We are talking to a new (ish) band today called Penny Rebels. They currently have a few tracks out there for streaming and having had a listen we reached out for a chat! So this entertaining feature includes a review, interview and a little background for your reading (and listening) pleasure.
They are a five-piece blues-rock outfit comprising James Burns (vocals), Huw James (drums), Eng Wei Chua (guitar), Adam Wright (keyboards) and Rahul Kabra (bass).
Penny Rebels are from London and Surrey, UK. I would say pay attention to these guys because the music listening public clearly are! With four tracks on Spotify and listening figures currently at 30k+ for “Bad Man” – that is pretty impressive for a new band on the block. We do get asked how we quantify an artist has the potential to make it, and listening figures is definitely one of the criteria. Their press tells me: Penny Rebels are a band that isn’t chasing trends—they’re carving their own groove. With music that feels instantly familiar yet refreshingly original, their songs strike a rare balance between catchy hooks and irresistible rhythms that invite you to move. Each track stands on its own—no two songs are alike—but they all unmistakably sound like Penny Rebels.
First up from us, a review of their music:
“Trust” was first up. The honky tonk piano and the blues groove fires a few bullets, a bit of music from the swamp! Get out your dance shoes and have some fun with this opener, which runs to under 2 minutes so it rips along. Loving that piano! It would be a very strong candidate for commercial radio play.
“Bad Man” has a chant built in and some cool funk in those grooves. It is very listenable, and a few zombies make their way into the lyrics! This is urban funk/blues with a strong melodic swagger that comes through in the vocal performance, all that confidence that comes with knowing you have a distinctive song. I can imagine that this track would sound great live, in one of those small Cluny (Newcastle Upon Tyne, my local!) type venues it hit hard I think.
“Open Road” is up next and turns to a slightly slower feel bringing out the drum sound and a melodic chorus that invites us to the open road. Musically it is cleverly layered, and the vocal performance is again strong. The track has a solid guitar break, and it has a heavier guitar sound generally. The heaviest track of the four.
“Say Watcha Mean” retains a heavy sound mixed with the keys. A politically charged track but still melodic and with a decent chorus. It’s my least favourite of the four, but I liked the little changes of direction and the guitar break definitely cuts the mustard.
Overall, I enjoyed these guys, potential for squeezing the lemon of success? Pretty high!
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On to the interview. In our interview we spoke to James Burns (vocals), Huw James (drums), Eng Wei Chua (guitar)
Can you tell us a little about the band for those who want to know, you are a relatively new band, but have you all been in bands before etc and moved to this one?
James – Yes we are a relatively new band. As a quick summary, Penny Rebels all started about a year and a half ago. Initially I worked on some songs with Engwei, he is the guitarist and brains/genius behind the band, I’m just vocals. Then about six months later, at the beginning of 2025 Engwei had found the other guys Huw (drums), Adam (keys) and Rahul (bass). We rehearsed about once a month and had our first gig about six months later at the ‘Picnic and Pop’ festival in July. From that point onwards we have been trying to play as many gigs as possible. Going back to your original questions, my first band was when I was still in school, I must have been about 14 and the band was called ‘Snaggle Tooth’. We mainly did AD/DC covers from what I can remember, it was great fun but I remember gigs being terrifying. That all ended when we got found out for bunking school to play a gig in a pub. I have no clue how we even got to the pub with our equipment etc? All I can remember is after the gig the landlord said “I’m not going to pay you, you are too young to even be in here, just put it down as experienced boys” Haha I get it. I first met Engwei (the guitarist of Penny Rebels) a few years before the year 2000. He was in a band called ‘Bohica’ and needed a singer. I auditioned and got the job. We were in that band for about 10 years, we had two albums out, had two record deals and toured the UK, we even had music videos on MTV2 and Scuzz. All before the invention of social media, it was great fun but a lot of hard work and that band eventually fizzled out. I then started making music with another group of friends just for fun but wasn’t interested in singing anymore, so I started playing bass. That was great fun, we played psychedelic rock a bit like ‘The Doors’ meets ‘Lou Reed’ with 10 minute long songs. That lasted a number of years before also eventually fizzling out. That’s when Engwei reached out and asked if I would be up for laying down some vocals on some music he had been working on, the rest as they say… is history.
