as a duo at the Jazz Fest the year before and so many people came up to us after our set asking where they could hear more of our music, so we made it our mission to get something on record when they asked us to come back a second time.
The title track actually placed in the Top 10 of the Blues & Roots Radio International Song Contest in 2023, too, which felt like a huge achievement for a song on our very first EP.
It’s easy to get hung up on things like how many streams you’ve had on Spotify, so I especially try to remind myself regularly just what a privilege it is to create music that becomes part of the soundtrack to someone’s life.
Andrew: On a personal level, I produced that record myself at home, and I am very much not a producer, so to hear people give positive responses to the sound of that record is a huge relief to me.
Your songs have dark undercurrents, who’s the horror buff?
Chloe: Definitely Andrew.
Andrew: Guilty. I have always been in love with the ghostly and frightening things. There’s nothing that brings a smile to my face more than a story that can genuinely frighten me. And the passion for that world bleeds over into the music, whether that’s chord choices, instrumentation, melody or lyrics, then goes even further into our other creative works.
I also have a theatre company, Moth Sanctuary Productions, that deals almost exclusively in horror, or horror adjacent performances, and we have an audiobook series called Penny Dreadfuls from the Moth Sanctuary, which as the title suggests is a series of scary original short stories. So horror is an active part of all our creative endeavours. It’s a primal human feeling to be scared, so it’s a great way to be able to connect with an audience.
Which of your songs spoke to you and said ‘we’ve got something here!’
Andrew: For me these days it’s usually when Chloe comes up with a line and I’ll hear its melody in my head perfectly straight away. Everywhere and Nowhere and There’s a Storm Coming are both great examples of that. But the biggest out-of-nowhere moment we had was Flowers On My Grave. Chloe had written the main line as part of some lyrics for another piece we’d been working on. As soon as I heard it I said she needed to take that one line out as it sounded like it had the potential to be the centre of a whole other song. I then played it as I heard it, Chloe turned around and completed the lyrics in a few minutes, and before we knew it we had this spontaneous new song which I consider to be one of the finest we’ve written.
Because of your use of vocal harmonies and blues tradition, (we think) there are obvious comparisons to acts such as Band Of Skulls. Are you flattered by this or are you searching for your own lane?
Chloe: We’re definitely aiming to create our own unique niche, but I generally take it as a compliment when someone compares us to another artist that they like and listen to, as that’s nearly always how it’s intended.
Generally when that happens, people are looking for a way to make a connection with you.
What’s been your favourite gig so far and why?
Chloe: Oh man we’ve had so many great gigs over the last couple of years that it’s hard to choose.
Sunday Funday at the Frog and Fiddle is right up there for me as that was the first time we’ve ever headlined a stage. It was such a quick journey from being the opener that nobody had heard of to headliner — Andi from Audio Junk Food put a lot of faith into us and I think we delivered.
Whenever we’ve played The Old Stables in Cricklade that’s always a magical show too. Nigel and Sean programme some phenomenal acts there and the audience is probably the most attentive I’ve ever experienced. You could literally hear a pin drop, they listen so intently.
We also did a gig at Gloucester Prison last year. It’s very cool to be able to say we’ve performed our murder ballads in a real-life haunted prison.
Andrew: Yeah, the cheers for our songs at Sunday Funday were really something different. We’ve had applause or cheers before but there was something about the cheers that night that felt really different. It was quite emotionally affecting. We always seem to have a great time at the Bottle of Sauce in Cheltenham too. We’ve played there twice now and both times I’ve come with a new understanding of our band.
What would be your dream venue to play at?
Chloe: Locally, I think Gloucester Guildhall and The Sub Rooms would be incredible venues for us to play. Blackfriars Priory would be so atmospheric, too.
In an ideal world, Union Chapel in London. That place is stunning. I would love to sing there.
How do you prepare for a live performance? Whisky or wine?
Chloe: LOTS of rehearsals. Being a duo we’re very lucky that generally we can rehearse at home, so getting every song really under our skin is important to us.
