Meet Fletchr Fletchr, a band of (nearly) brothers ready to take on the world

Lofty ambitions await Fletchr Fletchr, the band formed by childhood best mates Rohan Fletcher and Adam Sanders. They supported Imagine Dragons in front of 35,000 fans this summer, the highest point so far in a journey that began when they formed the band at uni after a fateful day of songwriting cemented their fate.

From there, they moved back to Rohan’s family home and across three years of working in pubs and hanging out, say they sealed their relationship as brothers – hence the repetition of Rohan’s surname. They navigated tragedy too, but say the death of Rohan’s father only made them stronger. Now based in Cornwall, the journey to their gigs isn’t enviable, but the strength of their music suggests it won’t be long before easier alternatives emerge.

Their debut EP We All Feel the Same is a thrilling mix of arena rock, as shown on the title track, while others show off a sax-flecked direction to give the impression that this group are capable of going exactly where they like. And that place, as they explain, is a future headline show at stadiums just like the one that Imagine Dragons gave them a taste for. On the basis of this early showing, you wouldn’t bet against them…

Check out our Q&A with the band and listen to them via our Play Next playlist on Spotify below.

I’d ask how your year has been, but given that you supported Imagine Dragons to a crowd of over 30,000 people in London this summer I think I might know the answer…

Rohan: Yeah that was pretty insane. Going from 200 capacity venues to suddenly stepping out to 35,000 people on the second night [at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium].

Adam: It was one of the best weekends we’ve ever had, but it almost felt a bit surreal. Just looking back at videos of it and wondering, did that actually happen? Now we just want to do it all over again now.

Rohan: It was arguably less scary than the 200 cap rooms we’ve played. When we were backstage we had a moment where we thought, ‘Right we’re in it now. Let’s go for it and give a really good show’. We walked out, the nerves dropped and it felt like we were in the place we’ve wanted to be ever since we started this band. We’ve always talked about stadiums and it was just beautiful.

For the unintiated, how did Fletchr Fletchr come to be?

Adam: We formed in Hertfordshire at school together and we both wanted to be solo artists. We lived with each other through uni and there was just this one day when we decided to make a song with each other, and then kept on doing it, kept on doing it, and then we like had this body of work which we thought was pretty good. But then we got Oli [Williams, drums], our bassist George has been with us for a year too, and it’s really come together in the last year.

Rohan: There was a point when we’d finished uni and we couldn’t afford to stay in London anymore. So we made a decision to move back into my family home and that’s where the name came from, because we were living in the Fletcher family home. We’re basically brothers now!

But you’ve said it’s also a tribute to your dad too, Rohan, who died during that period of living together…

Rohan: Yeah, but it’s even deeper than that with my dad. Myself and Adam carried him down the aisle in his coffin at his funeral. That’s what true brothers do. And then in writing ‘Feel the Same’ and this EP about coming together, I think we found the point of the band in that moment.

Was your dad a big champion of the band?

Rohan: Absolutely. He just loved The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and I think he was just excited to be a part of a band. He would tell us off a lot if we were just sat doing nothing. He was our unofficial manager and he loved it.

Where does your debut EP, We All Feel the Same, land sonically?

Adam: It’s interesting because I’m into my rock but I’ve always been into my jazz from early on because I can play the saxophone. I like a bit of dream pop too, like Wolf Alice. Taking a bit of each of our interests has allowed our sound to get to where it is.

Rohan: We’ve bonded over the Stones and The Beatles too with Jack, one of the people we write songs with, but we write about our situations and our scenarios, and I feel like that’s quite a Bob Dylan approach to it all. But we have a common ground on the songs we write and the lyrics too.

Is there a through-line to the message of the EP?

Adam: We weren’t necessarily writing with a message in mind at that time, we were just writing songs about what we were feeling. But we sat down at the end and realised they had different meanings about grief, love and loss and those things were shared between us.

And now it’s a case of taking that to the masses when you tour?

Rohan: We’ve played hundreds of grassroots venues and I think it’s exciting to now take this show that we’ve crafted over this summer and show everyone what we’ve been doing.

Adam: The very bones of this was me and Rohan starting with two guitars when hwe sounded pretty terrible. But we played Third Man Records a couple of days ago and to have 60 or 70 people crammed in that basement was an amazing thing. People are constantly coming to the gigs and sharing the message.

So, basements first, and stadiums like the one you played a little bit later…

Adam: That’s the aim, to get there one day!