ON THE RADAR FLORENCE ROAD
From recording covers in a garden shed and uploading them on TikTok, Florence Road have emerged as one of 2025’s most compelling new bands. Here, they take time out while on tour with Wolf Alice to discuss their “bonkers” year, industry lessons and The Traitors with Music Week…
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lorence Road might have spent November travelling around Europe with Wolf Alice, living the dream of supporting one of their biggest influences whilst adding a host of new venues and cities to their rapidly expanding gigography, but the quartet have also had to deal with a traitor in their midst.
“I got murdered, it was rough,” notes a slightly fluey but very much alive vocalist Lily Aron.
“Yeah, I was murdered so early on,” bassist Ailbhe Barry sighs, sitting next to her bandmate as we join them on the road in Belgium. Thankfully for the rest of the band (completed by guitarist Emma Brandon and drummer Hannah Kelly) and the growing troupe of fans that Florence Road have accumulated since the release of Heavy, their debut single through Warner Records this March, the killing spree was part of a game. Tour life with the four childhood friends, who formed at school in Bray,
County Wicklow, aged 16, is a wholesome affair. Lately, like many who’ve been inspired by the latest series of BBC One’s The Celebrity Traitors, they’ve been playing it together (this time, the traitor was a member of their crew). “We do a lot of game nights, and a lot of Mario Kart after the show, as a way to wind down, which is actually not a great way to wind down at all,” Aron notes, by way of explanation.
But you can see why the group, who have almost 800,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, are purposefully trying to stay grounded amidst the whirlwind of the last few months.
Since that aforementioned first release, Florence Road have played shows not just with Wolf Alice, but have also supported Sombr on a three-date European run and Olivia Rodrigo in Hyde Park, as well as their own sold-out headline tour and an inaugural season of festivals.
In that time, they released this autumn’s Fall Back EP and a pair of subsequent singles – Miss and Storm Warnings – that have broadened their hook-laden indie rock sound. Next year, they’ll join The Last Dinner Party on tour in North America, with their own UK headline run winding up at London’s KOKO, their biggest show yet. “It’s all been quite bonkers,” observes Aron. “I think we’re all just holding hands and being very grateful. We’re just trying to soak up every second of it.” “And it’s great to have each other in this,” Barry adds. “I can’t imagine being a solo act and going through it.” Florence Road have built a solid team to fight their corner too. Mary Power of Partizan Artists (who co-manages the four-piece with Carl Brogan) discovered them after hearing early 2022 track Another Seventeen and “keeps us very safe and helps us to be smart with our decisions”. Aron says that deciding to sign with Warner last winter, meanwhile, was “gut instinct”.
“We lead the creative and we’re very involved in that world,” she says of their work with the label. “We love all things art and film and it’s very fun to be able to work on that, and to have the resources and the tools to do it all.”
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Florence Road’s team have been actively ensuring the young band don’t burn out during these formative early days.
“They understand that we’re really busy,” says Barry. “We’ve had conversations with them about being out there and chasing things, and they just want to make sure we stay sane for as long as possible.”
“It’s a good partnership,” Aron chimes in. “We’re very eager to do as much as we can. We love being busy and we love being on the road, but it is important to balance ourselves.”
Having started off posting covers on TikTok of tracks by Sam Fender and Fleetwood Mac from Aron’s dad’s garden shed, Florence Road have made the transition offline impressively well. They’ve always been a live band, playing shows in their school assembly and around Dublin in their nascent days, but they were also conscious of “not taking TikTok too seriously” and using it primarily as “a tool” rather than an end goal.
ESSENTIAL INFO
RELEASE: Storm Warnings (out now) LABEL: Warner Records MANAGEMENT: Partizan Artists WHAT THE TEAM SAY: Joe Kentish,
“We were just taking the piss [with those early videos],” notes Aron, wryly. “It’s a great platform and we knew we had to use it, but we were always aware that we didn’t want to become a TikTok cover band,” Barry nods. Their TikTok page (where they have 32.4 million likes and more than 914,000 followers) does, however, act as an easy comeback to the online naysayers that began declaring ‘industry plant’ upon the band’s major label deal and subsequent rapid ascent. Scroll back and you’ll see videos of them playing together that date back to when they were still in school. The foursome have taken the discourse with a necessary pinch of salt. “I think it’s funny to us because we know exactly where we came from,” Aron shrugs. “Some people say that’s when you know you’ve made it, when people start calling you an industry plant…”
president, Warner Records and Parlophone Label Group: “Florence Road
are on an incredible trajectory. Every live show seems to attract a new host of fans, and their Irish heritage and tight-knit sisterhood give them a unique identity at a time when fans crave authenticity.”
Keir Fullerton, SVP, A&R, Warner Records: “It’s a privilege working alongside a band so full
of energy, drive and artistry. It feels like we’re laying the foundations of something truly special.”
In truth, Florence Road have found their peers among the UK’s thriving female and non-binary-led guitar scene. The recent mainstream success of artists such as Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party has created an ideal climate for the band to flourish.
“It definitely feels like such an exciting space to be in,” Aron enthuses. “We’ve had girls come up to us after shows and say they’ve just started learning guitar and they’ve been learning our songs. It’s very cool to see that we’re inspiring more women in the way that other women have inspired us. It’s a great chain.”
As 2026 looms, the band are tight-lipped about exactly when their debut album is due, but are planning to head back to the shed where it all began to write in the new year. There’s been an awful lot to take stock of, but Florence Road are taking it impressively in their stride. “Obviously in the beginning there can be a lot of feelings of, ‘Why us?’” offers Aron in conclusion. “But we’ve been doing it now for a little while and it’s nice to feel more secure in ourselves – and know that we make good music and we’re very proud of what we’ve put out. It’s just about accepting that you are good enough to be here and that this is right.” LISA WRIGHT
musicweek.com
PHOTO: Cara Kealy
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