Browse By

Band Of The Week // SAD BOYS CLUB

Grappling with the messiness of life that accompanies you through your twenties, Echoes In A Shallow Bay ushers in a new era for Sad Boys Club.

Sad Boys Club 2021

Trying to navigate your twenties in a sprawling capital city isn’t the easiest experience; the members of London’s Sad Boys Club can tell you so much, as they open up about their own hardships in their unfiltered new EP, Echoes In A Shallow Bay. Tackling topics around the search for identity, failed relationships, and the cultures we find ourselves within, it’s a pertinent listen that will resound with listeners while simultaneously bringing an urgent sound that you can’t ignore.

While opening 25 draws on the internal heartbreak of watching the one you like interested in someone else, incorporating sarcastic laughs and sing-alongs to mask the pain, Could Have Beens (& What Ifs) takes a more honest approach and allows all feelings to permeate through. The flickering beats on Can’t Help Myself ring in an energy and gets your heart pumping before finale What Is It Like To Be A Bat? leaves you on a musing and reflective note.

We caught up with the band over this newest chapter and unveiling of their experiences, and discuss the process behind the EP in more depth.

What’s a motto you live by?

Chris is going for Hakuna Matata. He’s really into his Stoicism.

If your sound had a colour, what colour would it be?

Oh god I used to pretend I had synesthesia back in school so I sounded cool. Please don’t bring back those painful memories.

If you could set Echoes In A Shallow Bay to a TV show or movie, what would it be the soundtrack for?

One Tree Hill: Season 2 Episode 9. A heartbroken Nathan Scott decides to push a racing car to its limit. As the flashbacks emerge of his loving Hayley, who left him for a life on the road as a musician (unforgivable, yet so relatable), Nathan begins to lose control of the car. Slowly, our track Could Have Beens (& What Ifs) fades in. The acting, the drama, the story leading up to this moment – that’s what TV is all about.

What’s your fondest memory of recording the EP?

The third track in this EP Can’t Help Myself was recorded live with all of us in the same room. Due to Covid we hadn’t really seen each other in a long time, especially the four of us together.

Do you have any behind-the-scenes stories that you can share with us?

I’m afraid these are all kept for our posthumous memoir. Although the one when Tom tried singing backing vocals after a couple of mojitos is pretty funny. It’s on our Instagram page.

What was the most unexpected (whether pleasant or unpleasant) part of the EP making process?

I guess it’s the same answer as everyone else really, which is Covid. Even if you set aside the logistics surrounding the recording of an EP during lockdown, it took us a while to get into the right headspace to creatively engage with it. When everything else seemed to hit pause, it was hard to initially find a reason to go to the studio. I suppose it took us a while to re-evaluate the reasons why we are in a band and why it is important for us to keep pursuing this.

If you had to pick one lyric line to sum up the whole EP, which line would you pick?

Echoes In A Shallow Bay is also a line off our second track on the EP. The imagery felt to us like a good representation of the topics which we explore here. I guess it’s important to let the listeners make up their own minds as to what these actually are, so I’ll leave it at that.

What’s been the most chaotic part of living in London in your twenties?

Chris is very offended by this question, he’s 31.

And finally, what does music mean to you?

Gonna have to steal this one from that last scene in Almost Famous when William asks Russell what he loves about music: “EVERYTHING!” Also, if someone can tell me where I can find that jacket he’s wearing PLEASE HIT ME UP.