Dedication, hard work and resilience make the backbone of October Drift. Through a turbulent world of personal upheavals, a global pandemic, alongside social and political unrest, the highly acclaimed indie rock four piece from South West England head towards their third album Blame The Young on September 27th via Physical Education Recordings with a new refreshed view of clarity and experience inspiring their most powerful and personal record yet.
Kiran Roy (vocals/guitar), Alex Bispham (bass), Chris Holmes (drums/vocals) and Dan Young (guitar) retreated to the Somerset Levels for the recording of Blame The Young, a serene location of seemingly endless space perfect for reflection on the time past from their highly praised album I Don’t Belong Anywhere in 2022.
“I Don’t Belong Anywhere was a difficult record to make,” Kiran says, “We wrote and recorded it ourselves during the lockdown in our studio and it has that claustrophobic and isolated feel to it. We also felt some pressure to get the thing written and to live up to the first. This third album I think has felt easier and more fun to make. It was great to be in a different environment and I think you can hear that it was a lighter experience making this record.”
Continuing about the band he says, “A lot has changed amongst us since the last album. I think we’ve all had to have grown as people and we’ve all made changes in our lives. There’s a sense of a journey, even pilgrimage, in this new album. I say pilgrimage because there is an almost spiritual element - it's sometimes hard to explain why we write songs and what it means for people to hear them and to play them live and have people sing them back. This album is an escape for us and a route out of the regular.”
The album title is formed from the visceral lead single and album opener of the same name, a track about standing up against denial, be that on a personal level or seen in the wider spectrum of society.
“It has a youthful defiance,” says Kiran, “we’ve been making music together since we were teenagers and this record feels like the amalgamation of all that time and shared experience growing up together.”
‘Blame The Young’ is followed by recent single ‘Demons’, “a soaring anthem" as described by Chris Hawkins on BB6 Music. The lyric "Lay all your demons down on me" perfectly sums up the essence ‘Demons’. It underscores the song's message of solidarity and mutual support, emphasising the strength found in unity even when both individuals feel incomplete. Set in their energetic alt-rock/shoegaze wall of sound, it’s an anthem of togetherness.
“It’s about being there for someone,” Kiran explains, “Getting everything off your chest. It's about protection - “your castle is my ribcage, your gates are my teeth”. It’s being a sounding board, being a punch bag even. It’s about finding solace in another person, and maybe both feeling incomplete or having things weighing them down but being stronger together - “rest in my ruin” / “rest in your ruin”, “sleep on a piece of broken heart”. Life has its challenges, and it throws you punches. The loss of the candyfloss optimism of youth - it dissolves as soon as it touches the tongue.”
Mournful riffs and solemn vocals in a similar realm to Pixies open ‘Nothing Makes Me Feel (The Way You Do)’, another example of the contrasting dark tones of the record among optimistic songwriting.
“This song has a subtle dark comedy to it. Kind of tongue in cheek. It's like an anti-love song - relationships are complicated and sometimes there isn't the vocabulary to describe emotions - “nothing makes me feel the way you do”. Those feelings that are difficult to put your finger on - it could be a mixture of emotions at once.
“I guess it's about a falling out and how people can be harshest to those they love the most, it also has the desire to work things out and turns the meaning of “nothing makes feel the way you do” from negative to positive at the end. There’s a feeling of coming out the other side by the end of the song, and perhaps strengthening and growing because of it - I think that growth and coming out the other side of something is a theme throughout the album.”
‘Wallflower’ (written during the pandemic about passive observation) and ‘Borderline’ find the band looking back furthest on this record. The latter was originally recorded with Justin Lockey of Editors for October Drift’s widely praised 2020 debut Forever Whatever, yet it now rightfully finds its place four years later on Blame The Young with a message that seamlessly fits into the new record, “There's an element in the verses of feeling sorry for yourself, feeling like you've lost momentum or energy for what you're doing and you're looking to others to reignite something within yourself too, again about connection and strength in unity with an underlying message of we’re still one, and stronger together.”
Meanwhile, ‘Don’t Care’ is rife in angst and punk rock energy fuelled by the stifling effects of modern everyday struggles. “This is about being worn, overtired, overwhelmed. It’s the painting of an overcrowded urban landscape and having both anxiety and dissociation with the surroundings. It’s about long journeys, long days waiting around, feeling separate from everyone else who seem to be keeping everything together, keeping everything turning.”
The track plays as a lyrical warning to the following ‘Everybody Breaks’ a devastatingly huge anthem made for singalong unity influenced by the poem Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith. “The poem is about being misunderstood and the contrast of inner feelings and outward expression. It's about a cry for help, which is totally misinterpreted, it highlights the importance of checking in on friends and family. The song also has this nothing left to lose attitude - just dance all night, just lose a fight. It’s at the rock bottom of the album, in terms of the journey - seeing no purpose in anything. And in terms of the theme of balance, it's totally gone - too far out, and floating still.”
Mixing refreshing dark humour with soaring alt rock energy, ‘Tyrannosaurus Wreck’ reflects the challenges of relationships in the unstable world of music. “It’s about a relationship breakdown and the balance of life within this band and life outside of it. It’s like saying I'm a huge fucking disaster. It’s kind of silly, it has a tragic sort of self-awareness, making light of quite heavy themes.”
What’s clear on Blame The Young is that striving for emotional and personal stability is a key for October Drift. The punchy Mogwai-esque drone of ‘Hollow’ captures finding balance, while the dreamy ‘Heal’ is about breaking our negative habits, not putting ourselves down or holding back, while also analysing the way systems and social structures can keep people down too.
“It’s better to be bold and true to yourself and part of that fight, then to be held back and scared,” says Kiran. “Don’t allow the darkness and negativity in the world and in life control or rule or get the better of you. It feels ceremonious to me, a mantra for the modern day. A light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t make the darkness disappear - but we’re on the same side and together we can guide ourselves through whatever life throws our way.”
The album is brought to a symphonic end with ‘Not Running Anymore’, a beautiful fitting closer to the moving record and a bright beacon for optimistic content. The closing track brings the album round full circle, from facing denial in ‘Blame The Young’ to the acceptance found here in ‘Not Running Anymore’.
“It’s about finding yourself, being true to yourself and others.” Kiran says about the single. “In a world where we are increasingly made to believe we are all divided and everything is broken, the final refrain of 'you're not alone' reminds us we are all part of something greater. We can all move beyond blame and take responsibility for ourselves and help others.”
With two widely acclaimed albums behind them (supported by the likes of The Observer, Daily Star, Kerrang, Classic Rock, Rolling Stone and more), a slew of radio hits in the UK, Europe and US, and a fervent live following with multiple sold out shows across the UK and Europe (with their largest forthcoming on November 5th at London’s Scala) alongside gracing their arena stages this year as they stepped up to support Archive across Europe, the band come armed with the songs and experience ready to take 2024 by storm.
