Summoners Are Building Something Dark and Necessary in Portsmouth's Margins

Portsmouth's most uncompromising rock band just spent months in isolation crafting something that defies every music industry convention—and somehow that's exactly why BBC Radio, Planet Rock, and critics are calling them "once in a generation." With their "No Control" EP dropping June 25th and launch parties that feature the UK's most authentic underground acts, Summoners are proving that refusing to fit in might be the only way to stand out.

Joshua Elkington spent lockdown in his bedroom, obsessively crafting demos that would eventually become anthems about overcoming fear.Joshua describes months of meticulous honing while the world stood still during times that now seem like a surreal memory. "I demoed them heavily over lockdown." What emerged from that isolation wasn't just songs—it was a blueprint for controlled chaos, tracks that would soon find their way to Southsea Sound recording studio where they'd be transformed by four other musicians into something altogether more dangerous.

"We've stopped trying to fit into boxes," he says, and you can hear months of frustration crystallizing into purpose. "The songs go where they need to go now."This is the moment Portsmouth rock has been waiting for, even if it doesn't know it yet.

The Summoners will be launching their EP at The Wedgewood Rooms on the 28th of June.

Not a show to miss.

You can get your tickets here: https://www.wedgewood-rooms.co.uk/events/2025-06-28-summoners-the-wedgewood-rooms

Lockdown did strange things to musicians. Some discovered TikTok. Others learned to live-stream from their kitchen. Elkington disappeared into his bedroom for months, emerging with demos that sounded like anxiety given form and melody. Not the polished kind of anxiety that gets playlisted—the messy, necessary kind that makes you remember you're still alive."The songs all took fucking ages to write," he admits, and the exhaustion still shows. Those bedroom sessions weren't about perfection; they were about excavation. Digging down past the obvious parts until something true emerged.

What came out wasn't just material for a band—it was a blueprint for controlled demolition.The sound Summoners developed defies the usual Portsmouth rock categories.There's Radiohead's willingness to let songs breathe themselves into existence, but undercut with Royal Blood's rhythmic brutality. It works because it shouldn't, like watching someone conduct an orchestra while the building burns down around them.

"I often feel like we might be seen as too heavy for some scenes but not heavy enough for others," Elkington says, identifying the classic outsider's dilemma. Too weird for the mainstream, too accessible for the purists. Instead of solving this problem, Summoners have weaponized it.Portsmouth helps. It's not London with its manufactured urgency, not Manchester drowning in its own mythology. It's just itself—a port city that understands being overlooked. The local scene exists in productive isolation, breeding bands that sound like themselves rather than like whoever's trending.

Dave Bicheno-Samways attacks his kit with the focused violence of someone working through serious grievances.Together, they sound like controlled chaos, which isn't an oxymoron if you do it right.

"I am a glutton for validation of any kind," Elkington laughs, but there's something deeper happening here. Their refusal to compromise isn't hurting them—it's the point.

They've really become trusted creative partners and friends, which is everything you could hope for from a studio experience."

The "No Control" EP, dropping June 25th, represents their most ambitious statement yet. Six diverse tracks that race through sub-genres and raw emotions."Whilst they are all quite diverse and different from each other, there is definitely a bit of a throughline of the songs being as concise as possible. No second is wasted, we were incredibly meticulous. We wanted them to sound compositionally very tight, but without compromising on ideas. They are breathless by design, but go through a lot of changes. This felt important for an introductory release," Elkington explains, using the kind of careful language that suggests they know exactly how radical they're being.

This is how scenes change—not through manifestos, but through bands brave enough to follow their instincts off the map.

Amy Jade completes the bill with alt-pop-punk credentials that include training at Italia Conti and The Academy of Contemporary Music. Her "what's the worst that could happen" attitude and Avril Lavigne-influenced approach have already taken her to The Joiners' headline slots and Cameron Sanderson's 2023 UK tour.

The Portsmouth original music scene coming to life once again.

