Soup Press Kit

PRESENTS.....

42 Edge St, Manchester M4 1HN 07988236326

info.dyrti@gmail.com

Adam Smith Editor Silent Radio

Dear Adam,

I believe that I have an interesting, new and upcoming artist that will be perfect for your website, especially for your, ‘Who Are Ya?’ section as they are currently working on expanding their fanbase. Next month will see the release of Soup!’s earth-shattering debut album, ‘What It Says On The Tin.’ Soup! are an experienced band in the Greater Manchester post-punk scene, and have begun to build up a dedicated following in the past year or so.

Their debut album follows the release of the lead single, ‘Supplies’ which hit streaming services in February. With the album being in the works for the past year, Soup! Are now ready to unleash their innovative, genre-hopping sound into the world. Recorded at the iconic Spirit Studios in Manchester, where artists such as The Smiths, 808 State and the Stone Roses found their sound, Soup! Are cementing themselves as a Manchester band that are here to stay.

Soup! Have developed a tight-knit community for themselves, upon finding themselves playing a part in the current post-punk renaissance. They have toured the country supporting bands such as Hotel Lux, The Cool GreenHouse, TVAM and Cheap Teeth. As well as keeping themselves busy over summer playing festivals like, Bluedot, Manchester Psych Fest, Live At Leeds and Left Of The Dial in Rotterdam. Through this their fan base has grown massively and they have also gained attention from other local promoters and writers.

Silent Radio has had over a decade of success and your excellent staff of writers and contributors really proves that there is still a place for music journalism. Manchester has always been the musical capital of the UK and it’s thanks to the likes of websites like Silent Radio that have been keeping that alive. Your amazing reviews Section would be the perfect place to feature Soup! and their absolutely delicious debut album. Not only would this attract more readers to your website, you would also be supporting a local band with big dreams in an industry that at times can be difficult to navigate.

Enclosed is a press kit equipped with a comprehensive press release as well as some content to share on social media channels, a background on the band and high-quality photos of the band that are all available for you to use.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I know how busy you can be, I am eager to hear from you soon.

Appreciatively,

Megan Barton. Managing Director at DYRTI! PR.

Soup! officially formed in 2020, a rather strange year for new beginnings but if anyone could do it, it would be Soup! This five piece came together in the rainy city of Manchester and the current line-up consists of Matthew Beswick (guitar / vocals), Connor Riley (guitar), Ben Smith (drums), Hayden Gouveia (bass) and Rob Jones (synth). A trio as tight-knit as they come, Matthew, Connor and Ben had been playing music together since they were teens. Covering bands such as The Stooges and The Buzzcocks they had a frantic desire to create their own music and after meeting Hayden and Rob in 2020, Soup! was born. Taking inspiration from bands like Television and Magazine, their name came from one of the band’s first ever demos which included the lyric ‘soup.’ “It’s open-ended and also who doesn’t like at least one soup?”

Since their formation, Soup! have successfully released a handful of singles. Musically speaking the band fall into the current post-punk renaissance that the United Kingdom is currently experiencing, with bands such as Fontaines D.C, Shame and The Murder Capital rapidly gaining popularity. Described as postpunk for the 21st century, Soup! employ angular guitar riffs with chunky basslines adding in interesting and insightful lyricism. Since a chance meeting with punk musician and journalist John Robb and their guerrilla style plea for help (in the form of a handwritten note) early last year, the band have been on the path to success ever since.

Fast forward three years since their creation, the band have toured the United Kingdom extensively playing at festivals such as Live At Leeds, Neighbourhood Festival, Bluedot and even travelling to Europe to play Left Of The Dial Festival in Rotterdam. Apart from festival season, Soup! have been keeping themselves busy, filling in support slots for bands such as Hotel Lux, TVAM and Dehd. Getting their name out there has turned them from complete newcomers to respected musicians in the Manchester scene overnight. From their first release 6=3, clear influences of the band can be heard, ranging from XTC to Magazine to Josef K, Soup! Have combined an enduring love of pop and post-punk to carve their own brand of art-punk that you won’t hear anywhere else. Although the band try not to get too bogged down in being put in a genre box, as one the defining features of their music is its genre-crossing sound.