The whole music business has changed so much, we were talking to an artist recently who noted how she is an expert at writing 30 second material due to the huge value of Instagram & Tik Tok bursts of music! It can get confusing as well, even for us as to what success is today – I mean so many listens here or there can mean a song is popular, but not the artist. That is why so many bands do covers at the start to get those clicks. But you guys have original material from the get go- good for you! A deliberate policy on your part? And how do you quantify success in the business ongoing?
James – Thank you, yes it is a tricky road to navigate. I think when we set out to start this band we were thinking of bands from the 70’s etc so we just focused on writing songs the ‘traditional’ way. Being in a cover band has never really appealed to me, I personally find it very difficult to do a cover justice, I mean who can sing like Axl Rose, Stevie Wonder or Prince? I am too worried about butchering someone else’s song. So, if I’m going to butcher a song, it’s best I butcher our own songs Haha!!. Of course we are aware that 30 second or less sound bites that go viral on TikTok are what could start a musician or bands career, but we aren’t really thinking about that when writing. For this reason we will probably never be discovered haha!! It is very difficult to quantify success without succumbing to checking how many followers you have on socials or how many plays you have on Spotify, but obviously you can get very disheartened and disillusioned by that. I guess we don’t really have a plan as such, music is our creative outlet and in my opinion, once you start treating it like a business you lose your creative freedom.
Engwei – I agree! A good song often has a good hook though, something that a listener can latch onto. The part of a song that stays in your head long after you’ve finished listening to it, whether it’s a vocal line or a feeling that doesn’t go away.
But it’s a bit like watching trailers for a movie – sometimes all the best bits are in the trailer! I don’t want the best bits of a song to be the TikTok hook and that’s it! You must’ve heard a clip of music on social media and then listened to the rest of the song and it’s rubbish!
You are down as blues rock (I will come to that soon) – and one of our friends here from the start has been BB King’s daughter Shirley King who reminds us that BB was the great entertainer and how the blues men were always out to get a smile on their audiences’ faces. Does your guitar sound pull at all from those great blues men of the past?
James – Wow!! BB King is a god! You would have to ask Engwei (our guitarist) more about this but I would say definitely, the whole band grew up listening to all these amazing musicians and have a huge amount of respect for them. When you think of classic Blues and Rock songs you can’t help but hear those amazing guitar tones. We are spoiled today because we can get similar tones fairly easily with the right equipment. So I would say our sound is definitely influenced by those titans of Blues and Rock, and we also try to get a smile on our audiences faces, one way or another haha.
Engwei- absolutely! There’s often a fun element to some of our songs and we definitely want that to translate to listeners and audience. Blues is the foundation of so much music though and those blues notes add flavour to all the elements of our music.
Stevie, who has reviewed the four tracks currently on Spotify for us, says the sound on “Bad Man” and “Open Road” is edgy rock with some spice of funk and boogie. It got me listening to “Bad Man” and I was reminded of Freddie Mercury in a concert video saying “I feel a little boogie coming on!” – I agree with that sense of funk in rock too. A track with a confident strut! Tell me about that one please-
James – Our guitarist wrote that one. I believe he had been playing around with various ideas for a while. I love the hook, it’s an amazing riff, I also think there is something really familiar about it, so it was easy to like it straight away. I also really enjoyed the tongue in cheek subject matter, basically about a man going through a mid-life crisis, thinking he has still got ‘It’ or is still ‘The man’.
Engwei – I like that you guys felt that way, that means the song translated to you in the right way! There was definitely a confident strut I pictured in mind when writing it! Have you even seen a movie called The Storks? There’s a pigeon that struts to “How you like me now?” and that image often pops into my head when listening to Bad Man!!
