A CONVERSATION WITH... AFTERDRIVE
At The Great Escape, Ipswich-based alt-pop heavyweights Afterdrive give us a sneak peak of what they’ve been up to and what’s coming next.
Photo by Imogen Mosley
Hey, we’re Afterdrive. We have Ed, the bassist, who’s a great songwriter and lovely guy. Luke, our guitarist, who always seems to be wearing shades and always is writing some insane riffs. There’s Joe, our drummer, who is the backbone of this band, and Ben, our lead singer, and outstanding songwriter.
Besides the brothers of Joe and Ben, how did you all four meet and decide to start making music together?
So we (Ben, Ed, and Luke) all went to college together and we were in a band previously, which was a bit of a different line-up. After that band ended, as people went on to do their different things, we thought ‘why don’t we start a band?’ It started with an open mic night where we played one of our songs and it went down so well. We knew we had to do it. Joe, being amazing at drums, joined us. So we slowly did different events and now we're here. Now we're doing really well.
And now you’re here at The Great Escape. How are you guys feeling about performing and being here?
We’re super excited. The vibe feels really good here. We've been around a couple of places and been to a couple of the shows, and it all seems really welcoming. The vibe is unmatched. We're looking forward to playing East Street Tab as well, as we’re playing with The Entitled Sons and loads of other bands that we love. We can’t wait to check out so many bands. We're just so grateful to the Alternative Escape for having us. We always wanted to play this festival, so being here is something so amazing.
For people who are discovering your music for the first time, how would you describe your sound?
It can appeal to everyone. There are some pop bangers to get people moving and there are also lower and more emotional songs. You can listen to have a good time, and listen lightheartedly. But if you want to dive deeper into our music, there's always a deeper meaning that really brings together an Afterdrive song.
Simply put, it’s pop mixed with a bit of modern rock and that live sound. We all play our instruments -- we're really talented on instruments. We have really good hooks, really good melodies, amazing drums, amazing guitar, and amazing bass. I'd say it appeals to everyone who likes rock music, whether you’re young or old. We like to blend both the more poppy and more electronic elements and that's why I think our music goes down so well.
Photo by Imogen Mosley
Is there any hook, verse, or instrumental part that you guys are really proud that you wrote? Whether because of how it sounds live or your own personal meaning attached to it?
Probably ‘Stick Around’ with the riff Luke wrote. That was our first song and we still look back at it with such pride. It’s not the most complex riff, but it's so memorable and so unique. It’s a benchmark for us. It was one of those things you don't really realise at the time, but it's definitely a song to be proud of. We all write different parts of the songs, so we can all be proud of bits and pieces of them.
Are there any songwriters that you’d like to collaborate with?
Do you know who would be cool? Pharrell Williams. He's a good producer and a good songwriter. Charlie Simpson, who’s actually from where we are. Ed Sheeran would be good.
We supported him on tour, which we never thought was possible.
What are some other moments you didn’t think were possible but have happened for you all?
The tour we just came off of with Maggie Lindemann. That was probably the most proud we’ve ever been after, and during, obviously. It's been such an incredible time, and we learned so much from it. Every single performance we got better, and the memories we made were the best. We'll remember it forever. We've been lucky enough to play some amazing shows, but I think your first tour, people say you'll always remember it, and for good reason. You never know how it's going to be until you do it, and I think we were quite proud of how it all went.
But we really can’t forget the stadium show, we played to over 20,000 people. Before that, we had never done a show over 1,000. It really shows that we can do it. It felt really natural for us to be on that stage, even though it was incredibly nerve-wracking. All of our songs felt right for a stadium and felt right with Ed Sheeran fans. We want to go back and do that all the time.
With the new EP on the horizon, I’m sure you’ll be able to. So why don’t we dive into the project that you guys have been teasing to your fans?
This is our first project we've released, as our previous releases were all singles. There are five tracks on the EP, that all go in the same direction, but with different meanings and different moods. They’re the same genre, as they all capture that pop-rock sound that we've got. I really think this is like our best work so far. We’re covering lust, obsession, reminiscence, limerence, and we do have the happy side. We also have music videos for each song and they’re all in very cool locations. We try to match the emotions behind the songs to the colour, look, and aesthetic of the music video. We can’t give too much away, but one's in London for ‘Neon View’ in a place called Bunga 90 which is 90s themed. It’s a retro club, and it really does feel like you stepped back into what we think the 90s was like.
Like you all say, you cover a lot of topics in your music. Is there any topic that you haven't covered yet that you may be working up to or you want to cover?
We’ve never written a song about being in a band or about being musicians. I think that's something we could write about in the future, like about life as a band, life on the road, and having dreams to do music. It’s one that would be very self-reflecting. Now that we’ve had a tour, and we’ve experienced all these new emotions, we can write about it.
When we were sound-checking in all the different cities, we were making up songs during soundcheck about the different locations and the feelings they brought up, so I think writing about places is something we'll be doing in the future.
What is a question you all wish you got asked in interviews but you haven't and what would your question answer be to that?
We’re all a bit nerdy with production, and really take an interest in our all production. We all really taught ourselves, going from recording in bedrooms and building up from there. Luke’s always writing and we all do our best to make sure we’re pleased with what we got, but it’s not as glamorous as people would think. We’re sat in a room, trying to work on songs, and doing a lot of back and forth with all the tiny details. You’re adjusting the snare, the EQ, how this line sounds, and really get stuck into the details for hours at a time. But we wouldn’t change it for the world. The longer we’re a band, we keep getting to experience new things to take an interest in and find new things to love.