An important aspect of the band is their camaraderie, at the end of the day this group of lovely lads are all friends in real life too. Working together as a team is at the heart of all their music, taking elements that each of them create to chisel into a polished piece of art-punk mastery. In their North-Manchester rehearsal space, a crumb of inspiration from one of the members usually evolves when each member adds in something they have been working on. One of their latest singles, Only Time is a great example, stemming from a guitar line from Connor which lent itself to the words of a poem Matthew had recently finished.

Now a few months after the release of their single Supplies, Soup! are ready to release their debut album What It Says On The Tin, into the world. Mixing influences from Ska, Jazz and Reggae with their signature art-punk sound scattered with Beswick’s punchy lyrics, this boundary crossing release is Soup!’s Magnum Opus. The future is shining so brightly for Soup! But be aware it’s going to get a little bit weird!

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

***SOUP! ANNOUNCE CHARITY GIG***

Manchester’s post-punk newcomers announce a charity gig to raise money for homeless charities in Manchester Soup! announce a charity gig to be held at the Manchester venue Soup April 22nd. The venue takeover will be called The SOUP!ermarket. Partnering with charities such as Barnabus, CentrePoint and Coffee4Craig, 50% of proceeds from the gig will go towards charities tackling homelessness in the Greater Manchester area.

The charity gig also doubles up as a release party for their upcoming debut album, ‘ What It Says On The Tin.’ Fans of the band will be able to hear snippets of the album along with cryptic messages and dates alluding to the charity event. These will be available to find on USBs which will be hidden around Manchester in comically large soup tins. This treasure hunt will be led by the band on their social media accounts.

The band have already caused quite a stir in the post-punk scene, playing at festivals such as Bludeot, Live In Leeds and Rotterdam’s tastemaker festival, Left Of The Dial. Founder of Louder Than War, John Robb has been a champion of the band stating that, “Every tune sounds like a hit. Every song sounds like a precious moment. This Is Pop! ... the defiant sound of art pop… Soup! Are the biggest band in the country that you have not heard of yet.”

‘What It Says On The Tin’ is set to be released on April 22nd and will be available on all good streaming platforms. With the venue takeover happening on the same day, 2023 is set to be a massive year for Soup!

***ENDS***

Notes to the editors-

Album Release Date: 22nd April, 2023

Release Time:10am

Album Title: What It Says On The Tin

Charity Gig Date: April 22nd, 2023 @ Soup (Doors 7:00PM) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsthebandSoup/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebandsoup/?hl=en

For all further information contact Meg Barton at megbarton02@gmail.com For all press enquiries contact Dyrti PR on 07988236326 or email info.dyrti@gmail.com

INDICATIVE TARGET MEDIA LIST

Getting to know Soup!

Soup! are the newest kids on the post-punk block. Emerging from in and around south Manchester in 2020, they have created their own signature sound and have been off to a flying start touring around the country and playing festivals throughout the 2022 season. We wanted to know more about what makes these lovely lads tick, from first celebrity crushes to how they create their music. As the countdown to the release of their debut album, What It Say On The Tin commences, spend a little time getting to know the band Soup!

Who are you and where are you from?

Matthew Beswick (guitar / vocals), Connor Riley (guitar), and Ben Smith (drums) all grew up around South Manchester, Hayden Gouveia (bass) and Rob Jones (synth) are from Macclesfield. We now all live around Stretford, Chorlton, Timperley and Sale in South Manchester.

What encouraged you to start your own band?

Ben, Connor and myself have been playing together since we were 15, doing Stooges and Buzzcocks coversWe started playing because we had such an attuned musical taste and a frantic desire to discover new sounds, bands, scenes etc. Eventually, after all living away from Manchester until our early 20s and having met Hayden and Rob in 2020, we started writing our own music and trying to pool together the influences we had accrued during our time apart to create a sound which reflected our personalities, our relationships as a group and our influences in equal measure.

