Ahead of the release of their latest single ‘Untitled’, Andi Talbot say down with Julia O’Neill, lead singer and guitarist of Labyrinthine Oceans, to discuss fancy dress, their plans for the remainder of the year and more.
Firstly, Julia, tell us a little bit about how the band came together…
We’ve been together as a band for around two, maybe two and a half years but I’ve been writing songs on my own for about 8 years now, so we started with some of those songs and then started gigging. We’ve had a few releases so far, plus a demo album and we released our debut EP in June last year. We’ve definitely gained a lot of confidence from getting out gigging: we have a little more of a grounding now of how we want to sound, so we’re moving into a dreamy sort of shoegaze thing with harsher elements as well.
Your latest single, ‘Untitled’, is out on Wednesday 3rd April. Tell us a little bit about what we can expect…
‘Untitled’ is a much older song that we’ve kind of reworked; it was maybe the fourth song I ever wrote when I was like twelve. I wrote it on the piano and that’s all it was for a very long time – a really stripped-back ballad. So now, structurally, and lyrically, it remains the same, but it’s developed that much rawer and harsher sound. It’s a lot heavier and guitar-based now that it’s in a band setting rather than just me and a piano. Lyrically, the meaning has changed a lot for me the older I’ve gotten. Both sonically and lyrically it kind of just describes being a bit lost. It explores mental health themes and coming through quite difficult times while growing up and that developing into something else. It kind of took me over, that mental health situation, and I think that’s why it’s become a louder song because it represents that kind of complete turmoil.
You started off the year with a New Year’s Eve fancy dress celebration at The Cluny. How did that come about?
We played a headliner there in June or July and it went down really well, which was quite a surprise because everything that could have been an obstacle for people to be there seemed to happen. It was the weekend of Kendal Calling, we asked about twenty bands to support us and everyone was doing festivals and then on top of that, there were train strikes on the day. We still got about 200 people there for that one and we enjoyed it so much that we thought we’d do another one to celebrate New Year. We decided to make it fancy dress because one of my favourite things about New Year is doing themed parties and stuff, so we thought we’ll make it a bit of party. It was absolutely packed, we were very happy with it, and the supports were amazing. It was a really great night and definitely a good start to the year.
What have you got coming up for the rest of the year?
We have a tour planned at the start of this month so we’re looking at a Leeds, Manchester and a London date, and possibly Edinburgh, but we’re still confirming that. After that, we’re looking to do a mini-festival in July, hopefully at Zerox. That’ll be an all-dayer and we’re hoping to get some local businesses involved to set up stalls and make a whole thing of it.
You can listen to ‘Untitled’ from Wednesday 3rd April on all major streaming platforms.
