London’s Bleach Lab dive into their hauntingly stunning, nostalgic, and brutally uncooked third EP ‘If You Solely Really feel It As soon as,’ a seductive dream pop reverie diving into themes of connection, belonging, and the sensation of “residence.”
Stream: “If You Solely Really feel It ” – Bleach Lab
Fragile lives and fragile minds, when nothing appears to work then it will possibly really feel prefer it’s not price it…
For so many people, “residence” is an ephemeral, ethereal idea: It’s one thing we’re looking for and striving in direction of, however we don’t know what it appears like, and we don’t know when or the place we’ll discover it. We’re every on this particular person journey for residence, and but this endeavor is commonly isolating and insulating; for probably the most half we’re alone in our looking, preserving our feelings to ourselves regardless of how usually we’d really feel that craving in our intestine.
That’s why Bleach Lab’s third EP is so rattling particular. An achingly heat and wistful dream pop expertise, If You Solely Really feel It As soon as is a comforting, cathartic reminder that we’re all in search of the identical basic items in life: A way of function, connection, understanding, and a spot to name residence.
You’ve been spending all of your time
Discovering someplace that seems like residence
And also you marvel why you may’t
Shake the concern of being alone
And the storm, it guides you again into the darkish
For those who solely it really feel it as soon as
Is it sufficient?
Hauntingly stunning and brutally uncooked, If You Solely Really feel It As soon as is an impressive triumph for South London’s Bleach Lab.
A longtime Atwood Journal artist-to-watch, three-time Editor’s Choose, and one in all our Prime Artist Discoveries of 2021, Bleach Lab have emerged over the previous few years as one of many UK’s most fun acts, with a heavy, lush shoegaze-y sound and soul-stirring lyrics filled with depth, unfiltered emotion, and substance.
“Refined nuance marries impassioned different sounds and pop songwriting throughout Bleach Lab’s releases, every of which deserves our undivided time and a focus,” we wrote early final yr, hailing them as “a ray of breathtaking musical introspection, heart-on-sleeve expression, and sheer vulnerability.” Bleach Lab combine intense emotion with fragility – their artwork is the musical equal of a phenomenal flower that’s right here as we speak, and gone tomorrow. Besides that we get to cherish these songs endlessly.
Bleach Lab fashioned in late 2018 and have been shortly charting their very own course on this planet, releasing two EPs in 2021 alone. Their superbly tranquilizing music reached its first fever pitch in March 2021’s debut EP A Calm Sense of Surrounding, and its second with final October’s intimate and enchanting sophomore EP Nothing Feels Actual. Because of the stunningly expressive work of vocalist Jenna Kyle, drummer Shawn Courtney, bassist Josh Longman, and guitarist Frank Wates, Bleach Lab have discovered their area of interest in a glistening meeting of candy, seductive, and singular sound. Suppose Mazzy Star meets Daughter, The Smiths, and The 1975.
Earlier than we bounce proper in
Can we return to the start
Our eyes throughout the room
Do you know that we share the identical moon?
You’re the one one which I see
Once I’m awake and in my goals
Can I alter my handle to your house
If all I see is your face
For those who’re labored up, in a state
I may very well be your secure place
– “I May Be Your Protected Place,” Bleach Lab
The band’s third EP is their most “Bleach Lab” effort so far, if that had been even doable. They themselves describe it as “nostalgic, introspective, and expansive.”
“The tracks from this EP had been written over fairly a big time period,” Bleach Lab’s Jenna Kyle tells Atwood Journal. “For instance, ‘Clearly’ was written again in early 2021, whereas ‘Take It Gradual’ was solely finalized as a music within the weeks previous to recording it in April 2022. Like a lot of our earlier releases, the themes nonetheless retain round exploring relationships, discovering truths about who we’re as people. Studying to be alone and making an attempt to be safe in it. The overarching theme of the EP we determined was the nostalgic feeling of ‘residence’. I (Jenna) was extraordinarily fortunate in that I had a beautiful upbringing and a transparent imaginative and prescient and feeling of what house is to me. Rising up, shifting out and discovering our place in our personal small nook of the world could be overwhelming to say the least. I personally have been on a relentless seek for that nostalgic feeling of ‘residence’, each as an emotional and bodily factor. Trying to find it in different folks and locations and making an attempt to be it for others. Therefore the lyric, ‘For those who solely really feel it as soon as, is it sufficient’, ‘it’ being that feeling of safety that you just may discover at residence.”
