Damn, we’re SO glad that we’re seeing the back of 2020. Even though necessarily not a lot will change in the first few months of 2021, I think it’s wonderful that people see the New Year as the start of change. Whether it’s in attitude, health, creativity or anything really, it’s nice we actually have something to look forward to in a time of so many negatives.
Photo by Chloe Davies
We started 2020 off with a lovely big bang. We had our first mini tour playing with bands like Moonrunners, Fake Lips, Primal, Vindicter, Mason Hill and all the amazing bands at Rockmantic. We’d started writing our first EP with plans in the works to get it released by the end of the year and recorded our 4th single Pebbles with huge plans for the music video. About a week after Ryan, Sass and I (Georgy) relocating and moving into a house together in the North East, the whole of the UK was put into lockdown.
We were lucky enough that we’d managed to move in together just before as if we hadn’t I
think our year would have been very different. The only huge downside was that our beloved Jack hadn’t moved in with us, which meant we didn’t get to witness his wonderful Salford presence in a good 3 months 😭
Instead, we had very frequent FaceTime calls and managed to squeeze in a full band livestream which was extremely stressful and GOD it made us all miss playing live even more!
However, throughout the first lockdown we managed to create everything, film, direct and edit the whole of the music video for Pebbles in our front room. I’m still so ridiculously proud of what we did. From spending weeks painting and cutting out clouds, stars and confetti, to countless days spent sitting on the sofa editing it like crazy. You can watch it here.
Throughout summer I think most of us welcomed a little bit of normality back in to our lives. We went on so many walks, river swims, charity shop trips and had so many barbecues out in the garden with friends. We were really lucky with the house we moved in to having such a bloody excellent garden with an old outhouse 😂 Plus, Sass’ barbecuing skills are very special. We even tried barbecuing lettuce one day…
Over Autumn we were getting closer and closer to finishing writing the EP. Because we’re in the North East but Jack was still in Manchester, we’d meet half way in Leeds and practice at Pirate Studios for hours and hours. Ryan would make classic cheese, spring onion and spinach butties for us all and we’d take the coffee machine and smash it all out. It got to the point where we were the only band in the rehearsal rooms and the rest were just students booking out the rooms to have parties in - which was really fun 🙄
Watch the video below for some excellent scaring of Ryan:
As we’d had so many plans for 2020 but had to cancel pretty much all of them, our only saving grace getting us through being work minions was having the studio booked to record the EP in November. But, of course, the universe didn’t want us to do that and throughout November there was a nationwide lockdown. We couldn’t get any time off to rebook in December - retail job problems ey - so we had to settle for rebooking in January. Luckily enough in this time we were able to find the most incredible practice space/barn about 15 minutes from us up here. It’s the most INCREDIBLE space. We can’t wait to show you guys more of it because we think it’s going to become something very very special in 2021.
So, here we are. The 1st day of 2021 and unfortunately it’s looking like we’re not going to be able to get in the studio in January. We’re all absolutely busting at the seams to show everyone these songs and carry on where we left off but I guess it’s just giving us a little longer to perfect everything. We started our 2021 off with a lovely long walk in the Pennines trying to begin the year with positives and clearing our minds.
Hopefully in the next few months mr Jack Wild will move in with us and we’ll end up 4 little happy bears in a lovely big house making noise together.
We’re all absolutely praying for the creative and hospitality industries in 2021. It’s so frustrating to see so many people in dire situations. Purely manifesting positivity and change for everyone this year. It feels like there’s a huge divide between everyone at the moment and I’m hoping by the end of the year we’re treated to some more human interaction to help heal wounds.
Best wishes to you all and thank you so much to anyone that has got to the end of this ramble. Here’s to health, happiness and positivity to you and your loved ones in 2021.
Lots of love, SB x