Newcastle-based female-fronted experimental rock outfit Labyrinthine Oceans’ eclectic first studio release, ‘The Deep End,’ is an all-around heavy hitter, with grunge-fuelled dreamscapes floating into whoever’s ears it finds. Lee Allcock caught up with the band to speak about working in the studio for the first time and more.
This is your first studio release, so why did you feel that now was the right time to get something out there?
After releasing our demo album ‘Visions From Below’ last year, we’ve not really done much release-wise as we’ve been putting a lot of energy into gigging and improving our stagecraft and sound. We feel a lot more settled now, and more mature sonically, so it felt like the right time to release something more professionally and more ‘us’, I suppose. Over the past few months, we’ve really been itching to get some new stuff out there and we’ve produced tracks we’re really happy with, as well as re-recording an audience favourite, ‘Thicker Than Waters’!
What can listeners expect?
Listeners can expect an amalgamation of sounds and influences, coming together to explore themes of mental health struggles, agoraphobia and loss within the track-list of ‘The Deep End’. (Fun fact: ‘Agoraphobia’ was very nearly the title of the EP). We’ve ordered the tracks to create a journey of sounds, becoming more intense as you go through and thematically growing as every track goes by.
What did you learn during the process?
All of us experienced different learning experiences while recording, from having to be tighter during takes due to the limited time we had to record to getting better at describing what we want mix-wise. It was interesting coming out of doing ‘Visions From Below’ where we did everything ourselves and had all the control to working with a producer and working with more people. It’s been great doing it but it definitely was a huge learning curve as we weren’t in total control of everything that was happening.
There are quite a few different sounds in the EP, moving everywhere from dream-pop and grunge to classic rock and shoegaze. Is it therefore right to say you’re influenced by a plethora of artists?
We have an immense amount of influences in our sound which mainly happened because of our varying musical backgrounds. Julia wrote all the songs on this EP and her main influences centre around ‘90s alt-rock and grunge, with a mix of psychedelic and classic rock, shoegaze and dream-pop. The main influences on these songs in the writing process were Nirvana, Hole, Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Portishead and many more, especially in the goth/alternative ballpark. Instrumentally, there are hints of Joy Division, fusion, jazz and ambience in Toby’s basslines and elements of Avenged Sevenfold, metal and some pop punk in Daniel’s guitar lines and solos. As always, we have a huge melting pot of genres that we experiment with, and that brings together our tastes in a somehow cohesive way; it also lets us feel really free in the way we write. See what you can spot in our tracks influence-wise, there’s always another layer to the basis of our sound and there’s definitely a lot of unpicking you could do if you wanted to.
And you have some EP release shows planned. Tell me more including what gig-goers can expect…
We do. So, we have some super exciting gigs coming up and we’re planning some really cool stuff over the next few months. Our big launch party for the EP is happening on Saturday 3rd June at Independent in Sunderland. We have some tricks up our sleeves for this one and we’re joined by NE Volume Bar favourite Burn The Valley who are fantastic. It’s going to be a seriously good night, plus it’ll be everyone’s first chance to get our brand new limited merch designs which is awesome. We also have gigs all over the area in Durham, Newcastle and Teesside. Keep an eye on our socials for updates on when you can see us. Hopefully, we’ll catch some new faces there.
You can listen to the EP from Saturday 3rd June at linktr.ee/labyrinthineoceans.