“We determined that we needed to discover some poppier components inside our songs, so we established that because the framework for all of the writing and recording choices,” Kyle says of the band’s imaginative and prescient. “Greater drums, widescreen guitars and manufacturing, all issues we needed to maintain entrance and heart. We selected to work with Duncan Mills (producer, mixer) as a result of he understood this proper from the beginning of our conversations collectively. This path remained constant all through the recording course of.”
If You Solely Really feel It As soon as is a definitive evolution for Bleach Lab and a marker ahead of their creative journey.
“It has a lot poppier components, most notably on ‘I Can Be Your Protected Place’ and ‘Take It Gradual,’ Kyle displays, “however we’ve nonetheless stored touches of our outdated releases – ‘Pale Shade of Blue’ most likely being probably the most comparable sonically to our earlier work. We’re nonetheless at a reasonably explorative stage of our profession. So, we aren’t involved a lot with what seems like a pure continuation, as we’re with totally fleshing out how we wish to be perceived as a band.”
Conclusively, “it’s a report that exhibits we’ve come a good distance as a band since our final launch. We really feel it exhibits that we aren’t afraid to maneuver away from our extra intimate, smooth moments which are current on our earlier releases, as a substitute exploring an even bigger and fuller sound. It’s additionally proven our ambition much more. For instance, our video for ‘If You Solely Really feel It As soon as’ was thought of too exhausting to tug off once we had been initially conceiving it, however we persevered and we’re so pleased with the way it all got here collectively.”
‘If You Solely Really feel It As soon as’ is each the identify of and a lyric from one of many EP tracks. As we felt {that a} majority of the tracks touched on themes of feeling at residence, discovering residence, looking for that feeling – the title questions whether or not, you probably have been fortunate sufficient to have solely felt it that after (that feeling), is it sufficient?
Bleach Lab first teased their new music in late July with “Take It Gradual,” a wealthy and dreamy music “about discovering your approach and never eager to rush via life with out taking time to understand the view,” per Kyle. “There isn’t any choice to rewind, neglect in regards to the belongings you left behind,” she sings sweetly towards a gently bustling, enchanting, and ethereal soundscape. “You don’t should make all of it make sense. Emotions of remorse and bitterness, there’s no want for holding on to that.”
We’re shifting too quick take it gradual, you’ve been
Attempting to suit the house of a form that you just don’t know
You’re at all times trying forward, as a substitute of
Respiratory it in and letting go
“It is rather a lot about being and residing within the second, being current and making an attempt to let go of anxieties of on a regular basis life while making an attempt to view issues extra positively,” Kyle provides.
The band adopted “Take It Gradual” with August’s resilient, resounding, and refreshingly hard-hitting “Clearly,” a candy upheaval replete with an immediately memorable, cathartic refrain and stirring shoegaze-y guitars that seize, of their reverb-drenched vibrations, an unimaginable quantity of dashed hopes and phrases unsaid. Kyle calls it “a candid reflection on the aftermath of an sudden breakup and the inevitable cycle of blame and misdirected emotion that follows.”
For those who suppose it isn’t about him, nicely it’s
What you gunna do about it?
And when you suppose that you just had been the primary
You had been most likely third or fourth of fifth
What you gunna do about it?
If it retains you up
For those who query it
Does he nonetheless love her?
Clearly, clearly, apparent…
These two songs had been not too long ago joined by the EP’s title monitor “If You Solely Really feel It As soon as,” which the band record, with nice problem, as their favourite of this new batch of songs.