Do you have any non-musical hobbies?

Rob is a keen indoor skydiver, Ben is dedicated to turning himself into a master of hand-to-hand combat, Hayden plays Harry Potter video games, Connor eats scones daily and Matt hibernates like a polar bear whenever we aren’t doing music stuff.

How did you come up with the name Soup!?

The word “soup” was in a lyric of our first ever demo, around the time we were starting to think of names. We didn’t want to think too much about it and like a lot of bands with simple, one word names of inanimate objects; Magazine, Television etc. It’s open-ended and also who doesn’t like at least one soup?

Is there any new music from 2022 you have been enjoying?

We have all been listening to Henry Carlyle’s new single, the new Opus Kink EP and Harpen’s Kraft new single Canal Side Running which comes out at the end of this month.

Who is your guilty pleasure artist?

It would definitely have to be a bit of Kylie.

What was the last song you listened to?

Song About Love by English Teacher.

Do you feel like your parents influenced your personal music style or not at all?

Certainly myself, Ben, and Connor were heavily influenced by our parents and by each other’s parents growing up. Ska, soul, punk, post-punk, reggae, jazz, and new wave were pretty heavy staples in all of our households growing up.

What’s your greatest achievement?

We played at Blue Dot festival and it was by far the largest crowd / stage we’d played. We really took it in our stride, enjoyed the occasion and everyone had a great time. It was good to cement ourselves as an act that can perform in such an extensive setting, not only to audiences but to ourselves.

And finally, who was your first celebrity crush?

Weird one but Fabien Barthez.

Soup!’s debut album, What It Says On The Tin is out on April 22nd 2023

For more information visit:https://www.facebook.com/itsthebandSoup/

SOCIAL MEDIA IDEAS

Instagram:

Instagram is where the bulk of the band’s support lies so therefore it should be the priority in terms of social media. Some ideas include:

-As the main appeal of Instagram is it’s visual nature that is something that going forward the band need to explore more. Releasing a photo diary of the recording process and behind the scenes of the album allows fans to get an insight into how the music that they know and love is made.

-Utilising the story function on Instagram is a must for keeping engagement levels high. Whether it be a daily update or a written Q&A, Instagram stories come with tools that allow the band to connect with their fanbase easily.

-Posting more varied content. As a band, Soup! are not very active on social media and rarely create a buzz around their upcoming releases. In order to change this the band need to create a post schedule and upload an array of different content, fully utilising Instagram. By using Reels, Stories, Instagram Lives and regular posts the band will be more visible online

-Launch the ‘Treasure Hunt’ on Instagram. For further details refer to the media relations plan.

Facebook:

Facebook is still one of the most used social platforms with 2.963 billion logging in everyday as of January 2023.(The latest Facebook statistics: Everything you need to know - datareportal – global digital insights)

-Creating a private fan group for the band allows the band to speak to fans directly as well as creating a space for fans to talk amongst each other. This is seen to have worked with bands like Sports Team who have Camel Crew group which is also linked to a private Whatsapp chat.

-Focusing less on organic reach through Facebook and instead using a portion of the budget to have paid promotions. These targeted ads will reach fans of similar bands, drawing them toward Soup! Or at least raising awareness.

-Using scheduled posts. Instead of posting content at random intervals use the insight tools on Facebook to see when fans of the band are most likely to be online. For example if the most active time is 12pm on a Saturday that’s when the post is scheduled for.

Twitter:

News breaks fastest on Twitter. It is the platform most commonly used by journalists and people involved with the music industry.

-Every tweet needs to be branded. We are able to do this by adding a hashtag to the tweet. Examples could be #Soup! #Soup!speaks or #whatitsaysonthetin. This also allows for content related to the band to be found more easily on the site.

-Encourage people to tweet directly at the band. By once again using hashtags it’s easy to run Q&A sessions on Twitter because directly tweeting between two accounts creates a thread which will put all content in one place.

