A couple of hours before they played the Giant Squid tent on the final day of the Y Not? Festival, we caught up with up and coming London-based dream-pop/rock band Bleach Lab. Their debut album Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness was released in September 2023 prior to them heading out for a UK headline tour towards the end of 2023. The four-piece band are Jenna Kyle (vocals), Louis Takooree (guitar), Josh Longman (bass) and Kieran Weston (drums).
Can you begin by introducing yourselves to those who maybe don’t know your music?
Josh (JL): We are Bleach Lab, a four-piece indie dream-pop band originally from Buckinghamshire but now spread out around the south of England.
Jenna (JK): We started writing songs when Kieran joined four years or so ago. We have released a few EPs and our debut album came out last September.
What age where you when you began playing a musical instrument and getting more deeply into music?
JK: I first started playing the recorder at primary school, moved on to clarinet around eight years old moved on to harp then ditched all that to begin singing.
Kieran (KW): I started playing the drums around seven years old.
JL: I was the same, I started on the drums before moving on to the guitar.
What are your musical influences?
JK: The Cure, The Smiths, shoegaze sort of music.
JL: Leaning towards the 90s it was bands such as The Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star.
Where does the name Bleach Lab come from?
JL: It was from our old guitarist, he says it came to him in a dream. I think that’s one of the hardest things coming up with a name for a band. Since then some people have got the name wrong calling us Beach Lab … Folk were searching for us on the streaming services and saying they can’t find this Beach Lab anywhere!
Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness was produced by Catherine Marks, how much easier did this make the process?
JL: It introduced new challenges for us in a good way, the way we used to write records was on our own individually, our early songs were written during covid so for us all to get in a room together live was really good but challenging at the same time.
JK: Being able to lean on Catherine’s experiences and for her opinions was a great asset while recording the album.
What makes you stand out as a band?
KW: The faces I make while I play the drums is very unique!
JL: All our music is led by the guitar, that’s the 90s influences coming through from artists such as Johnny Marr, the guitar becomes almost as much a focal point as the vocals.
How hard has it been for you to break through as a band?
JK: There is so much going on behind the scenes that people just don’t realise, it’s almost like a full time job trying to make any sort of name for yourself. It’s very challenging, you need a solid team around you and people like lawyers and financial advisors also come into the picture. It is a massive challenge but you do it for the love of the music.
JL: The bands that are already established, that have already made it, they are constantly touring or recording and always very busy. The reality is that we still have jobs to be able to pay our rent etc. and it can be hard sometimes to get more gigs booked in between doing that.
Can you walk us through your creative process?
Louis (LT): It’s usually guitar first and lyrical ideas, Jenna comes up with a lot of the lyrics then I add the guitar. Most of the songs start with an instrumental which most of the times comes from myself and Josh.
KW: Yeah guitar and drums come first then it opens the space to write the lyrics.
Is there any new music coming along in the near future?
JL: We have plans in the works, we have been in the studio recently.
JK: We are always writing and coming up with demos.
KW: In the music industry they say that writing the second album can be just as difficult as writing the first one.
You have played quite a few festivals this year, what has been your favourite one?
LT: We couldn’t possibly say or we won’t get invited back!
JL: We like doing the festivals to connect with the other bands backstage and soaking up the atmosphere.
Thank you all so much for the interview. We’re looking forward to seeing your performance in the Giant Squid later.
Interview by: Alan Brown
