Today, Bleach Lab announce their debut album Lost In A Rush of Emptiness, due September22nd via Nettwerk. The album was produced by Catherine Marks, known for her work with PJ Harvey, Foals, The Big Moon and the new boygenius album. Today’s announcement arrives alongside new track and video ‘Counting Empties,’ as well as details of a new IE/UK headline tour, full dates below. Across their previous EPs including their most recent If You Only Feel It Once, the band have earned devoted champions at BBC 6Music, and wide critical acclaim at press.
Having stepped up to a sold out EP release show at London’s Lafayette in November, Bleach Lab just returned from two back to back tours with Priestgate and We Are Scientists to kick off the year.‘ Counting Empties’ builds on themes of heartbreak and isolation laid out in previous single ‘Indigo’, and arrives alongside a stunning new visual. On the track, the band reflect on” how having a difficult relationship with alcohol can hinder romantic and personal relationships. A battle with your own mind to do better and a vulnerability of asking someone patience and forgiveness, although you may not feel you deserve it” With each consecutive release, the band have experimented without restriction, dipping their toes into unfamiliar genres to fully work out what kind of band they are, what works best for them, and where to go next.“ We’re all very conscious about not making music that just replicates or sounds exactly the same as what we’ve done before,” guitarist Frank Wates reflects.“ There have been a lot of quite big jumps in terms of influences and sound between all of our releases, and I think that’s an important part of our creative process.” On Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness the band worked with producer Catherine Marks, of which Kieran reflects;” We had a very clear vision of what we wanted this album to feel like, and Catherine really jumped on board with that from the start. She set a great tone in the studio to achieve that. I think we knew what we wanted the album to be visually and sonically before the songs were actually fully written in some cases, and Catherine really helped bring some of the songs to life in that regard. She helped us explore some of our older soundscapes whilst bringing something new to our sound. I think we’ve always enjoyed a certain level of freedom in the studio to completely rewrite parts. Catherine was great at allowing that creative freedom and played a huge part in it when needed”.
As well as magnetic frontperson Jenna Kyle, Bleach Lab is comprised of drummer Kieran Weston with his love for ethereal pop, guitarist Frank Wates’ knack for crystalline, dream-pop and bassist Josh Longman’s driving consistency and collaborative lyric work. 2021 saw the four-piece make their mark with the release of their first two EPs, A Calm Sense of Surrounding and Nothing Feels Real, the latter produced by Stephen Street (The Cranberries, The Smiths, Blur). With one eye cast towards the band’s enduring 90s influences present in previous releases, 2022’sIf You Only Feel It Once drove the bands vision forward, and saw them team up with producer Duncan Mills (Peace, The Vaccines, Jake Bugg) to delve deeper into poppier, more modern sounds.
The announcement of their debut full length effort sees Bleach Lab take another huge step forward, and sets the tone 2023 and beyond. Listen to ‘Counting Empties’ on all platforms here:https://bleachlab.ffm.to/countingemptiesPre-save / Pre-order Lost In A Rush of Emptiness here:[LINK]
