The Itch talk opting out of the industry game for debut album 'It's The Hope That Kills You' • Neu • DIY Magazine

The morning after the night before is an interesting time to meet The Itch. Armed with coffee inside Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery, Georgia Hardy and Simon Tyrie are an eloquent, softly-spoken pair at 11am, worlds apart from the thrilling rave-laced hedonism that their music transmits. Is it post-punk? Indie sleaze? Bore off with trying to pigeonhole the duo’s mashup of electronics and guitars, and make a beeline for the dancefloor instead.

“There are a lot of artists coming out that have a little element of slightly more hardcore punky stuff, while also being indie,” Simon says of that sonic intersection. “We’re both really into that.” Swapping tastes as teenagers, it was Georgia who introduced Simon to acts like King Krule and Touché Amoré, as he offered up Four Tet and Grimes in return. The two have created together “in various guises” ever since Simon handed Georgia a CD full of demos aged 17. Inspired by early 2010s dream-pop, it catalysed 13 years of experimentation that has led them to The Itch.

“We’ve been doing different [genres] over the years,” explains Simon, “but I always speak to people who come back to those seminal tastes they develop when they’re a teenager. That was definitely a big thing with The Itch, coming back to stuff that really excited us when we first became musicians.”

Growing up in Luton - Georgia a drummer, her multi-instrumentalist bandmate a student of YouTube production tutorials - the duo attended separate schools but met through sharing bills with teenage bands at open mics. Back then, Georgia tells us, the local gig scene was healthier. “You could start at an open mic night, go on to a local pub, and then a ticketed show. There was that stepping stone.” Nowadays, Luton is without a touring venue and absent from the primary circuit. “The ecosystem is completely shut down,” she declares. “We’re of that generation that got massively sucked into London,” continues Simon. “We’re responsible, in some ways, for Luton’s demise as a place for touring bands.”

“A big thing with The Itch [was] coming back to stuff that really excited us when we first became musicians.”

— Simon Tyrie

Since debut single ‘Ursula’ landed in 2024, The Itch’s live show has been notoriously hard to catch. There’s an elusivity to the pair that magnifies the statement of this month’s debut album ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’; skipping EPs and curating every show they do play, The Itch are keeping two watchful eyes on how their story unfolds.

“All of the decisions have been driven by us,” confirms Georgia. “There’s no structure and rules that you actually have to follow. People that work in the music industry like to pretend there is, to give their jobs some structure and make them feel like they’re hitting certain goalposts. We want to be more considered with what shows we play, where, how we announce them, and who supports them.” Musing on EPs, Simon notes: “I don’t want our music to ever feel like it’s been chucked out there as the stepping stone to launch an album and get more listens. As a listener, I would rather sink my teeth into a bigger chunk of music straight away.”

At a glance, ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’ introduces The Itch as the Luton LCD Soundsystem. Dive deeper, and you’ll find sprinklings of British irony, twangy guitars, genre collisions and a non-stop throughline of danceability. Explicitly political in places, ‘Pirate Studios’ squares up to the “freaks in the USA” who “just want some bloodsports” by throwing a disco; on ‘Space In The Cab’, Simon wails: “You know I hate this country / I hate this island / But sometimes the people / Make it all worthwhile”.

A party for the end of the world, then. “That’s been the story of human history,” smiles Simon. “Whenever stuff is bad, all you can cling onto is having as good a time as you can while you are on this planet. It’s not about making some profound statement, it’s just the way that we feel when things are beyond [our] control. I can’t stop Putin, so what’s the point in getting all upset…”

“While you can’t control things in the wider world, you can create a sense of community, hope and goodwill in your own small world,” elaborates Georgia. “People say, ‘it feels weird promoting tours when there’s catastrophic news’, but ultimately, it’s in those times you need the outlets more. People need good things to focus on.”

“While you can’t control things in the wider world, you can create a sense of community, hope and goodwill in your own small world.”

— Georgia Hardy

As the title suggests, the LP isn’t an entirely escapist record; rather, it spoon-feeds doses of realism with plenty of sarcasm. ‘No More Sprechesang’ pokes fun at post-punk, Speedy Wunderground and The Fall, while the trippy ‘Aux Romanticiser’ samples Subway Takes to rinse DJs who plug in their laptop and play. “Many of my favourite artists are pretty dry, and sometimes you don’t know if they’re taking the piss,” says Simon.

The title track appears more downcast, as Simon worries: “There’s no one here to listen to my stories / I might as well be singing to my grave”. “I’m quite guilty, as a writer, of mixed messaging,” he admits. “[The album] isn’t always that coherent. When you’re younger, you’re quite hopeful that things will get better. Then reality hits, and it’s all the more crushing for that reason.”

Coherence might not be something The Itch actively seek out, yet ‘Never Change’ - arguably the album’s most ambitious experiment, inspired by Gorillaz and Sega Bodega - is able to layer woozy acoustics over rampant drum‘n’bass rhythms like nobody’s business. As Simon suggests: “Taking inspiration from other artists who know how to mix genres, it’s like the best chefs in action, getting fusion foods on the table…”

Make no mistake, The Itch’s uncompromising methods are going to plan. “We both want to be in this for the long game, so I’m not that bothered about being the buzziest thing,” concludes Georgia. “I want to do this sustainably, and I hope that if we carry on doing things our way and making sure the creative ideas are put first, hopefully we do a good enough job to keep going.”

‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’ is out now via Fiction Records.

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