Following the release of Korova‘s latest single, Adore, frontman Connor Lally caught up with Sam Millne to talk about the band’s bumper few months.
Korova’s 2025 ended with a bang and they have kicked off the new year in a similar vein, releasing new single Adore, playing at The Cavern Club for BBC Introducing and supporting Pastel at the Kazimier Stockroom.
When and how did Korova start?
We started the band in 2022. I had a mate that I’d known for years, Josh. We were talking about getting into a band again, and then we both knew of this lad called Liam who’s in the band now – Josh knew him more than me – he said, ‘Get him in’.
We ended up going to Pirate for a praccy. It was me, Liam and Josh, and Liam had a mate who played bass so we had a band pretty much.
We went twice and then Josh couldn’t go anymore, so he left and we ended up going through a few different drummers.
Basically, the band started through friends of friends, so we had a full lineup but I always wanted keys in the band and someone who could do harmonies.
Ant Hogg, who plays the bass, got his mate in from uni, Cassie Gerrard, then that was the completed lineup.
I think keys being added into the mix with the backing vocals evolved ours ound alot.
What genre of music would you say Korova fit into most?
It’s hard because as a band we’re not trying to go for a specific genre. I think the best music spans genres, but it can probably be a good and bad thing because I think we don’t fit into a specific category.
I’d say probably like alternative, a bit of psychedelic, a bit of trippiness, a bit of rock.
If you look through our tunes, they’re all sort of different from each other, but you can tell it’s us in a way.
How do the band’s tastes in music differ?
We’ve all got our own tastes and we all like mutual bands.
When we first started, Liam was proper bluesy – it comes through inhis solos – but I didn’t want to be in s a typical blues band.
I’m into all sorts. I’ve got quite an eclectic music taste. My grandad used to say, ‘There’s only good and shite music’.
I love The Beatles, Arctic Monkeys, Kate Bush, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, all sorts. And we’ve all got our own tastes like Tom the drummer, he loves U2.
Loads of spectrums are covered by all of us and it sort of comes across in our sound where we’re all coming from a different place.
We all like mutual things as well, but we’re all bringing our own influences into the sounds.
How do you go about your writing process?
We don’t have a set format really for a writing process.
A few of our songs I’ve sat in ours and had the chord sequence and like a melody, and usually when I write something on my own, I’ll take it in and we’lls ort of evolve it as a band.
Some of our older songs, like Potions, I pretty much rote all of them at home and we changed them into what they are now as a band.
Mainly, these days, we’ll come into the band room and we’ll just start jamming and a tune will just appear in a like a few seconds. Usually I’ll just sing nonsense over it, as you do, and then just start writing little things and it’ll just turn into a song
Sometimes, as all bands probably do, we’ll have a little dry spell, but lately, the past year, we’ll just come in and a new song will be born. It will just be pulled out of the aether!
We don’t have a set format, but it’s pretty much either we’ll jam it there or I’ll write something and bring it in.
What has been your favourite venue to play so far and why?
We’ve played a few venues. I think in terms of the sound itself, District is one of my favourite ones we’ve played, but Future Yard is boss as well.
I think if we all got asked, I reckon they’d say the Kaz just because of the first headline we did with I love Live, which was sold out and it was just a boss atmosphere – and it’s dead hot in there as you know!
We’ve also just played The Cavern Club for Dave Monks (BBC Introducing) and got on a gig supporting Pastel at the Kaz.
What’s next for Korova?
We’ve just brought our first tune out of 2026, Adore, which is gonna be the first single from a five-track EP we’re planning to do this year and we’re back in Coastal Sound to do the second single.
We’re doing Sound City this year. We’ve applied for a good few festivals and we’re going to be announcing a headline soon, which will be in June I think.
We’ll be doing more gigs as well as that and releasing the EP as well this year, and hopefully we’ll get on some festivals that are outdoors.
That’s what’s in the pipeline at the minute!
Lead vocals and rhythm guitar: Connor Lally
Lead guitar: Liam Canning
Drums: Tom Gratton
Keys and backing vocals: Cassie Gerrard
Bass: Ant Hogg
You can follow Korova here and listen to their new single, Adore, here.
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