Sam told me: “I always wanted to be in a band and when I got to Truro College I stood back and looked out for the best. I got together with Liam and Jose and we formed the atrociously named Uprise, which made us sound like we were a hardcore metal band. “We knew we needed an extra person and when I heard Redley’s songwriting I just knew he had to be in the band.” The band on stage at Boardmasters (Image: Brian Robinson Photography) The Rezner (no, they sound nothing like Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails) were born and with the help of the lecturers and staff on their college music course – which has produced everyone from Backbeat Soundsystem to Daisy Clark – soon honed their performance and songwriting skills. Indeed, at only their fifth gig they wowed a room full of record label bosses, promoters, journalists and movers and shakers at the Old Bakery in Truro. Why this rap song by Hedluv and Passman should be the new Cornwall national anthem I wrote at the time: “In the 25 years I’ve been writing about music in Cornwall it’s very rare that a new band can stop me in my tracks, already imagining them headlining festivals, within half a song. I’ve only truly felt it four or five times and The Rezner have that special indefinable ‘thing’.” In a band so young there’s usually one weak link, but all four players are as tight as Theresa May’s grasp on a hard Brexit. Natural born frontman Sam Stone with drummer Jose Barradas who brings the jazz (Image: Brian Robinson Photography) Sam, in particular, is so cocksure and charismatic, it’s hard to believe he’s only 18. Think the bordering-on-camp performance power of Tim Burgess and Brett Anderson with the in-your-face swagger of Ian Brown and even Liam Gallagher. Yep, he’s got something. The band’s sound is a mix of the ramshackle garage rock of The Libertines, the anthemic everyman choruses of the Britpop years with a bit of grunge firepower, though basically they already sound like The Rezner.