Around a year ago, I wrote very gushingly about the then-newly released eponymous track from London/Kent-based emo four-piece Wears Me Out, a song that now finds a home on the band’s wonderful debut full-length, Splenetic.
In its place on the record, “Wears Me Out,” the track bursts out of an atmospheric intro before rolling seamlessly into the heady grooves of “It Won’t Let Me Leave” to quickly highlight that this is an album with a capital A - to steal a phrase I think I read in a Pitchfork review of a Converge
record [laughs].
It’s something guitarist Matt confirms to me in our chat below, that Splenetic is best sat with and soaked in, with interludes and intermissions and an outro dedicated to the memory of a friend, tying together a set of tracks that are equally urgent and nostalgic, as wistful and despondent as they are vibrant and uplifting.
Vocalist Alfie and bassist Anja were kind enough to join Matt to talk me through it. Check out what they had to say, find yourself a bus window to stare out of, and crank it up.
After a demo and a single, you guys have jumped straight to a full-length. What made you want to go so big so soon?
(Matt, guitar): Well, we’ve actually been meeting up and working on these songs for a long time! When we released the demo, we already had a bunch more in the works, and by the time we released “Wears Me Out” in 2024, we had most of the album already written.
In fact, the ending of “Wears Me Out” is actually the first few notes of the next song on the album, so I guess it’s just because we had the songs and they naturally flowed together. It wrote itself, you could say, but I’d prefer to say that it’s just a nice way to put a bow around, and show off what we’ve been working on for the last few years!
What was the process like for writing the record?
(Matt): One of the things I personally enjoyed most about us creating this album is that the process was very organic! It was almost entirely put together in person in the practice room!
Obviously, we’d each come with some ideas we had thought up beforehand, but none of those became ‘songs’ until we had tried them in the flesh - to really see if they had the right impact and energy we were hoping for! And that made it such a fun and rewarding process!
Was there anything you felt you could specifically explore with the longer format?
(Matt): I’m glad you asked this! So nowadays people kind of listen to things differently, and we all have fried attention spans (no hypocrisy, I’m literally the worst for it!), but this album really hits hardest if you sit for 35 mins and listen to it all the way through!
We’ve tried to make it so that all the songs really flow from one into another, and even though it’s quite a varied album in terms of fast/slow songs and intense/chill songs - we wanted it to still feel like one big evolving burst of energy, which is why I can’t wait to play it in full at our release show!
Did you pick up any new influences in particular?
(Matt): I think between us we have quite mixed influences - but for me personally, I think we always tried to kind of blend '90s emo (TGUK, Promise Ring) and like '00s post-hardcore (Thursday, Finch).
With some of these songs, we’ve also tried to go a little heavier/thicker and more rhythmic - maybe like Deftones or even something like Helmet at a push? I think you can hear it in “Things I Want To Say” or maybe the title track “Splenetic." We’ve also got one or two that are basically straight-up hardcore, side to sides, two-steps, a couple for the moshers.
I have to add in, while I’ve mentioned some '90s influences, I think nowadays we’re starting to see just how impactful and lasting some of the bands of the last 10/15 years were. And I’m incredibly grateful to have grown up when I did - and to be seeing bands I always knew were amazing, but that not too long ago felt quite low key, now getting the flowers they deserve.
Realistically, Wears Me Out wouldn’t be what it is were it not for bands like Basement, Title Fight, Superheaven, to name a few.
Obviously, I could Google it, but what does "splenetic" mean, and how does that relate to the album's themes?
(Alfie, vocals): To be splenetic is to be bad-tempered or spiteful. The album is full of dark thoughts and nagging complaints that I’ve felt since we started the writing process. I’ve only recently come out of a very dark place, and think that this word represents me and my lyrical style the best.
The title track is essentially about my distaste for some people. I was lucky enough to have the rest of the band agree on the name and let me get these things off my chest.
It feels like a growing community of (real) emo/alt/adjacent bands has been developing in the UK over the past year or so. Would you agree, and what are your thoughts on that?
(Alfie): Coming from the southeast, the Brighton scene has been a revolving door of healthy hardcore and adjacent bands in the past couple of years. We’re so lucky to have so many people involved and grassroots venues letting us do our thing.
I could shout out over a dozen hardcore bands, but I’ll keep it emo: shoutout Wimp, prom, and Turn of Phrase for keeping emo hc. Had Sandy for being the nicest people (and musicians) on the planet. mydiary. delivered one of the best first sets I’ve ever experienced, so much so, I was
nervous to follow them. Big ups, Meet You There, they’re breaking up soon, so catch them whilst you can.
Is there anything you would especially like to achieve as a band going forward?
(Matt): Really, in terms of overall goals, I just want as many people to hear it and resonate with it as possible. For the more immediate goals, I think we’d all quite like to play more hardcore shows.
We all come from the hardcore scene, and although it’s singing rather than shouting, I think we all feel that Wears Me Out is at least mostly (if not entirely) a hardcore band. I think maybe it translates more live, but yeah. Hardcore and mixed-bill promoters reading this: book us, please! We’d also quite like to play Europe at some point!
What has the band got coming up?
(Anja, bass): Aside from the album itself, we’ve got a lot to give this year. By the time this interview is live, our album listening party may already happened, but the real celebration hits April 5th with our album release show alongside Headstone, Bullet, and Had Sandy. A stacked mixed bill of hardcore and emo.
We’re also heading into Century Audio at the end of February to shoot a music video with Papercrane, so stay tuned for that. On top of all that, we’ve already made headway into what we refer to as “project 2”, and there’s even a potential split with another SE emo band on the horizon. Busy year ahead!
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Wears Me Out on social media: Instagram
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