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Hi guys, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
We have been good! Just trying to work around the lockdowns and write music as best as we can. Keeping busy!
Can you talk to us more about your latest single “444″?
444 is the latest single and first that we have released since our new line up. This track sets out to illustrate a panic attack and communicate the vibe of such an experience not just in the lyrics, but in the sound and feeling of the song. It is intense, puts you on the edge of your seat and has that vibe of intense, but strangely enjoyable angst. Heavy guitars, sections that are designed to compel you to move, a constant melodic build up to a very panicked, harrowing but hang-bang-worthy breakdown.
Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?
The inspiration came from our guitarist Marcus who had a run in with a panic attack while touring Europe. Felix is also a mental health nurse so helps a lot of people that are unfortunate enough to experience similar things often. As we say, we set out to make the song sound and feel ‘panicked’ as well as obviously screaming the word ‘PANIC’ quite a bit in the song and describing the experience in the lyrics from other people’s reports and our own experiences.
Any plans to release any sort of video for the track?
We would like to release a video for the track and will probably get round to it once we get some normality. We’ve put together ‘visualisers’ for the EP tracks to get some more video content out there but we do love a music video so that is in the pipeline soon for sure.
The single comes off your new EP Two Minds – what’s the story behind the title?
So, there’s a clear theme of mental health, the current state of the world and our observations of others in the EP lyrics. Two Minds is also a reference to a time in the band’s life where we weren’t really sure what was going on, whether we wanted to continue, or at least with how things were and whether we could achieve what we really wanted with it. This indecisiveness is really a massive reflection of how we imagine a lot of people feel right now, anyway. But we’re over the moon to have made big changes in the band and have all met each other and changed out members/taken a fresh approach and a heavier, more interesting direction. So, maybe being in two minds isn’t such a bad thing – it opens up new possibilities! Old Selves have never been stronger.
How was the recording and writing process?
The recording and writing process happened very quickly we soon worked out a really great way to communicate ideas which started with Marcus getting some ideas down passing them to Felix and then the rest of the band in practice. We recorded with Ben Stuart-Brown, an awesome producer and now a great friend. He has done all of the Old Selves stuff with us since day one. He’s such a chilled dude and we just went in and smashed out these tracks, whilst experimenting with different amps and sounds. A lot of thought went into orchestration and synth after recording and that part was really good fun as well. The vocals for a lot of the EP were actually recorded at home by Felix as lockdown and covid hit at a really awkward time during the recording process and we couldn’t go in to the studio to finish certain parts due to government restrictions. But Felix quite enjoyed recording vocals in the home environment.
What role does Yorkshire play in your music?
Not fully sure what you mean with that, really! We’re all from Yorkshire and do love it here. The music scene in various cities, especially cities like Leeds make Yorkshire a great place to be a band. Hopefully things improve very soon so we can get out supporting venues across the country ASAP.
How has Trivium and While She Sleeps influenced your writing?
Trivium and While She Sleeps have influenced us in a lot of ways, from the hard hitting down picking riffs to the catchy choruses, these bands have helped shape our sound a lot. While She Sleeps especially have developed this really special sound with their band and we have loved seeing their recent ‘Sleeps Society’ campaign with video tutorials/workshops etc. Loz from that band inspired Felix with some new vocal warm ups which he has realised recently are even more important than we first thought, especially with performing music like Old Selves do.
Where did you find the inspiration for the songs and lyrics?
Two Minds is a story about Old Selves and the minds of the people we share the world with. The sound of Two Minds has been strived to be made up of hard hitting, emotion triggering and straight up head-bang-worthy tunes that evidence the development and growing strength of this band but also the times that we all live in. We are mainly inspired by other people with these ones, as opposed to harping on about ourselves.
What else is happening next in OLD SELVES’ world?
We have a load of gigs lined up including a few festivals and a tour around the UK planned for July, we’re very excited about that. With all that going on, we are still working on our next single though and eventually an album a bit further down the line. In addition to that, we’re just spending a lot of hours hanging out in practice rooms, tweaking our set and cooking up ways to make things even spicier when live shows return and for our tour.
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