THE BAND
WEBB are a hard-hitting alt-metal power trio from the South West of England. With soaring vocals, uncompromising guitar riffs, hermetic bass and relentless drums, Ryan Webb, Luca Massidda and Nigel Powell unleash a flying brick wall of sound that captivates your full attention.
The current line up has been together since December 2021. Since then they have performed at some great festivals in the UK, and recorded an album together for posterity, produced and mixed by vocalist and guitarist Ryan Webb.
The trio won best Hard Rock and Metal Act 2022 at the Radio Wigwam Awards in London.
Their album, Deadly Sins and Virtues was released in June 2023, and received stunning reviews in many magazines including Metal Hammer, Fireworks Rock & Metal and Power Play.
WEBB went on an 8 day tour of the UK in March 2024 with Oxford-based REVELLER. The successful tour took them up to various venues including Bannermans in Scotland, and the legendary Cart & Horses in London.
RYAN WEBB | Guitars/Vocals
Ryan, the founding member of WEBB, started out singing covers for many years in different countries. You name it, he’s sung it! From Metallica to UB40, Judas Priest to Robbie Williams, John Denver to Radiohead, Shaggy (yes, he literally sang both parts by Rik Rok and Shaggy). The list of tracks he covered was almost endless, and eventually stopped when one rather drunk customer asked why he couldn’t sing Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’! Well, for one reason he hadn’t prepared the backing track for it…there were plenty of other reasons though!
Although he had always been drawn towards heavy music, he initially wrote songs that crossed different genres. This has changed his music-style quite considerably over the years, from pop-rock, to classic rock, and he has now found the sound that has always been in his DNA, progressive metal.
Ryan spends much of his time in his own studio, always looking into new mixing techniques, new kinds of technology and checking out what other mix engineers are up to. He began mixing his own material when he realised that it was the only way to get the sound he really wanted, having tried out a couple of engineers without much success.
On lovely hot sunny days, you won’t find Ryan anywhere outside if he can help it…unless he’s performing an early slot at a festival. He prefers being in a darkened room!
LIKES : Watching films that have a proper ending, Horror films, Darkness (not the band, although they are good) The UK, Being organised, JD, Makers Mark (which he’s only just been introduced to), Guinness and Tequilla – not always at the same time though!
DISLIKES : Fake people (especially those that let you down), Dickheads (are they the same as fake people?), Waiting for anything, Being late, Buying bottles of sambucca where the pourer doesn’t work and sambucca gets spilled everywhere (such a waste!), Being bored, Bright sunlight, Untidiness.
INFLUENCES : Gojira, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, David Gilmour, to name a few!
LIVE | RECORDING | GEAR : Schecter guitars, Fractal Audio Axe FX, Line 6 Helix, Seymour Duncan pick-ups, EMG pick-ups, Fishman Fluence Modern pick-ups, Sustainiac, Ernie Ball strings, GHS Fast Fret, Sennheiser mic, Line 6 wireless guitar system, Shure PSM300 in ear monitoring system, Behringer XR18, iPad Pro, Hercules stands.
STUDIO : Pro Tools Studio, Cubase 12, Universal Audio, Genelec studio monitors, AppleMac Pro, Slate Digital, Steven Slate Drums, Beyer dynamic headphones DT770 Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio, Shure SM7, Slate VMS ONE + ML1 mic.
PLUGINS : Waves, Sound Toys, Universal Audio, McDSP, Sonnox, Fab Filter total bundle,
NIGEL POWELL | Drums
Growing up in London before moving to Oxfordshire, at school Nigel drummed in Illiterate Hands with Jonny Greenwood and recorded demos for Jonny’s other band, On A Friday. He later was the lighting designer for that same band, by this point called Radiohead, as they toured their debut album Pablo Honey. Returning to playing in 1994, this was followed by UK and French chart success as multi-instrumentalist and producer of Unbelievable Truth.
His subsequent outfit Dive Dive scored a couple of top ten UK indie chart singles, until three quarters of the band started lending their talents as part of Frank Turner And The Sleeping Souls. A busy and dizzying 14 years of international touring followed, including headline shows at the Wembley and O2 Arenas in London and performing in front of a television audience of 20 million at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, as well as recording and arranging 8 Frank Turner albums.
Throughout this he maintained a quiet solo career as The Sad Song Co. Outside of music, he’s the kind of guy to whom you can say “what was that film in, with those guys who did that complicated stuff with that thing?”
and he will instantly give you a correct reply and be able to tell you the director and cinematographer.* *the correct answer to that question was Primer (Shane Caruth, and Shane Caruth)! Nigel joined WEBB in January 2022.
LIKES : Sainsbury’s Yeast Extract, or Marmite if it’s not available, Genesis, IQ and Marillion, Star Wars (IV – VI, VIII and Rogue One), Battlestar Galactica (2004), Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 2, Hats as a hair substitute, Meritocracy, the environment.
DISLIKES : The UK Passport Office, Yes, ELP and Pendragon, Star Wars (I – III, IX), Shoe throwers, The selfish wearing a fashionable cloak of libertarianism.
INFLUENCES : Genesis & PJ Harvey’s first two albums, De Staat.
GEAR : Sabian cymbals, SJC drums, Promark sticks, Evans Drumheads.
LUCA MASSIDDA | Bass
Luca, the tallest member of the band (by about 2 feet!), hails from Sardinia, Italy. He’s been playing for 25 years and was introduced to the bass by his Dad. He feels very lucky to have grown up listening to his Dad play bass along to 70s rock and progressive music.
He’d played his beloved Fender Jazz Bass for several years, but as he wanted to switch to an active instrument with a bit more of a growl that could cut through the mix in a balanced way throughout the whole fretboard, while keeping the woody sound and playability of a Fender Jazz, he switched to a Sandberg California TM4.
What initially brought Luca to England was the curiosity of experiencing different cultures and learning the language. However, it was the British pubs, meritocracy and the famous full English breakfast that convinced Luca to stay!
Luca played bass for WEBB as a session musician for almost a year until becoming a permanent member in March 2022. Luca also performs with Toology, a Tool tribute band, and has performed with Sir Walter J. Wallis. Previously he played bass for local bands in Italy. He is a self-taught bassist.
LIKES : Road trips – until reaching the M25, A cold beer and a cigarette at the beach, Black pudding, Fonts, The smell of sharpies, David Attenborough, Jaffa cakes, British humour, The Matrix.
DISLIKES : Overcooked pasta, Being hungover, Bad manners, Mosquitoes, Wasting food (unless it’s overcooked pasta), Traffic jams when going to a gig, Waking up on a deflated air mattress, Reality TV, Empty coffee jars.
INFLUENCES : Roberto Massidda (his Dad), John Paul Jones, Cliff Burton, Justin Chancellor, Flea, Juan Alderete.
GEAR : Sandberg bass, Boss, MXR, Tech 21, Pro Co and Digitech, Gallien-Krueger, Orange and Ampeg.