Redstar frontman Will Bloy is far from happy with the state of the music industry.

Festivals may be more popular than ever but after years of gigging across the UK a frustrated Bloy has hit out at the lack of support for grass roots musicians competing in an overcrowded market of commercialised dross.

But undeterred, the Huddersfield indie band have begun a new drive to become more professional in a bid to secure higher profile gigs and a new legion of fans.

He said: “In the seven years I’ve been trawling around we’ve been all round the country.

“Gradually the pubs have been dying and then the smoking ban hit and now you’re lucky to have three or four people in the pub.

“So in the old fashioned sense, like in the 60s when people used to trawl pubs and build up a fan base, I just don’t think it exists anymore.”

With a new album imminent the Almondbury vocalist said he had taken on a new manager in a bid to push the Kingprawn Records signed band to the next level.

“You get a bit of status from being signed,” he said, “but it hasn’t elevated me quite as high as I’d like to be.

“The problem has been management, but we’ve got quite a big team behind us now.

“I’ve just taken a second manager on.

“She can run us a bit more as a business, which is what you’ve got to do to move your band on a bit.

“It’s that point when you go from doing it on a Saturday for a laugh with your mates to actually running it as a viable business and turning it into something profitable, which ultimately is what we want to do with this new CD.

“We had the gig at the Victoria Theatre (in Halifax) the other day.

“There were about 300 people there, it sold out, it was absolutely rammed.

“I’ve got everyone’s attention, because I feed off the crowd, I don’t like playing to nobody.

“It went down really well and then the day after we’re in a pub in Meltham and there were about three people in and it’s such an anti-climax, but it’s got to be done.

“Everybody in the music business goes through it but I’ve been doing it for seven years.”

The five-piece, whose members come from Huddersfield and Halifax, are yet to name the new album but a single ‘Lowdown Dirty Frenzy’ is set to be released with two remixes and an accompanying video.

Speaking about the upcoming album, Will said: “It’s going to be quite heavily processed, it’s a lot different to our first one.

“One, because we’ve got a different guitar player, it’s probably a little bit heavier, and also I’ve tried to put a lot more into writing it.

“The first one was just a collection of songs from the first few years, but this time we actually sat down and said right, we’re going to write an album.

“I just want to go out there, give my job up and do it full time.

“It’s almost like there’s a ladder and we’ve got our foot on the first rung.

“All these people are putting money into us, and managing us from different angles, releasing our album but there’s just a rung missing.

“I don’t know what it is, if I knew the answer, I’d go and get the rung and put it back in the ladder.

“We just need to get up to that next level, getting out and supporting some big names.”

If you fancy yourself as an artist Redstar are looking for someone to design their new album cover.

To pitch for the job contact willbloy@hotmail.co.uk or myspace.com/theredstarrevolution