Start Listening To: Bleach Lab

We spoke with Bleach Lab about the frustrations of not being able to tour and how their recently released debut EP A Calm Sense of Surrounding helped them overcome personal grief.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from, and a little bit about the music that you make?

We are a four-piece indie/dream-pop guitar band based in and around South London. We like to write music that'll either make you wanna' go back to your ex, or do a full 180° and run a mile in the other direction. We're heavily lead by glittery, atmospheric guitar and ethereal vocals. 

What is your song writing process like?

Funnily enough, given our general whereabouts and the fact we don't all live close by, our writing process hasn’t been complimented hugely by the lockdown restrictions. We have often had to write separately from each other and bring it all together when we get in a room together. For most of our tracks, we each have our own input and contribution. Everything is split pretty equally. 

How did you produce A Calm Sense of Surrounding?

The songs were written over a long time. Flood was the first song we wrote (in 2017) whilst Scars wasn't finished when we started recording it. For our first few singles we had worked with our friend Max Mannone, who mastered our songs. For the EP, we decided we wanted to get him more involved. He ended up engineering, producing and mixing the whole EP. We owe a lot to him. Because of lockdown, there were a lot of delays so recording took a long time and was very spread out. It probably meant we spent a lot longer reflecting on things as we went.

Can you describe some of the themes behind this EP?

As we began putting the tracks together in the earlier stages of the EP, we started to notice a correlation between the songs and the fact that they seemed to follow quite coincidentally the 'five stages of grief'. Essentially each track explores themes from the individual stages of grief, as well as a lot of other explorations of processing ends of relationships to the loss of close family members. Something we also noticed later on was that water seemed to make quite a regular appearance throughout a lot of the tracks. This was definitely not intentional, however looking back it does seem like the idea that bodies of water can be both all-encompassing, relentless and overpowering one moment, and incredibly serene and tranquil in the next. 

There’s a cathartic nature to your EP. Was that your intention when you were writing it?

Our general sort of approach to writing is with the intention to explore emotions, process them and use it as a sort of therapy in itself. Josh and I (Jenna) contribute quite equally to a lot of the lyric writing. He and I both get a lot out of putting everything that floats around our heads, down on paper and I think you can learn a lot about yourself from doing that. For us it's been really helpful to release a lot of the things we were keeping inside, and we do kind of hope that it might be helpful to someone who is also trying to figure something out about themselves. 

We love the last track on your EP Scars. Can you tell us more about the lyrics in this track?

Scars was based around the death of Josh's father and explains the dealing of acceptance. This was a very hard track for him to write lyrically as it's very raw and something he had not previously spoken openly with the band and only came to terms in recent years with acceptance of everything that happened. It is a fitting end track with the meaning of acceptance and the last stage of grief which has been a common theme. 

What are some challenges you’ve faced as a band?

Distance is one challenge. We are quite rarely all in the same place at the same time, but we do manage to work it out. Also of course the last year has been incredibly challenging. Not being able to get in a studio together to practice as much as we would like to, also having to record and release the EP throughout the various different lockdown restrictions has brought forward all kinds of different hurdles. 

Which artists have influenced you the most?

We have quite a mixed bag when it comes to our various different influences as a collective. Jenna listens to a lot of solo, indie-folk artists like Sharon Van Etten and Julia Jacklin whereas Frank listens to a lot of guitar music (obviously) like Cocteau Twins and The Durutti Column but also by contrast quite a lot of pop, which has influenced our songwriting a surprising amount. 

What do you hate right now? 

Not being able to play live. Not being able to have a pint pulled from a real-life keg. The uncertainty and the not knowing. 

What do you love right now?

Planning and preparing for our very hopeful live shows. Looking forward to seeing friends and family and being able to gain some level of normality and practicing together as a band again. 

What are some of your favourite memories playing together?

... that one time where... oh yeah no there was only one time… now you see why we are so desperate to get back on stage!