A HUSBAND and wife duo who quit their jobs to pursue a career in music have become the first blues band to win four awards in a year.

Aaron and Grace Bond, of Brightlingsea, have been performing together in rock and blues group When Rivers Meet for more than 10 years.

For a while, they had balanced their love of music with full-time jobs, which meant they could only do gigs at the weekend and were unable to travel further afield.

Four years ago, however, the couple took a leap of faith, boldly deciding to give up their mundane jobs in favour of following their dreams.

“It kind of felt like the only option because we knew we wanted to pursue music but it was difficult to fit everything in,” added singer Grace.

“It was a kind of do or die, burn your boats situation whether we went for it or we didn’t, but it felt like a no brainer.

“We bought an old VW camper van and thought by converting it ourselves and travelling around would make it more viable.”

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Aaron and Grace, who have been married since 2015, compose all of their raw and rocking songs together and thrive off of each other’s energy onstage.

Working around both their writing relationship and their domestic one, however, was not initially as easy as they first thought it would be.

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Aaron added: “For us we work really well being together a lot of the time, but we know it wouldn't work for everybody.

“It did take us a little time to work out how to write together and there were a lot of arguments initially.

“But as soon as we worked out a system which is pretty much write our own parts separately and then come together and thrash out the song.

“But we both have the same vision and we both love the same style of music, which makes it a lot easier.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, the musicians’ ability to hop in their beloved camper and travel to wherever their music takes them has been put on hold.

Nonetheless, their compositions have continued to resonate and strike a chord, which has just resulted in them winning four UK Blue Awards.

The success makes them the first band to win four of the accolades in the same year and they also scooped Planet Rock’s Best New Band at The Rocks Awards.

“We are totally blow away, because when lockdown struck we started streaming live gigs on Facebook and it changed everything,” added Grace.

“We have now been streaming live every Saturday for over a year and had over a million views - our fan base has grown so much it’s been a very surreal time.”

When Rivers Meet are currently working on their new album, which they say will be filled with classic rock inspired bangers.

To find out more visit facebook.com/whenriversmeet.