Andrew: Yeah rehearsal is key. To be able to know your songs and your bandmate well enough that you can react to anything or change something up on a whim without upending the show is beyond just playing a song, it’s almost an act of mutual symbiosis. The bourbon comes after the job’s done.
Any plans to recruit a full band?
Chloe: We’ve had so many offers, especially from drummers who want to come and play with us, so there’s a real possibility!
What’s the story behind next release ‘Devil and the Preacher?
Andrew: That started from wanting to write something to let the Gretsch growl! Then in standard Chloe form, she took it and gave it a lyric and a performance that matched that growl. For me it’s Saint Senara at its coolest, its hardest and its most fun.
Chloe: I spent a lot of time in the church growing up. I was in choirs from the age of around four and while I loved to sing, by the time I reached the age of 18 and went out on my own, I’d seen a lot of things that made me question the way I’d been told to think or behave.
I’ve always found the interplay between good and evil, right and wrong — and who gets to decide which is which — really fertile ground for ideas. In this song, I wanted to play with the idea of me being the one who gets to decide.
Recording this one was so much fun, too. We had a session with Sam Bharucha at Audio Farm Studios, which is a new independently-run recording studio in Staunton, near Gloucester, and the three of us just went feral! Growling vocals, wild slide, we were even singing through a cigar box guitar at one point!
What are your thoughts on the current state of the rock music scene?
Andrew: There’s never been more variety to music than there is nowadays and never more opportunities to discover it. Sometimes that can feel overwhelming, as if there’s so much choice you almost can’t hear anything. But trends will come and go, and I find as I’m getting older, my way of cutting through all that is to seek where the joy or authenticity is.
That’s the exciting thing about a lot of the younger bands and producers we work with. They are just hungry to make something good and they want to push it all the way. They want to sing their hearts out, or dance like wild things and have that moment of connection with a room full of people. As long as there are people like that making rock music, then it’s in good hands.
What’s your local music scene like?
Chloe: Gloucestershire, and Cheltenham especially, has got such a vibrant and eclectic music scene with an absolute wealth of talented bands and artists spanning all sorts of genres.
There’s a really supportive community. Whether you’re a four-piece band playing the loudest, most hardcore post punk; a solo singer-songwriter playing tunes on an acoustic guitar; a full-blown electro outfit complete with keytar, the people in the local scene will come out and support you. People here seem really willing to give things a chance, even if they’ve never heard of you, even if it’s not a genre they’d usually listen to.
We’re so incredibly lucky to have amazing grassroots venues like The Frog & Fiddle which make space for up-and-coming artists like us — and promoters like Andi, who I mentioned earlier who runs Audio Junk Food, who really do provide meaningful support and opportunities to emerging and early career artists. We’ve got something special here.
What are your aspirations?
Chloe: I want to be like Robert Plant — still owning a stage and shaking some maracas when I’m 75.
Andrew: I’ve tried living with ambitions before, and it got me so frustrated that it resulted in my quitting. Right now I’m just happy to be living in the present and appreciating what I have. I like where we are as a band, as writers and the scene we’re in right now. I don’t want to live so much in the future that I risk missing the amazing things around me today.
What can fans expect from you in the near future?
Chloe: We’ve got lots of festival gigs coming up over the summer, starting off with JamFest in Hereford on Saturday 29 June.
Then we’re at Vinestock in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Live in July; Lakefest, YFest and Hereford Indie Food Fest in August; and Worcester Music Festival in September.
We’re back at Cafe Rene in August as well, then we’re doing our first gig in Bath at Komedia in September, too.
Andrew: We’ve just finished doing a few sessions at The Audio Farm for a new EP which is like nothing you’ve heard from us yet. There we found we could lean into our harder-edged elements and let them loose. You can expect that EP to be out later this summer.
Equally we’ve also been working with an exciting young producer at White Noise Studios in Weston-super-Mare, Lex Raymond, on some of our more dramatic and atmospheric songs, one of which we’re currently creating a music video for with an exemplary filmmaker, Dale Campbell.
Definitely on our ‘one to watch list’. The Devil & The Preacher is out at the end of June from all good digital services…
