Lonely The Brave talk recording new album: “It’s going to have a different vibe”

It may have already been a busy year for Lonely The Brave but that’s not slowing them down: despite having only released their debut album last year, the band are already hard at work on their second record. Having finished up festival season with performances on the Reading & Leeds Main Stages, the Cambridge quintet have now holed up in Sheffield to record with Ross Orton.

“It’s awesome here,” says the band’s Ross Smithwick, on their new digs. “We have been working 10 hour days and really honing in on making this the best record we possibly can. There have been a few stressful moments, but that is inevitable when you’re trying so hard on something that means so much to you. We haven’t ventured out much though so cabin fever is setting in a bit!

“We’ve been in the studio for two weeks now and it’s sounding great,” he goes on. “We have been recording this record song by song, rather than getting each instrument down for all tracks before moving on, which has been a great way of working. Just got a couple of songs to do and we’re there. We don’t tend to write a lot on the road as our minds are on the shows and performances, but a few ideas do come up in sound checks sometimes. It definitely works best for us to come off tour, and then really focus on writing.”

The process has also allowed the band for the room to experiment by adding extra guitars to the record. “It’s changed the dynamics of the songs, as well as the song writing itself,” Ross admits. “There are lots of intricate parts and different sounds and textures happening on these songs that are sounding very interesting. All the guitar parts complement each other perfectly I think. We have made sure that when writing these guitar pieces they are properly thought out and intertwine nicely together.”