Hopefully me saying this here means they can't get out of it now," Elkington jokes, but he's serious about expanding their sonic palette without losing their edge.

We are strictly making the kind of music we want to listen to that excites us and is therefore fun for us to play," Elkington explains. "Luckily for us it seems like not compromising is exactly the approach that has inspired such (incredibly flattering) predictions." a full sonic palette without losing their edge.

Some bands perform; others excavate. Summoners are digging deep, and they've not yet hit bedrock.

Thank you! We have our next set of songs written, demoed and gig tested, and we’re due to go back to Southsea Sound recording studio in a few months to record them, which is super exciting!As we love to do, all of the new songs are quite diverse and different from each other, but there is definitely a bit of a throughline of the songs being a little less conformist to standard structural norms or rules. We’ve allowed some to be a little looser, longer and more jam-based in parts. It’s less, ‘this is where a main riff or chorus would normally go’ and more acting on gut and feel to explore a more honest representation of ourselves. We’ve got a bit more confidence to do that now.We’re also really excited to get more people involved. I’ve been chatting to Dog Violet’s amazing cellist Rose about adding some dramatic, apocalyptic vibes to some songs, and an old mate - the awesomely prolific and endlessly dreamy saxophonist Rich Muscat - is coming in to fuck about with a couple of songs that we think will really go in some really cool directions.Hopefully me saying this here means they can’t get out of it now.

We’re very bloody critical of everything we work on or do, so will always have high expectations of ourselves. And we are learning so much with every new thing that we do, so expectations should constantly be rising from all sides, in my opinion. You do something, you learn from it, you get better and then you do something better and repeat the cycle.Ultimately anyone saying anything like what you quoted just affirms to us that trusting our instincts could be a winning formula, which is amazing. It’s incredibly encouraging and really fucking surreal and lovely. Please expect away.

I am a glutton for validation of any kind, from any source! I guess niche validation shows that you’re doing something specific, which is exactly what we’re doing. We are strictly making the kind of music we want to listen to that excites us and is therefore fun for us to play. Mainstream validation just makes me feel like our music has some wide appeal, which is pretty fucking surreal for us to take in. Our most dark, weird or intense songs are the ones that were featured on BBC Radio, which I never would have anticipated. Again, it’s just very encouraging.

Honestly bloody any and all of them mate!

Thank you! The songs all took fucking ages to write. I honed and demoed them heavily over lockdown, and ultimately the boys are all just really great and distinct musicians, so it was a lot of thought, and skill (on their part). Another secret might be the year or two of meticulous post-production… so the whole process very much lacked immediacy of any kind!We worked really hard with our wonderful (and patient) engineer Tim at Southsea Sound figuring out what we wanted the tracks to sound like. We wanted dirty but clean, authentic yet polished, which are all antithetical and very unhelpful to poor Tim, but he bloody got us there in the end like the legend he is.I can’t say enough about Tim and the studio owner El. They’ve really become really trusted creative partners and friends, which is everything you could hope for from a studio experience. We fell in love with and enlisted our bloody guitarist Andy during these sessions, also, as he works there as well, so it’s really been like a second home to us. We practise there and are recording there again for our next material as I mentioned before, so we couldn’t recommend them enough!

There are loads of bands and artists that we love in Portsmouth. In terms of contextualising my perception of our place among the music scenes here, I often feel like we might be seen as too heavy for some scenes but not heavy enough for others, but that contrast in our sound is really important to us, and we’ve met some great partners along the way, who we love, who seem to like what we’re doing. We’re just doing something we feel compelled to do because we love it, and it’s amazing whenever anyone else likes it, because then it becomes a party.

A) Luckily for us it seems like not compromising is exactly the approach that has inspired such (incredibly flattering) predictions. So fingers crossed, eh!

We'd absolutely recommend catching Summoners live - they are a force to be reckoned with live! You'll find all their latest gigs right here on Bands In Town.

Grab some merch, contact the band or just find out more about them over at Summoners.co.uk -