Emo, post-hardcore, adjacent… whatever you want to call it the last year or so has seen a tonne of wonderful new bands emerge in that kinda lane in the UK, from Wears Me Out to Try Hard to Sworn Truth - all absolutely brilliant at making the kind of music best placed to soundtrack a rainy bus ride or a break-up or perhaps just a dreary Thursday.
Liverpool’s Fallaway are another such prospect, and a busy one at that. The band made a splash with the release of their debut EP, Songs Regarding Better Days, at the start of the year and they’ve already followed it up with the gloriously grungy single “Paper St.” and promises of an LP coming soon too.
It may seem as though it’s all happened quite quickly but it’s actually been a while coming. As the band’s guitarist Mike explains, “Fallaway’s been a project I’ve been sitting on for a long time and it wasn’t until 2023 I decided to finally record the first instrumental demo of what would become the band.”
That demo was recorded with Mike’s best friend Adam Rogers, with whom he also played in the Liverpool Youth Crew band, Bitter Youth, at Millwright Studios above the iconic Boom venue in Leeds. Next, Mike played the tracks to his other band Step Beyond, recruiting bassist Ben as the lineup began to fall into place.
As Mike tells it, vocalist Danny was another obvious choice. “Danny's our little brother in L1HC. He’s been there since day one. Touching pit, grabbing mic and always backing us. We’ve watched him come up with his bands over the years and watched him grow into the frontman he is today, so to finally be in a band with him is a dream and a long time coming.”
Drummer Sam and second guitarist Harry soon followed, the former known to Mike from his work in No War and Muddle, and the latter recruited from alt/grunge/post-hardcore outfit FEAD, who Mike describes as his favourite Liverpool band. “So quickly and naturally we were all playing those songs I’d written all those years. And in a cathartic moment of realisation it was all worth the wait because this is the band, and these boys it was always meant to be.”
As mentioned, the band’s first release, Songs Regarding Better Days, arrived in January. Again mixed and mastered by Adam Rogers, the EP comprises three original tracks that are just begging you to drag your feet through leaves to them come autumn (fall for American readers), plus a well-suited cover of “Back And to the Left” by Texas Is the Reason if you get the Bandcamp or cassette version.
“Instrumentally, Songs Regarding Better Days has been in the works pretty much the entire time I’ve known Mike - 8/9 years,” shares vocalist Danny on how the record came together. “It’s a culmination of all our favourite aspects of the genre and has been a massive labour of love.”
“At the root and our soul we’re a hardcore band,” elaborates Mike on how he would describe the band’s sound. “Sonically? Fuzzy, angsty, crushing, nostalgic, cathartic. I’d say the latter two were definitely something I’ve wanted to invoke sonically as part of a signature for the band and think we achieved that.”
“We’ve all grown up with bands like Basement, Title Fight, Superheaven, etc. being the backing track to our formative years. But given all that I think we sound like Fallaway. We pull from so many different and contrasting influences and ideas and make them work, it’d be hard to pin a label on it.”
The themes are a good fit too, as Danny explains: “Lyrically the record revolves around the themes of love, loss and grief. All things that have saturated my life within the year of us sitting down and writing as a band, something that I think has brought us all together and personally inspired me to keep writing and creating.”
“My favourite track on the record personally is 'Sunspots.' Written from the perspective of a mutual friend’s cat (a friend who sadly took her own life last year) and how after adopting her cat I could physically see her grieving the loss and longing for connection again.”
Recent single “Paper St.” has kept the momentum - and the wistful, nostalgic vibes - going, a little something to tide people over to a debut LP planned for release later in the year. “We’ll be heading back to the studio with Adam soon to record that,” Mike promises.
Beyond that though? “We don’t have any solid plans. We’re just enjoying being a band writing music we’re excited about and that’s why his band works so well, there’s no pressure, it’s on our terms. We just can’t wait for everyone to hear the LP whenever that’s ready to get released and see where the releases take us.”
“The dream is to tour outside of the UK. I’ve toured the mainland with Bitter Youth a bunch of times and they were some of the best years of my life. Can’t wait to share that adventure with these boys.”
“The future of the band for me personally is wide open,” adds Danny. “We’re all set on writing and releasing a full-length and touring but there’s no stress or time constraints holding us back. We’re focusing on creating music we enjoy and the future of the band revolves around us having as much fun as possible, playing with our mates and bringing them along for the journey. Most importantly making a body of work we’ll look back at in years to come with a sense of pride.”
Considering everything they’ve released so far, it feels very safe to say they’re on the right track for that.
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Songs Regarding Better Days is available on cassette via Counterculture Records.
Fallaway on social media: Instagram
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