“We at all times wrestle to return to a consensus on this,” she admits, “however I feel all of us love the title monitor ‘If You Solely Really feel It As soon as.’ There’s a cause we couldn’t assist however begin to play it lengthy earlier than we’d even recorded it, not to mention launch it. It featured on all our UK tour exhibits initially of this yr.”
That music additionally accommodates Kyle’s a few of favourite lyrics. “The lyrics of the second verse as an entire are an actual favourite and mirror the best way I really feel life appears to be shifting so quick however on the identical time feels steady and by no means ending, with that constant and impending feeling of working out of time. It truly is bizarrely stunning and relentless on the identical time. ‘Nothing ever appears to final, the times go by they usually’re coming quick. You possibly can really feel your self working out of time. The street will get longer forward, I don’t suppose that there’s a end line.’“
You’ve been spending all of your time
Discovering someplace that seems like residence
And also you marvel why you may’t
Shake the concern of being alone
And the storms, they information you again into the darkish
For those who solely it really feel it as soon as
Is it sufficient?
Bleach Lab have outdone themselves on what’s undoubtedly their best work but.
Greater and bolder than its predecessors but simply as intimate and intense, If You Solely Really feel It As soon as aches with catchy, immersive melodies, smoldering instrumental work, radiant, finessed manufacturing, and seductive contemplations on the large questions that each one too usually maintain us up at evening. And but, of their unapologetic seek for belonging, Bleach Lab have created one thing that itself makes us really feel at residence: If You Solely Really feel It As soon as is, in some methods, a solution to its personal questions.
“We at all times say that we hope listeners of our tracks really feel understood,” Kyle shares. “There’s nothing like if you hear a music and relate to the lyrics with out having to say the phrases your self, we wish to create that feeling of relatability for our listeners.”
This set of songs is a convincing achievement, and yet one more notch within the belt for one in all Britain’s greatest and brightest skills. Put together to cry, groove, dance, snigger, smile, and sing your coronary heart out. Expertise the total report by way of our under stream, and peek inside Bleach Lab’s If You Solely Really feel It As soon as with Atwood Journal because the band goes track-by-track via the music and lyrics of their third EP!
If You Solely Really feel It As soon as is out now by way of Nettwerk Music Group!
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‘If You Solely Really feel It As soon as’ – Bleach Lab
:: Inside If You Solely Really feel It As soon as ::
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If You Solely Really feel It As soon as
The lyrics cowl a variety of themes of discovering a house, feeling secure, discovering your approach in life and feeling such as you’re working out of or losing your time on the mistaken issues or folks. It’s an inside dialogue with your self, and for my part ‘it’ is subjective and will imply quite a lot of issues relying on the listener. Nevertheless, to me, ‘it’ is referring to ‘residence’ i.e. when you solely really feel residence as soon as.
Take It Gradual
“Take It Gradual” can be about discovering your approach and never eager to rush via life with out taking time to understand the view. ‘Attempting to suit the house of a form that you just don’t know’ refers to not getting caught as somebody that you just don’t acknowledge by shedding sight of your self. It is rather a lot about being and residing within the second, being current and making an attempt to let go of anxieties of on a regular basis life while making an attempt to view issues extra positively.
Clearly
This monitor addresses the particular person your accomplice has left you for, you’re bitter, damage and rightly or wrongly directing your aggression in direction of them as a substitute. Nevertheless, within the refrain, it’s a little bit of a dialog with your self, self-reflection and realization that it doesn’t actually matter what you say or do, he nonetheless loves them both approach and its most likely greatest left.
Pale Shade of Blue
“Pale Shade of Blue” is about lastly coming to the belief that you just’re a lot better off with out somebody specifically in your life. You wish to take again the whole lot you stated and gave to them, and all of the issues that you just shared collectively to interchange them with good, optimistic ideas and new recollections.
I May Be Your Protected Place
This monitor is primarily about lastly colliding with somebody you’ve been romanticizing for a very long time. Not eager to rush into issues too shortly, however on the identical time the whole lot appears to suit and also you wish to be that secure and safe place for them.
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