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Music is always about escapism—a bridge to a better, more conducive version of our world—but for Bad Sounds, in their latest effort, Escaping from a Violent Time, it’s a literal escape plan. The time and space an album affords is rarely warranted these days, but if it’s a life-saving effort from violence, and has the breadth and fantastic pop structure of this record, then we are all in. The group comprised of the Merrett brothers, Callum, and Ewan were kind enough to dig into this wondrous album, taking us down the rabbit hole of your best summer escape plan.

 "Lovers"

I feel this song speaks for itself. It’s not shy, and yes, at face value, admittedly the chorus lyric sounds like we’re asking someone to have sex, but that isn’t at all what the song is about. I’m a lover not a fighter, and so is Ewan. This song is about figuring out how to make peace with things that suck, and not take those negative feelings out on the people around us. We’re so very wise. Lots of big organs and crash cymbals to drive the point home. A song that seemed to embody the ethos of EFAVT. Was originally written in 2019 and has been held back for release until now under strict orders by anyone who heard it. 

"Sympathetic Vibrations"

It’s been great to see this song grow and grow since we originally released it online in 2019. This song spent most of its development without any drums at all. The claps were the only rhythmic element (and they got a special little moment when we shot the music for it atop a multi-story car park that has since been demolished). There was a sea of change for us in April 2019 while we were in America touring with BROODS. We’d recently been dropped by our first record label, and we knew we were spending all of our remaining money doing this tour. Somehow we ended up in a room with legendary record producers Jam & Lewis (Janet Jackson, Mary J Blige, Usher). They kind of made it clear to us (in a very nice way) that they weren’t that into our debut album Get Better, but we played them "Sympathetic Vibrations" and "Permanent" and they both kind of lost their minds. Terry Lewis said, “That is superior!” I wish we’d taken the opportunity to move it forward with them, but the enthusiasm and support they showed for those early demos really gave us the confidence boost we needed at that point in time to persevere with the EFAVT project. 

"More Than I Can Afford"

Obviously, we didn’t see the UK’s cost of living crisis coming when we started writing this song back in 2016. But we ended up releasing a song where we were talking about something that was extremely relevant and kind of political. We’ve always done our best to steer clear of being political, and in no way do we care about being relevant. Once upon a time, this song was called “Weather” and also once upon a time it featured some very illegal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles samples. We even played it live a few times in the early days of the band. We eventually reworked it and rewrote sections for the EFAVT Vol. III EP and it remains one of our favourite tracks in the series. 

"Move Into Me"

This might be one of the most important songs we've ever recorded. While touring with BROODS we got super close. It could be a “siblings in bands” thing, but that’s a little reductive for my tastes. I just think Caleb and Georgia are two of the kindest, open, and talented people we’ve ever had the privilege to know, let alone work with, and we will feel forever fortunate to have become so close with them. In early 2020, they came over to visit us in the UK and we spent a week or so trying to write a few tracks. We had a dry spell for the first few days and then all of a sudden this track sprang into life as if by magic.

"Extra Beat"

Turns out we only have ridiculously sweet and talented friends on our records. This track features Tamzene who is someone we’ve written with as part of her own music. We hit on a pretty instant rapport from our first time in the studio together when she drove down to us in her bright yellow (now retired) old banger of a car “Felicia” (RIP). The original demo for this sounded like '80s synth pop and I’m so glad the final version doesn’t. We wanted to make it as cosy and warm sounding as possible and played all the instruments super soft and quiet in the room. When Tamzene came and did her verse it made us want to redo all of our own vocals. 

"Jenny"

“Jenny’s still a superstar.” That intro was inspired by Elissa Steamer’s section in the Toy Machine video “Welcome To Hell.” Please don’t sue us Ed Templeton; we love you (in fact, the typeface that I hand draw most of our artwork is inspired by Ed’s own artwork). This is a song about us trying to come to terms with the journey of the first half of our career. Weeeee’re Jenny guys. You see? It has a garage feel, and instead of a crash cymbal; we used the sound of some glass breaking (which sounds really nu-metal on paper, or like the Stone Cold Steve Austin walk-on music- but it really doesn’t sound that way in the track). 

"Beggin’"

This is probably one of the few tracks that me and Ewan completely agree on as one of our favourites on the album. Lyrically it’s about Ewan’s childhood friendship group, while musically it feels like "The Boys Are Back In Town (pt.2)." Had loads of fun making the video for this one. Then spent two weeks recovering from it. Riding a space hopper around a race track will cripple you. I remember feeling that we were being quite daring by putting a shuffle drum beat on a song in the 2020s, but what can I say? We’re fucking renegades. 

"Permanent" 

In stark contrast to the previous track, I think Ewan hates this song, while I love it! I think it’s a really empowering track. It talks about wanting to change up everything in your life to make yourself into a better person but ultimately finding out that you are who you are, and sometimes you can’t run away from that. I kind of hate it when people use that as some kind of excuse for acting like a dick. In no way should that be tolerated or indulged. But we touch on the topic of nature vs nurture a couple of times on this record which is probably largely due to the fact that a couple of the members of the band now have kids.

"Relief Rain"

This is the most bombastic “old stool Bad Sounds” sounding song on the record in my opinion. Stacks of BVs, filter sweeps, big blown-out roomy drum sounds. All of which lay the bed for some pretty dark and introverted lyrics. Classic recipe for BS. Chef’s kiss. I really love the outro to this song. It could be seen as sliiiiiiightly indulgent, or it could be seen as an OTT vision tastefully executed. I’ll let you decide dear reader/listener.

"Hard MF 2 Luv"

This song is probably responsible for making sure the EFAVT saga kept going. Ewan said to me one morning, “I wrote this thing but I don’t know who it’s for.” At the time, he was thinking about offering it up to one of the other artists we were producing at the time. Then he sang me the chorus in a Lou Reed kinda way, while strumming an acoustic guitar. I knew who it was for, and nothing described the both of us so accurately and succinctly as those chorus lyrics. 

"Aah Song"

This is a song about parenthood. Watching my brother change as he became a father. How his priorities shifted. How much love he had to give. It's also about wondering who his daughter will grow up to be, and how the world will impact who she is.

"Escaping from a Violent Time"

A song re-written a million times to say different things. But the perfect closer for the soundtrack to an unexpectedly beautiful era of our lives and careers. When we started the EFAVT project we were in kind of a negative head space and feeling very jaded with music and the industry. We’ve managed to navigate through all of that stuff, and end with this joyous and euphoric track, recognising that everyone is struggling with something, and sometimes we just need to be distracted for five minutes to regain some perspective on everything.