Vocalist Benji Yapp explains of the title: “We felt it was relevant – it relates to the hard times in life that everyone goes through, where it just seems to be one bad thing after another.” But You Know The Drill aren’t all doom and gloom, the band – completed by Damo Darby on Bass, Brad Potter on Drums and guitarists Jim McCormack & Luke Astley – have a simple mantra: “if it isn’t fun then what’s the point?”. The EP is batting for the rafters, with their energy laden guitar and drum attack and vocal hooks left, right and centre, on their big-room-ready choruses. Ahead of the EP’s release in a month’s time, the band give you an idea of what to expect, track by track…
Track 1: Peer Pressure – When we were writing “Peer Pressure” we knew from the start that it would be the EP opener: it’s fast, hard hitting and has arguably the biggest chorus on the EP. It’s conception came from a drum track that Brad had written, which was the first verse and chorus, then we wrote everything else around that section. Lyrically it’s about that point in life where you completely finish education and the whole world is asking you “So what’re you going to do now?”, as well as the pressures that are put upon you to ‘do well’.
Maybe I’m not meant for a life of purpose, just an empty shell cracked on the surface.
Track 2: Less Than You – “Less Than You” is the first song we wrote for this record and throughout it all we were certain it was lead single material. It opens with this short snare roll and then goes into this mish mash of drum fills and messy guitars before properly starting, which we’ve always thought was such a cool way to open the song. “Less Than You” continues the theme of feeling lost in life and looking at how everyone else around you seems to be doing better and progressing, and just trying to come to terms with that. The track name comes from a lyric in the song that ultimately got cut, “I’m not less than you”.
Track 3: Heads Up – Around 80% of the time spent at our writing sessions involves each member just kind of noodling away on their designated instrument until someone comes up with something cool, which is exactly what happened with “Heads Up”. Jim found a guitar riff and within 10 minutes we were all jamming the intro to the song. A stand out moment in this track is the second pre-chorus, where it comes out of the loud stabby verse into this short gentle section featuring a drum machine, acoustic guitar and even a piano; The lyrics sung over this part are “I let my demons inside” which sort of flips this section upside down to create a cool, sort of juxtaposition.
Track 4: 411 – “411” is our mid-tempo song on the record, written with the intention to get people jumping on their feet, although the song hadn’t always been this way. In it’s younger days 411 had much more of an up tempo, “Easy Core” vibe, but it never properly found it’s feet, so from suggestion of Drew and Alex we slowed the track down and gave it a makeover to become what it is today.
Track 5: Repose – “Repose” is the song that we consider our secret weapon, having never played it before and it’s completely different tone to the rest of the record. Repose definitely has the most variation in terms of dynamic range, opening with a lone, ghostly guitar that slowly get’s built upon until the track explodes into this fast wall of sound. Vocally, it was the last song Benji recorded and all the vocals were done in a day so his voice had developed a real gritty tone which definitely added to this song and it’s darker feel. Lyrically it’s based around the death of someone close to you and having to enter every new year without them there with you.
Having “Repose” as the closer works as the perfect book end as there’s a lyric in “Peer Pressure” which goes, “It comes to something when home is the coldest place I’ve felt in such a long time” and Repose then mirrors that by saying “It’s so cold in this house” as the last lyric of the song.
Losing Streak is out on October 28th – pre-order through Scylla Records.
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