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Drenge: “It’s probably the most effort I’ve put into anything since GCSE Art”

The most effort that drummer Rory Loveless has put into anything since school, Drenge’s second album is set to be quite the treat.

27th January 2015

Drenge have debuted the first track from their new album ‘Undertow’, the blistering ‘We Can Do What We Want’. Check that out here, and read our In The Studio inside-line on the record from this month’s DIY below.

Having stormed their way to the forefront of the alternative musical scene back in 2013, things have never quite been the same since the duo released their self-titled debut album. From unwillingly getting involved in political resignations to bumping into Kanye, from making more racket than you can annoy your Grandma with to wearing some rather fetching dresses at Reading festival, it feels like Drenge have done it all over the past two years. All, that is, except give up some more music. In 2015, with their second album almost done, that’s all set to change. That’s not the only thing, either…

“Well,” begins Drenge’s drummer Rory, the younger half of the Loveless brothers, “I think we had a no ‘blood’ policy with the lyrics…” And otherwise? “I guess, because we’ve changed as people since we wrote those first songs nearly four years ago now, we wanted to get away from that. Away from that teenage, angsty thing even though we are described as looking like we’re twelve. It’s more of a case of us wanting to address the present rather than try and recreate the first album.”

Despite having only released their first full-length back in August 2013, Loveless claims that this record has taken up a huge chunk of their time since. Even after making the decision to give writing on the road a miss - “I guess, we could do if we made time for it but we’re so interested in going out and seeing all these places, that kinda takes priority” - they’ve seemingly spent every other second working on it.

“It’s probably the most effort I’ve put into anything since GCSE Art, and I got an A in that,” he laughs. “It did take a long while, and we’ve had a couple of practical set-backs here and there, but it’s all the better for the extra attention we’ve given to things. I guess we could’ve left things as they were but I think we could see where this album was going and we were getting really excited about it. We’ve gotten to the point now where we’re really proud of everything.”

They’re also adding a different dynamic into the mix for their sophomore effort: there’s going to be bass. “Yeah, we’ve been putting bass parts down,” he offers up, “just to fill out the songs, and we will be playing with a third live member next time we play a show.”

As for how they came to that decision, it feels like a natural progression. “I didn’t feel like it was going stale,” he pauses, “but we were both wondering where it was gonna go next after the first album. There’s a specific dynamic to it and I don’t know how long I could’ve kept doing that. Plus, for the audience, when you’re playing two hours worth of material for the live show, that sound is just so grating on the ears, so we’ve expanded the dynamic and gotten our mate to play bass for us. I think the tunes are a lot more subtle and I guess we’ve probably gone a bit more traditional. It’s been fun and interesting to do, because we’ve never done that before, but it came fairly easily and I think it sounds really cool.”

Taken from the February issue of DIY, out now. Drenge’s new album ‘Undertow’ will be released on 6th April via Infectious Music.

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