Worry Party

Worry Party are an ambient indie four piece, with their roots in the North of England. They create texture and movement from subtle guitars and keys – sometimes jarringly set against bold percussion and home-made samples.

Here’s what they had to say when we got a chance to ask some questions.

How did you all meet?

“Chris, Glenn and I all know each other from other bands and playing gigs together in Newcastle. Laura and I work together”

Who were your musical influence growing up?

“Blur and Radiohead were my gateway bands when I was very young. By my late teens, I was listening to a lot of Saddle Creek, but I was also a huge Blood Brothers fan. You can take inspiration form anything”

How do your ideas for songs come about?

“They come from a variety of places; a beat, lyric, a few chords. My early experiences of song writing were always sitting down with an acoustic guitar, trying to tell a little story. Then I would just play with the arrangement, using whatever I was enjoying at that moment”

Can you describe your music in three words?

“Simple. Honest. Quantam”

You have a new EP ‘Souvenirs’, can you tell us a bit more about the new EP?

“I was exploring the idea of finding out what makes things importance to us, and the concept of home. I put together seven or eight songs, just exploring song writing and the style of production I was into at the time. These four really resonated with me.

Lead single ‘Traveller’ ponders whether or not repeating cycles of behaviour are destructive, or whether they simply reinforce our fundamental nature and should be regarded as one of the few genuine guideposts. The lyric ‘It’s in my veins, it’s in my skin, it’s pushed and pulled through every inch.’ reinforces the latter, but the song as a whole can’t offer an answer. Perhaps people can change, but perhaps every version of ourselves will always have one common denominator, one passion or need or comfort that will always command our attention.

The follow up, ‘Beach Blood’, laments the idea of home, and if the problem solvers among us can ever feel truly rested. Living on an island, and near the beach at that, means I’ve always had to cross at least two coasts to travel anywhere. The the idea of someone having ‘Beach Blood’ is that they are comfortable with whatever shore they come to rest on. The rest of us like our homes, our anchors, our safety nets; our own islands we can escape to when we need to be alone.

The second half of the EP looks at relationships as mirrors, with ‘True North’ asking why consensually toxic relationships exist and what they teach us about ourselves. ’True North’ is used as a metaphor for finding the right path to happiness, to contentment, and yet we constantly steer ourselves off course with decisions and commitments we know will bring us pain.

Final track ‘Waves’ focuses on one of those tiny micro-interactions from which all of our relationships are formed. If we remember the minutiae of an otherwise throw-away moment with crystal clarity, then perhaps a deeper connection exists than we first realised. We should always afford our company the attention they deserve before we lose those seemingly forgettable moments forever”

Do you have any funny gig stories you can share with us?

“We went to play in York once and got lost, ending up in the middle of a pedestrian area, on a cobbled street, with a loose exhaust. We were creeping along trying to draw as little attention as possible, but the car was making so much noise that everyone was staring. In the end we had to ask the binmen from the council how to get out. We had some chips and saw the funny side, until a few people turned up at the gig later that evening and started whispering the story to their friends”

What would you say the music scene is like where your based?

“It changes year on year, but we have some awesome promoters and venues. We’ve always been a part of the live music community up here in some capacity, so it’s great to be able to work with both artists and venues in the North East”

Do you have a favourite venue you love to play?

“We love Cobalt Studios and The Cumberland. Two very different venues, but both have great sound engineers”

What are your plans for the rest of 2020?

“We’re just riding this pandemic out with everyone else, sending over ideas when we get a chance. We have quite a few gigs to reschedule, so that will be our number one priority, and then a few tracks will follow shortly after (which we’re really excited about)”

By Siân Parker