“Trust” runs at under two minutes and has a touch of honky tonk piano at the start (just a touch – but I notice these things!) – a nod to the gravy train of modern politics – I didn’t vote in the last election as I have lost faith in all of them…this one sounds like it was taken almost from a live jam type of session, it has an immediacy about it and an energy – feel free to put me correct! How does it fit into your catalog?
James – ‘Trust’ came about from us being a little bit older and our focus shifting from things like ‘willy jokes’ to who’s running the country or world and being frustrated by them. We see the same problems happening time and time again and all the while the only people benefiting are those in power. So we thought we would write a fictional and ridiculous song about it from the viewpoint of someone in power. Pair that subject matter with the honky tonk piano you noticed and a ‘Bluegrass’ feel and we ended up with a weird satirical song that we liked. I’m not really sure how it fits into our catalogue, it’s not really blues or rock, but you can’t keep writing the same song and a little diversity is good in my opinion.
What is next up for you, a little bird told me you have three new releases coming along?
James – Yes that’s right, we have a few surprises on their way. We have three new songs pretty much done, we have at least two others in the works. We need to think about visuals for the new songs, so music video ideas etc. If any of your readers want to get in touch to help out with music videos we are all ears. At the moment we do everything ourselves, which is great fun but also a little limiting. We are hoping to have our album done by July this year and everything that goes along with that. Obviously more gigs and shows and to reach more people.
Engwei – We’re prepping the videos and visuals to go with the songs and making sure we have PR and marketing lined up too. As James said we do absolutely everything ourselves so it’s a lot of work for us.
Fun Question -It is a hard winter’s night. The tour van/bus has broken down and a harsh wind blows through the night. Nearby you see a small house, it seems abandoned, yet there is a fire burning, food on the table and working electricity. While you wait for morning – what book and what film will get you through the night?
James – Ha! Okay, who’s house is it? Is the food poisoned? Are they gonna come back and hack us into pieces? You know the phrase… if it sounds too good to be true… it probably is.
But assuming it’s okay for us to stay, and assuming we aren’t going to get arrested, the movie I would probably pick is ‘Alien’. I’m a massive fan of horror movies, even though I feel it is more of a suspense movie than a horror. Movies for me are about escape, being transported (mentally) to other places or worlds. Alien has all that for me and I just think it’s a great movie. Choosing a book is trickier as it depends on my mood, but most likely an autobiography from someone inspiring. I am currently reading ‘The Blues Brothers’ by Daniel De Visé, which as the Chicago Tribune put it, is “The definitive one-stop history of the Blues Brothers band, the film, and a touching dual biography of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd”. I also love that movie so much, I grew up watching it and listening to that soundtrack. I still can’t get my head around how they were able to film it and get so many legends involved, it’s such an epic movie.
Engwei: I actually remember a time on tour when the tour bus broke down and it was raining with harsh winds. Everybody got out of the van as you should when you’re broken down on the motorway, except I didn’t. I stayed on the bus and this was when we didn’t have smart phones and there was a TV with a VHS player. I put on a movie called “The Ladies Man” whilst we waited for the breakdown service to arrive! Reminds me to go watch that movie again…
Final Word:
With sharp grooves, confident songwriting and a clear refusal to chase trends, Penny Rebels already sound like a band who know exactly who they are. From the swampy stomp of Trust to the funk-laced swagger of Bad Man, there’s plenty here to get excited about — and the interview only reinforces that this is a group building something on their own terms.
🎧 Check out Penny Rebels now on Spotify, give Bad Man a spin, and keep your eye on these guys — this feels like the start of something worth following.
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Band website here
Stream Music from Penny Rebels here
The guys do a mean cover of “Come Together” that I am sharing here because I stumbled over it and it slots neatly into that funky blues feel. Great song and a free running version.
By Anna-Louise Burgess (Interview)
&
Stevie Ritson (review)
