Start Listening To: since torino
Sheffield trio since torino craft lo-fi, folky emo steeped in atmosphere, introspection, and the intimacy of DIY recording.
Blending the warmth of midwest emo with the raw edges of lo-fi folk, since torino are carving out a quietly distinctive corner of the Sheffield scene. Made up of Ben, Luke, and Alex, the trio self-record and self-produce their songs, balancing tenderness with layered arrangements that nod to bands like Silver Jews, Pinegrove, and Slaughter Beach, Dog. Their new EP reunion dinner expands that vision, shaped by field recordings, friends-turned-collaborators, and a commitment to atmosphere over flash. We spoke with the band about their writing process, the influence of Sheffield’s DIY community, and why chasing feeling matters more than chasing hooks.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
We’re called since torino, we’re a folky, midwest-emo-y rock band from Sheffield, with Luke on bass, Ben on guitar and singing and Alex on drums. We self-record and self-produce all of our stuff (as of this EP, the super talented Evan J Martin produced our debut), with Alex also doing the mixing and mastering. Our music is a bit lofi, but also a bit ornate sometimes, drawing on bands like Silver Jews, The National, American Football, Slaughter Beach, Dog and Pinegrove.
What themes or stories inspired the tracks on your upcoming EP, and how do they reflect your journey as a band so far?
Ben: A lot of the imagery in the first part of the song reunion dinner is inspired by a book I was reading nearly a year ago, Killing Commendatore by Murakami.
In the early part of it the protagonist moves into this abandoned house that used to be owned by a famous painter, and he turns all of the pictures on the wall around to stop them looking at him, or something like that - I can’t remember exactly. There’s this other part, too, where he’s standing on the top of a mountain and can see someone on top of another mountain through this fog looking at him. That whole thing is what I see and feel whenever I hear that song now or think about the words.
Can you share any memorable moments or experiences from the recording process of your latest EP that really shaped its sound?
Luke: We do practically all of our recording in-house, so one unintentional benefit of that is having a lot more snippets of additional vocals or even just “sounds” that are left over from either side of vocal or instrument takes, many of which would be weird to deliberately record, but sound really nice included in the final mixes.
How do you approach songwriting as a band, and do you each bring different influences or perspectives to the creative process?
Alex: Ben is almost always the “initial” songwriter, with the three of us collaborating to transform an acoustic demo or early riff into a full song. We definitely push and pull with our own personal influences and perspectives, but we’re usually pretty aligned on what we think works well for a song.
Luke: A lot of the time we’re also sharing examples of other approaches that we’ve heard which are super interesting because they’re a bit off-kilter either production or music-wise, and we talk a lot about how we can implement these into our own music later on down the line. We have a massive spreadsheet with endless references from all sorts of genres.
What role does the Sheffield DIY scene play in your music, and how does it influence your identity as a band?
Ben: I think it’s made us embrace the twinkly emo side of our sound a lot more. There are a lot of bands here like Jumper Boy and Pale Sailor doing that really well and it made us want to do it too. It also probably made us play louder and more energetic stuff, compared to our early early songs at least, because we were always the “quiet” band on a bill and we didn’t want that to always be listeners’ main takeaway.
Eamonn from Pale Sailor played guitar with us at our headliner and wrote some of the guitar parts on the first two songs on the EP, so that’s definitely a direct influence on the direction taken by those songs as well.
Are there specific venues or festivals you dream of playing?
Ben: In terms of realistic stuff, I’d like to play Brudenell in Leeds and The George Tavern in London. If the stars really align, I’d love to open for Slaughter Beach, Dog when they next tour the UK. They’re like my favourite band ever and when they come around this way they tend to play the right sized venues. If anyone reading this can make any of those things happen please hit me up.
Luke: I grew up in Norfolk so I occasionally went to gigs at the Norwich Arts Centre which is a converted church. So not only would it be amazing to play at a venue I saw some of my favourite bands at when I was younger, but it’s also just an incredibly cool looking space.
How do you connect with your local community through your music, and what initiatives or collaborations have you been involved in?
