The Balla: Not Numbers, But Men.

Words: Darci Jackson

Photography: Izzi Glover

"Have you ever sweated from your eyeballs?" asked bassist, Joe Verdin, after reminiscing about The Balla’s first sellout as a band, selling it out 9 weeks ahead of the actual show.

"I was sweating from places I didn’t know sweat could be produced from."

That was this Summer, but rewind to the Summer of 2024, when the band played as part of frontman Harry Mckenny’s solo headline at Liverpool’s EBGBs, a show that subsequently also sold out and marked the first unofficial show for the four piece.

"That was mad because it was our first ever gig as a band wasn’t it," remarked frontman, Harry McKenny.

"We’d only been practicing for about 4 weeks before as a full band."

The Balla are Harry McKenny (vocals, guitar), Taylor McCallum (guitar), Joe Verdin (bass) and Ste Turnock (drums).

Their debut single, I’m Not a Number, has just surpassed 20k streams on Spotify, after being released in June as an anthemic, albeit ballad-like, tune driven by guitars and complete with a string section.

"I was just sick of work so I wrote whilst I was there, and then took it to these boys and they just made it ten times the tune it was," mentioned McKenny.

‘‘It’s one for the people. It’s relatable," added Verdin, as the band mentioned how the fans automatically hopped on board with the easy to follow chorus.

"Every time I watch gig videos back, it’s always him and he’s always smiling so much when people are singing that song!" followed McKenny about Verdin.

As we sat on The Waterfront, a golden glow blinding the bustling plaza as the sun edged closer to the horizon, talk turned to dream venues for the band to play, with mentions of The Cavern, The Dome at Grand Central and Jimmy’s.

"I’m gonna say The Echo, because I have done all of them venues," smirked McCallum, who also plays guitar as part of Liverpool alt rock artist Caitlyn Eve’s band.

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt about the Scouse city, it’s that you can’t walk down the street without seeing someone you know. And that’s on the music scene being so tightly woven together.

"Being in the community and being around the music scene, everyone’s so supportive, and you’ll find certain musicians are playing for like five different bands, and everyone helps each other out where they can, and everyone goes to each others gigs," started Verdin.

"When you come into town, even when you’re on a night out, you just see everyone, and it always stems from the music and going to gigs. Like I knew Ste, we met years ago at a gig in The Arts Club in 2021 or something like that?" followed McKenny.

"It makes me work harder. Because you go to that many gigs where it’s full of people that you know and high level bands like The Cheap Thrills, The Kairos whatever and I just want to go straight the room and practice after that. It annoys me when the bar is set that high, like I can’t wait to get stuck in," added Turnock.

After being caught in a sea of bodies in the Spanish Caravan chorusing I’m Not a Number during a midday set at the UK’s leading new music festival, Sound City, in May, we’re eagle-eyed at what The Balla are currently sitting on.

"We can’t really say much, bit of a middle ground at the moment but there is some boss stuff coming for us. Probably our biggest gig together near the end of the year, well it is the biggest gig isn’t it?: teased McKenny, before Verdin added:

"We’ve been in the studio, we’ve been cooking."

An extremely promising foundation for The Balla as the Liverpool music scene continues to soar.