Rising Alt-Rockers Sadcult have just released the blistering new single “Outcry”, a track which brings together the driving intensity of Queens Of Stone Age with the grungy depth of Smashing Pumpkins.
We spoke to the band to talk about the track and fid out more about their music in general:
When you first started writing “Outcry”, what did you want the song to say or make people feel that you hadn’t quite managed to express in previous songs?
Outcry to us is one of those songs that we could imagine the listener thrashing around their bedroom listening to on max volume, maybe after a long day at work or a difficult time at school, letting all of that energy flow out, which in itself we believe is such a strong form of therapy, the way that music can have this effect on people and give them an outlet for all of their frustrations from the modern world.
There’s a real sense of frustration running through the track, but it never feels completely hopeless. When you were writing it, were you consciously trying to find that balance between anger and optimism, or did that emerge naturally?
I don’t think it was intentional at all, it was sort of what just came out in the song writing, most of our music is probably driven by some kind of frustration for something, but we’ve learnt to balance that quite well, we’ve often been described to have a happy/sad aesthetic through our songs, whether the music is upbeat and energetic juxtaposed by dark lyrical matter or vice versa.
“Outcry” feels particularly raw and immediate. Were there any parts of the recording where you deliberately chose to keep things imperfect because they captured the emotion of the performance better?
For us, Outcry was our punk song so it was important to keep the sound of it raw without being hidden behind too much, we wanted it to almost sound as though you were sat in the room with the band playing, without anything being overly polished, this is important to us as for the majority of bands that have inspired us over the years have mastered this approach so well, and we feel as though it almost creates a stronger connection to whoever is listening.
What’s something about “Outcry” that you think listeners might miss on a first listen, whether that’s a lyric, a production detail, or something in the way the song is structured?
We definitely feel as though Outcry is one of those songs that you’re going to take away something different with each listen, for some it may just be a straight punk song, and for others they may try to dissect the lyrics to find meaning, but what we love about that is that it’s going to mean something different for each person who listens, we try our best to do this in most of our music where each person can apply their own interpretation, sound wise we love to sound raw and authentic and not be hidden behind anything, whether it’s incorporating little screeches from the guitars or Sam’s voice slightly breaking mid chorus, we feel as though each of these things adds to the energy we’re trying to put out there, maybe something fans don’t hear on the initial listen.
Your music often sits somewhere between heavy guitars and big, emotionally direct melodies. How do you decide when a song needs to hit harder and when it needs to pull back?
For us, we’ve always been huge fans of the loud quiet dynamic in songwriting, a dynamic that is present in many bands such as Nirvana, Pixies & Alice In Chains, all bands that we’re hugely influenced by, it’s more for us about the pacing of songs whether it’s soft verses compared to loud and hard hitting choruses and balancing these both well, we also have in our unreleased catalogue a bunch of songs that driven by a melancholic energy have a softer acoustic approach with no loud theatric choruses but just rely on a gloomy and haunting sound usually driven by the melody or lyrics, these songs we hope to put out in the near future that maybe show a more vulnerable side to band.
As a three-piece, how does the way you write songs work in practice? Does one person usually bring an idea to the band, or do Sadcult songs tend to take shape collectively in the room?
Most of our songs start out from little ideas whether written on an acoustic guitar sat in a dark room, sparked by some emotion but almost always initially written in solitude, that would be the bare bones of it, once a structure is sought out, front man Sam Newland will bring it to Pete & Chad in a practice space where the rest will come together, piece by piece, and sometimes this may take a while to get it right but other times it will happen very quickly.
What have you learned about yourselves as a band since you started Sadcult that has changed the way you approach writing or recording now?
I think the main thing for us as a band has been figuring out what we are in the years we’ve been doing this, it’s so easy to jump onto trends especially in the online world which has the effect of you essentially losing yourself and what you stand for, but I think it’s something every band goes through or maybe has to go through in order to truly find themselves, you end up finding what doesn’t work, and it’s inevitable you’re going to change through the years nonetheless, but a thing for us was that we chased a sound and direction for a while that we maybe thought would take us somewhere compared to what we felt in our hearts was the music we wished to make, over the last two years we feel as though we’re in such a stronger place now with our music and how we approach writing and recording that we’ve gone back to our roots whilst carrying the experience we’ve gained along the way, we truly think that fans and listeners see this and the evidence in this is shown by our dedicated fanbase who have shown us love throughout as well as new listeners who have actively stuck around.
You’ve built a following well beyond Weymouth. Do you feel that the band’s relationship with your hometown and local scene still influences the music, or are you increasingly finding yourselves shaped by everything you experience on the road and through your wider audience?
Absolutely! We come from a small seaside town in Weymouth where there isn’t much going on within the original music scene, driven mainly by cover bands and maybe the odd touring band passing through, it has always mattered to us to be ‘that band’ who comes from Weymouth, and with that being from a scene where opportunities are scarce compared to being in a band from maybe a bigger city, it has driven us and motivated us more than ever! We’re so lucky to have fans from literally all over the world who tune in and listen to us and become life long fans of our music, we feel so blessed that people show up, every show we play whether that be in our hometown or elsewhere has been a massive lesson for us.
Listen to the new single below: