Tax The Heat are a modern British band with a classic rock & roll sensibility. On their powerful debut album ‘Fed To The Lions’ is a sound inspired by the great bands of the 1960s – The Kinks, The Beatles, The Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who – but comparable to contemporary artists such as Jack White, Queens Of The Stone Age and The Black Keys.

As guitarist / vocalist Alex Veale says: “We love the energy of those ’60s bands. Maximum R&B – that’s the basis for Tax The Heat. But we’re taking it somewhere else, bridging the gap between old and new, creating something that has that raw energy but is also original.”

‘Fed To The Lions’ is produced and mixed by Evansson, who has previously worked with Siouxsie Sioux, Goldfrapp and Robert Plant on his 2005 album ‘Mighty ReArranger’. “Evansson is the perfect guy for us,” Veale says. “His approach to songs and sounds is kind of odd and quirky, and that really fits what we’re going for.”

It was in 2012 in Bristol that Veale and Taylor formed Tax The Heat with bassist Antonio Angotti and guitarist and JP Jacyshyn. The friendship between Veale and Taylor dates back to their school days in a West Country village. A chance meeting in 2012 led them to start working together as a duo, before Angotti and Jacyshyn joined. “We loved the idea of those great blues-rock bands playing in small, sweaty clubs in the ’60s,” Veale says. “That was the blueprint for the songs we were writing. But we wanted to be a little more riffy and raucous and punky.”

Tax The Heat played their first gig in January 2013. Later that year, the band’s selfrecorded demos gained the interest of Chris Goss, leader of legendary rock band Masters Of Reality and producer of Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age and The Cult. Tax The Heat’s EP was released on 10” vinyl in November 2013. Since then the band’s music has picked up airplay on Kerrang! Radio, Planet Rock and BBC Introducing. · In addition Tax The Heat have built their reputation as a live act, touring with Thunder, Reef, Black Star Riders (ex-Thin Lizzy), The Graveltones, The Virginmarys and The Cadillac Three, appearing at Download and Calling in 2014 and playing their first headline UK tour in December 2015.

“Rhythm-and-blues rock & roll is the root of it,” Veale says. “But when you listen to the album, it’s more than that. There’s a lot of depth to these songs, a lot of melodic content. And yet, there’s something from the old school that still remains. The way we play, it’s like all those great old bands that we love. Tight but loose.”