-Host listening parties. On the night before album release day, host a listening party on Twitter. One example of this type of content being Tim’s listening party which has gained lots of recognition for all the bands and artists involved.

YouTube:

Youtube is a video sharing site with over 2.6 billion active users. YouTube provides a platform for more long-form video content.

-Film and share music videos. Music Videos are a great marketing tool as they are an event in themselves. You first release the song and then are able to follow that up at a later date with a music video release, bringing attention back to a song that was previously released.

-Use YouTube as an archive for high-quality recordings of live performances.

TikTok:

TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform currently, with over 1 billion active users.

-TikTok allows for shorter content. It’s the perfect platform to tease an upcoming release by using a 15 second video to create a buzz. The new repost feature also allows for videos to be shared easily.

-Post a monthly top songs video where each member picks one song they’re currently enjoying. This helps fans to understand the band on more of a personal level.

Media Relations Plan/ Campaign Strategy

This section will outline the precise aims, objectives and tactics of the campaign strategy for the album release.

Aims:

-Generate a larger following for the band Soup!

- Secure coverage in a local/regional magazine/blog

-Have the albums single played on the radio

-Sell-out home town gigs for upcoming dates

-Increase streams on latest single Supplies

Objectives:

-Reach 5000 followers on the bands Instagram page

-Reach 2000 monthly listeners on Spotify

-Gain at least 10,000 streams on newest single across music streaming platforms

-Reach 500 followers on twitter

-Review on local/regional blog e.g. Silent Radio

PR Campaign Strategy

To promote the debut album and get people talking about the album, the band will host and headline a charity gig at the Manchester venue Soup on the same day as the album release, April 22nd 2023. Leading up to the charity event, a social media led treasure hunt will take place around Manchester wherein USB drives with clips of songs off the debut album will be hidden around the city in comically large tins of soup. This kitschy and perhaps overplayed play on the band’s name being Soup! will be used heavily throughout this campaign. The final goal of this campaign is a successful charity event on the same day as the album launch. By partnering up with homeless charities in Greater Manchester such as Barnabus and Coffee4Craig, the gig will be raising awareness of a current social issue as well as the profile of the band. At the gig there will also be an opportunity for fans to bring tinned goods and dried foods such as tins of soup or pasta which will also be donated to food banks around Manchester. This gig will also be the launch of the band’s new branding and therefore the band’s new line of merchandise will also be available for purchase at the event. The campaign budget of £20,000 will cover the cost of the venue hire, promotional props and content, paid advertisements on social media channels and the new line of Merchandise.

Mock-up versions of the merchandise that will be available at the charity event and then available permanently on the band’s website. merchandise includes: LP’s, Soup! CANdles, badges, stickers and T-shirts.

TACTICS

The tactics behind this campaign combine elements from both social media and interactive experiential campaigning in Manchester’s city centre. As the band have an established fan base on social media but not a strong presence the first steps of the campaign will take place there, pushing teasers of clips from the album. A new hashtag will also accompany these posts, #onthetin will help fans to identify content relating to the band and their upcoming release. Once the band have begun to post regularly, the second phase of the campaign can commence, using social media to promote the real-world treasure hunt taking place in the fortnight before the album release. Using Instagram stories the band will film themselves hiding the USBs in Soup tins around the city in iconic locations, e.g. outside Afflecks Palace. Then urging fans to find the USBs or in this sense ‘treasure’ and post it to their social media accounts, all while tagging the band. In doing this the fans will be doing some of the work for the band in that they will also be promoting the debut album inadvertently. However, to gain attention on social platforms posts regarding the treasure hunt will be boosted on instagram costing $5/day running for 14 days which will come out of the campaign’s £20,000 budget. By using boosted posts the content is likely to reach a minimum of 1000 more social media users. Additionally, the insight tools on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will be kept in mind when scheduling posts so that the largest possible audience is captured. Once the campaign has run its course and the album has been released, preparations will be made for drip-marketing of music videos affiliated with the album.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

PHOTOGRAPHS OF SOUP! (Free to use at your own leisure)