Get To Know... Fuzz Lightyear • Neu • DIY Magazine

Hello and welcome back to DIY’s introducing feature, Get To Know… which aims to get you a little bit closer to the buzziest acts that have been catching our eye as of late, and working out what makes them tick.

Stalwarts of the burgeoning Leeds scene, Fuzz Lightyear are a potent force to be reckoned with. Despite the U-rated moniker, there’s little in the way of feel-good warmth to be found here - instead, the quartet trade in abrasive guitars, industrial dissonance, and take-no-prisoners vocals which recall Joe Talbot’s early IDLES efforts. And, if their singles to date are anything to go by, then imminent debut EP ‘Zero Guilt’ promises to be a bruising, thrilling amalgamation of hardcore, noise rock, and post-punk brutalism. Ahead of its release, we catch up with frontman Ben Parry to get to grips with the Fuzz story so far and find out what’s next on the horizon.

What are the first songs or albums you first developed obsessions for (and why)?
The first deep obsession I got for an album was The Wytches’ debut album, ‘Annabel Dream Reader’. I’d always been a huge fan of ’60s garage rock, but hearing their dark and brooding take on the surf sound lit up my teenage brain like fireworks. I ended up thinking up fan theories for all the characters in the album; it was the only thing I’d listen to for the better part of a year. When we played with them I got way too starstruck and drunk and I couldn’t talk to them at all. They’re still enigmas to me.

You’re all deeply integrated in Leeds’ DIY music scene, both in terms of the band and beyond. How do you think being part of a community like this informs or affects your artistic approach? Has the city’s local scene changed much since you first started out?
The Leeds scene fosters such a nurturing atmosphere. Everyone is so supportive of each other, and everyone making stuff in close proximity means all the different projects kind of rub off on each other. All the weirdos are incubated together, egging each other on to make something. It pushes you to find what’s unique and urges you to push out the edges.

In the last couple of years we’ve seen some hard hitting closures (RIP Chunk, Wire, Old Red Bus Station and Canal Mills, among many others), but new communities and institutions keep the scene thriving. Love to Mabgate Bleach, Small Distractions Club, Private Regcords, Contact Buzz, Shooting Tzars, Stub Quarterly, and many, many more. It feels like the DIY ethos is stronger than ever nowadays.

‘Zero Guilt’ is your debut EP, and a project which was first conceived of just after the pandemic. How have the songs evolved during that time? Now, do you find yourselves in a different place, artistically, to when they were penned?
Over time, the songs have each become more noisy and destructive. After playing them for so long, all the structures involved have got into our collective muscle memory - we end up throwing them all into noise and are able to come right back together on the downbeat. Hearing them back so organised and correct is pretty liminal.

Artistically, we’re in a much different place, if not just because we’re older and happier. The stuff we’re writing at the moment feels a lot more from an electronic world, but this EP feels like a proper guitar record. Nowadays, we pull more from 3L3D3P and Crimewave than we do from Preoccupations.

“The Leeds scene fosters such a nurturing atmosphere. All the weirdos are incubated together, egging each other on to make something.”

— Ben Parry

If you could be in a band from the past two decades, who would you pick (and why)?
Probably System Of A Down, just for the sheer vibe of it all. Being in a nu-metal band in the early ’00s was the closest anyone could come to enlightenment. Not to mention the riffs bro.

For ‘Zero Guilt’, you teamed up with producer Alex Greaves - someone who you’ve said was one of the few outside influences on the project. Why did he feel like the right person for the job? Generally speaking, are you quite insular in the way you write and work? Tell us a bit more about the recording process.
We were all huge fans of the work Alex did on Spectres’ album ‘It’s Never Going To Happen And This Is Why’, and had heard he was working with bdrmm on their debut record, so figured he would be a perfect fit for us. He knows how to fuck those guitars up.

As a band we’re pretty insular and only get inspired by each other, especially in the making of this EP. Inviting Alex in as an outside influence was daunting, but we had a lot of faith in his tastes - some of the synth stuff he did with us in early sessions inspired us to look for our own synth player, so without him, maybe our Alex never would’ve joined.

‘Berlin, 1885’ and ‘Aberfan’ came from those early sessions. The rest of the EP was recorded a couple of years after that; it still feels cohesive though, even with a whole new member involved.

Musically or otherwise, what are you looking forward to in 2026?
It’s cliché, but I’m only really looking forward to playing more and more. We just came back from our first European tour and it was an absolute dream. Playing further afield and finding new communities is always so enriching (shoutout to Hillyweird in Hilversum).

It’s just as cliché, but I’m also looking forward to writing towards our next project. I end up on late night YouTube deep dives looking for new sounds and samples all the time. This and arguing over song structures is the only thrill I get nowadays.

Oh, and looking for Green Man tickets online.

Finally, DIY are coming round for dinner - what are you making?
Nothing. We go out to Toby Carvery instead.

‘Zero Guilt’ is out on 21st November via Nice Swan Records.

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