Holiday discovery led to friends 'living the dream'

Two brothers knew exactly what to do after a holiday discovery.

Ant Ng, 25, from Southport, is part of Merseyside band The Kowloons, who have toured around Liverpool and the UK.

Speaking to the ECHO, Ant said: “It's a four piece band. You’d probably describe it as indie but there’s probably an element of jangled pop and Merseybeat.”

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He is in the band alongside his twin brother and singer-songwriter Ste, lead guitarist Mason Jones and Bobby Griffiths on bass. The band started to form following a holiday to Spain when Ant and Ste were children.

Ant said: “We’ve been writing songs since we were 10 years old. It kind of got rekindled at 12 and we went on holiday.”

In the holiday villa where they were staying, they discovered a binder “with loads of blag DVDs and CDs.” One of the CDs was a homemade compilation of early Beatles songs. Though it wasn’t an official release, hearing some of the band’s biggest hits piqued their interest.

Ant said: “That really sent us over the edge in terms of going into music.”

Their dad Ray also taught them a lot about Merseyside’s famous musical heritage. Ant said: “Our dad grew up in West Derby. He really instilled it in us. He was always listening to the La’s, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Beatles, so we just grew up knowing all these bands and songs.”

It was some years later when a band was formed. Ant said: “It sparked over lockdown. We were writing a lot of songs.

“We had a large output of our own music. Before that, we wrote our own stuff but were happy in our bedroom. After lockdown, we had a body of work and wanted to get it heard.

"The biggest challenge was finding like-minded people who shared an interest in music and wanted to make music we wanted to make.”

This combination was finally realised with the band’s current line-up. Ant said: “With Mason (Jones), we bonded instantly over the La’s. There are our favourite band and Mason loves them as well. We instantly clicked.

“Bobby Griffiths is on bass - Chirs, his dad, he was in a band called the Real People.”

Ant feels drawing influences from Merseyside’s most famous bands is something fans really appreciate. He said: “A lot of people listen and say each song kind of encapsulates little songs or niches. People will say, ‘that guitar sounds like Echo and the Buynnymen’ for example.

The Kowloons toured with Jamie Webster earlier this year and are preparing to perform at a festival in the coming months alongside Bez from the Happy Mondays and Tom Meighan from Kasabian.

Though it’s not been entirely straightforward, Ant is happy at where the band has ended up, especially after the reception to their latest single, Don’t Get Sad. He said: “In the moment, it's sometimes easy to get caught up and compare ourselves to others. At the end of the day, we’re a group of music lovers playing music. That’s living the dream I suppose.”

You can find out more about The Kowloons here.

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