Luke: Last year we were involved in an all-dayer put organised by our friends in Pale Sailor, which was really fun to be a part of. Not least because the event was great, but it was a really nice opportunity to be involved in the wider UK emo scene and meet new people.
What has been the most surprising or rewarding feedback you’ve received from fans about your music so far?
Ben: We played a show a little while ago at Rough Trade in Liverpool, a city we’d never played before, and got an amazing reception, at the time probably the best we’d ever had. After the show someone came up to us and said they’d listened to one of our super early songs (one that we thought literally no one had listened to) every day for six months or something crazy like that, and that it had helped them in a weird time abroad or something to that effect. That was pretty cool and surreal, especially pretty far from our usual crowd.
Can you describe the evolution of your sound from your debut EP to your upcoming release, and what prompted those changes?
Ben: This one is definitely a lot “bandier” and more layered. Basically I think we just got better at playing as a band and wrote songs that felt more alive. The first EP definitely has a lot of bits that are very sparse and Elliott Smith-inspired, like just one acoustic guitar and some rickety drums and stuff, whereas on this one even the more pared down tracks definitely have a lot more dynamism built in. That’s maybe a function of bringing everything in house, in terms of recording and mixing, it allowed us to really dig deep into the intricacies of the songs without worrying about spending a load of money or annoying anyone with a million mix revisions.
Alex: I think it also took us a fair amount of time to find a way to increase the intensity of the songs without detracting too much from the softness that is pretty intrinsic to the band’s identity. Past attempts have fallen a bit flat, but working on this EP felt like we’d finally successfully branched out of that very “mellow” sound that folks may expect from us.
Can you share the story behind the title reunion dinner and what it signifies for the band and your music?
Ben: A little over a year ago, my aunt came over from Australia. I’ve probably met her twice ever, and I wrote something down about that. Then when I had the melody idea that became reunion dinner I’ll have been flipping through all my notes, seen that and kind of half fictionalised it and put it into the lyrics. It also kind of works nicely as a title because the songs always tend to have a lot of characters in them, and the idea of all of them being at a reunion felt like it worked.
Alex: Visually and compositionally, I see it as a kind of “reunion” or gathering of friends and collaborators also. There’s a bunch of friends featured as additional musicians on the title track, there were friends responsible for creating the artwork, and the field recordings which underpin the whole EP as a sort of ambient scene-setter are from an actual “reunion dinner” I had this year at my best friend’s wedding.
What do you love right now?
Ben: Chess, a blue sky in autumn, Race Across the World.
Alex: J-horror, Madonna, aperol spritz.
Luke: Stardew Valley, Falafel King
What do you hate right now?
Ben: The smell of Quavers.
Alex: Landlords
Luke: East Midlands Railway.
Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?
Ben: Probably something my dad would play in the car, Automatic For The People by REM or Change Everything by Del Amitri. I still listen to both of those bands a lot, and I think I definitely absorbed and connected to the whole mope-rock thing.
Alex: Reverie Lagoon by Seahaven revolutionised my concept of how a “band” could sound when I was a teenager. The atmosphere and aesthetic of that album is a constant source of inspiration to me. Also - boring answer but American Football’s first LP is the blueprint of my interest in drums.
Luke: I always go back to You’re Always On My Mind by A Great Big Pile Of Leaves when the weather starts to get warmer. It came out during my first summer after finishing high school and perfectly encapsulates that feeling of being free and just having fun.
When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?
Alex: I think it’s safe to say that our focus as a band is far more about atmosphere and feeling than it is about writing hooks or doing anything flashy or technical. My intention has always been that listening to a song feels emotive and melancholic - maybe even nostalgic. I’m also quite conscious of stagnating in a certain sound, so each time we’re writing or producing we’re always trying to push the boundaries of how we “should” be approaching something.
Luke: In terms of us three as musicians, we’re all very interested in something that forces us into giving a reaction, whether that’s positive or negative. Obviously it would be great if people liked our music, but so long as people have a real opinion on it, that means that an approach we’ve taken has made them think critically and engage with what we’re trying to do.
Ben: Hopefully they think the words are good and the music is interesting.
