Without Love's story starts off following the demise of guitarist Henry Reid and bassist John Scholefield’s previous band, Half Sight. Aiming to start a new group in the spirit of the melodic hardcore wave of the mid-'00s, they put together a lineup and got writing.
“It was great because we felt like we hadn’t lost any momentum from our previous band ending, but then over the next 18 months or so we went through quite a few members, struggling to find people that were really into the sound we were going for or wanting to commit to being in the band,” John told me via email. The pandemic killed off the interest from the other members, but John and Henry remained focus.
“We made the decision that we were going to record the tracks we’d written up to that point, from home, between the two of us,” John said. With the idea of recording first and recruiting a full-line up later, the duo turned to longtime friend Tobi, drummer of German punk band Chartreux, to play and record drums on the record. “As soon as we thought of Tobi to handle drum duties we knew we could make the EP a reality."
Without Love then had all the guitars re-amped and the record mixed and mastered by our friend Ben Sansom at Sunnyhill Studios just outside London. The next move was to have John handle the vocal duties on the EP.
Now that we've gotten their origin story out of the way, check out Without Love's debut EP, Surrender, in this No Echo premiere:
“Writing lyrics was probably the most daunting part to be honest, but it’s really rewarding in terms of having more creative input to the songs as Henry writes all the music," John told me. "With the lyrical themes on the EP I’ve tried to cover issues that are important to me; from the way that excessive/extravagant consumption of food and drink becomes materialistic ('Status Symbol'), to toxic masculinity ('Strength in Numbness') as well as a more conceptual approach, imagining Earth if/when humanity has finally wiped itself out ('Aftermath'). Those last two are definitely my favourite lyrically.
"I’ve also tried to not point the finger too much in my lyrics, without holding the mirror up to myself and admitting my own shortcomings—I think it would have been a lot easier to write more straightforward lyrics full of blame and anger but it wouldn’t have been as fulfilling."
Surrender is out on all digital outlets on May 13th. It is also available for sale on cassette via Footloose Records, Ugly and Proud Records, and Modern Illusion Records.
Without Love on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
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