Hailing from the Valleys, five-man rock band Turning Montana are injecting a fresh, youthful edge to Welsh sound in 2025. Quench talks to frontman Sam Jones about Nirvana, Cardiff’s music scene, and their new single ‘Names in the Night’.
The interview transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Julia: Congratulations! You’ve just released a new single ‘Names In The Night’. Could you tell us about the track and how it came about?
Sam: ‘Names In The Night’ is based on a bit of a risque idea. The immediate interpretation from it is lying with your partner in bed or you’re lying with someone; maybe ‘talking names in the night’ is about someone accidentally saying someone else’s name. Or maybe they’re dreaming of someone else, and they say someone else’s name. At the beginning, it was more like a lovey-dovey love song, but over time with different lyrics and vibes from the band, it’s changed into what it is now.
Julia: Is that how it usually works in terms of you might start with an idea and then other band members will inflect their own experiences, which will change the tone of the song?
Sam: 100%. You’ve hit the nail on the head with that. My guitar skills are very limited so I’ll write some basic power chords on the guitar, write some lyrics and play it to the boys. If they like it, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t. And then we’ll get a little bit of a vibe going, and the lead guitarists, Lewis and Brandon, will enhance the technical elements.
“‘Turning’, to me, means becoming who you want to be creatively. I think all of us realised that you shouldn’t care about external influences if they’re not constructive.“
Katie: Out of curiosity, are you all self-taught musicians and have picked up playing by yourself?
Sam: I used to do a lot of dancing and acting in the musical arts and stuff when I was younger, so my musicality comes from that, but I’m not classically trained. Our lead guitarist, Lewis, is a trained guitarist, and Gethin and Brandon have done a little bit of training as well. Ellis is a grade eight drummer, so he’s got a lot of experience. I’m the one without the technical skill, but more on the creative side
Katie: I feel like sometimes that’s more important, especially in the sense that you can have the opportunity to be really creative. And I think the best way to come up with new music is just to focus on that space.
Julia: I agree. So in terms of influence, you cite bands like Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Oasis and Nirvana?
Sam: Yeah, they’re all massive influences. Our first band was heavily based on Nirvana, but we’re influenced by rock music from across the 60s to the 90s.
I remember when I was about eight or nine, my brother would take me to school and he’d blast Arctic Monkeys as loud as he could in the car. I was a hater at the time because I thought my ear drums would be gone by the time I got to school. But that really started my interest in that type of music, and that’s only grown over the years.
Julia: Yeah. I remember my dad used to play Come As You Are a lot.
Sam: That’s actually the first song that Lewis Jones and I actually learned on the guitar!
“It’s really important to shine a light on emerging bands and emerging talent because at the end of the day we’re all connected through the music, regardless if you’re at the top or the bottom.“
Julia: It’s a great song. I was also curious about the band name. Who/what is Montana and why is it turning?
Sam: Well, it’s funny you ask. Once we started bouncing ideas around, Gethin just came out with Montana. I looked at him and I looked to Lewis. And Lewis actually had Montana written on his hat. I thought “You know what? That’s pretty cool. You’ve got Hannah Montana, Tony Montana from Scarface.” Louis was completely against it until he got home and realised, and was like “Boys, I know why you said Montana, it’s been written on my head.”
‘Turning’, to me, means becoming who you want to be creatively. I think all of us realised that you shouldn’t care about external influences if they’re not constructive. Once you realise that, you can really go into what you want to do creatively.
Julia: I also think it sounds great in a Welsh accent
Sam: Yeah. Thank you very much!
Julia: I think it can be said that Cardiff’s music scene is currently in a precarious state. The Moon, a popular live music venue on Womanby street, shut in November last year citing the cost of living crisis. Whilst it’s changed hands and will reopen as The New Moon, it’s definitely more difficult for grassroots bands to find venues.
Katie: There’s also the fact that last week Ed Sheeran came down to Cardiff and played at a school to promote the importance of inspiring children and the younger generation.
Sam: I read up on that a bit. It’s really important to shine a light on emerging bands and emerging talent because at the end of the day we’re all connected through the music, regardless if you’re at the top or the bottom.
Julia: Have you got a favorite grassroots venue in Cardiff? Or a place you would be interesting in playing?
Sam: We are very interested in gigging Porters, and The Moon. We’re also interested in doing some more open mics and stuff like Gassy’s and The Vulcan, that type of thing. I think we could absolutely blow the roof off.
Julia: Can we expect you to be debuting some new music at these gigs?
Sam: There will definitely be new music coming soon. We just released Names of the Night; its a song that we’re all very proud of, but we’re always writing music. We’ve probably got like 15 or 20 songs in the archive from the last year. So we hope to release an album within the next year.
To conclude the interview, we subjected Sam to a series of quick-fire questions…
Go to karaoke song.
Jenny Don’t Be Hasty by Paolo Nutini
Best cover of all time.
Catfish and the Bottlemen’s cover of Read My Mind by The Killers. They also cover Black Skinhead by Kanye West, which is sick
Who in the band struggles to stay in time?
Difficult one, I’m gonna have to say going to have to say Lewis and Gethin.
And who struggles to stay in tune?
Me. I’m the only singer in the band, so I’ll take that one.
Pre-gig rituals?
Taking a deep breath, having a pep talk between each other. I’m sure some of the boys would say they like a cheeky beer, maybe,
A song that you wish that you’d written.
We’re gonna have to go with a Skepta track, What Do You Mean? or Top Boy, also by Skepta.
Favourite venue on Womanby Street?
The Moon, or The New Moon as it’s now called!
And if you could play any gig or festival at any time in history, what would it be?
I think we will go for Glastonbury – the bigger the better really for us as a band!
Words by Julia Bottoms and Katie Storrie