ALTESCAPE_ have been fortunate enough to speak directly to Dxwnsides' lead guitarist, Luke, after the release of their debut album, 'I Will Never Be Enough'. Luke gave a huge insight into the band's latest releases, with input from the entire band.
'I Will Never Be enough' was released on January 15th, and there is no doubt that the immense build up for the band's first album was worth it. Releasing their first single, 'Bleed', back in 2018, Dxwnsides have developed an unapologetically unique style. Fusing elements of pop-punk, melodic hardcore, shoegaze, mid-west emo and ambient. 'Bleed' branded the group as having enormous potential, and their debut album has only proved this point.
The album features 9 tracks, each one transitioning perfectly into the next. Speaking on this, the band said: 'the transitions were a main part of the albums design, we wanted it to flow like a rolling narrative to really make sure that the album wasn't stagnant and sounded fluid. Our intention was to use the shorter, more mellow tracks to contrast with the main high-energy tracks.' Their intention couldn't have been any better achieved, the album kicks off with the short, opening track 'Ache' and blends smoothly into the band's debut single 'Bleed'. Following with 'Relapse', which takes on much of the ambient sounds of the album, which then contrasts well with the next track, 'Chase'. 'Chase' largely reflects the groups hardcore influences, taking on a more heavy style, than previously displayed; with the inclusion of gritty, growling vocals, and an impressive breakdown. 'Snow' comes after 'Chase' providing a more mellow approach, with intricate guitar picking, taking on a almost math rock style. Following is Dxwnsides' 2018 single 'Indifference', which picks up the pace before heading into another of the band's more gentle, shorter tracks 'Iridescence'. This is followed by: 'Pointless', which picks up the energy again, as one of the outfit's more pop-punk styled tracks. The album is finalised with 'Bathe', a challenging song that breaks out of the sound established in the rest of the album.
In regard to the themes that dominate the album, there is a definite melancholic tone that echoes through all of the tracks. Dxwnsides regarded that 'the album is largely based off emotions such as: love, anger, heartbreak and sadness, as these are things that most people of our generation will have experienced or will experience. This album gives some insight into the darkness of the mind, as well as giving some hope to anyone battling their own demons, and a reminder that they don’t have to face them alone.' The pain of heartbreak is, definitely, heard in the wistful melodies, and sounds of ambience, yet there is a huge contrast with the heavier guitar riffs, breakdowns and growling vocals, which seem to portray the more anger fuelled side of heartbreak.
Dxwnsides are a Birmingham based band, that take inspiration from a massive variety of genres. Interested in finding out the sort of artists that the group are influenced by, they said that: 'we initially took a lot of inspiration from pop punk bands, such as: The Story So Far, Rarity and Knuckle Puck. But with this release we went into it with the intention of evolving our sound a little more and pushing for a melodic-hardcore edge, taking inspiration from more ambient and atmospheric artists in the genre, such as: Casey and To The Wind while still bearing a pop punk flavour. When writing the album we looked more into differing styles too, such as shoegaze and midwest emo to try and create a more diverse sound for the album.'
It's always interesting to find out the band's personal favourite songs off their album. For Luke, his favourite was 'Snow', 'as its a beautiful song with great melody and lead'. As a whole this is what the group had to say: 'while we love all the songs on the record, collectively our favourite is ‘Bathe’ because we felt that it pushed the boundaries of the sound we’d established throughout the record, setting aside the hook-laden choruses and a traditional song structure in favour of something more akin to a stream of consciousness, set to a 3/4 time signature, both of which are completely new for us. It sums up the themes of the record, while hinting at where we could go next.' I couldn't agree more that this song is an accurate summary of the melancholic tone and feelings of heartache that are portrayed through the record, it is one of my personally favourites as well, which makes me hugely excited about direction in which the group are heading.
In terms of the way the band are heading with future music, this is what the group wanted us to know: 'we’re looking forward to whatever direction the future takes us in. With this album we’ve established a balance of both heavy and light, melodic ambient sounds, so its hard to say where we’re headed to next. The only thing we can say for sure is that it is the start of a new direction for the band.'
'I Will Never Be Enough' has already been massively successful in the short time it has been released- in it's first week of being available on Spotify, it has reached 5.5K streams. I was interested to find out whether Dxwnsides would have done anything differently on the album, and whether they are completely satisfied with the final product of the record. Here's what they said: 'we’re extremely happy with the album as a whole as it incorporates elements of music that all of us can enjoy from melancholic ambience to hardcore/punk influences so I don't think we would have done anything differently. There were a few songs and ideas that didn’t make the cut, but other than that it was all planned pretty heavily and I’d say it turned out just as well as we could’ve hoped for.'
For those of you interested in how the group first got together: it's been a bumpy ride, but the Dxwnsides' line up is now stronger than ever. Regarding how the group met, they said: 'Chris and Luke are now the only members of the original line-up, which went through various iterations prior to our first gig, at Suki10c in Digbeth (Birmingham, UK) in early 2018. Ben and Zac were initially just temporary members that we recruited specifically for the gig while they were working on other projects. We ended up working so well together that we asked them to join the band permanently, and thankfully they both said yes. We then recruited Ollie following the departure of our previous drummer at the beginning of 2019, who Zac knew from college. So I guess we all came from different places and met in different ways, but now we’re confident the band has its strongest lineup and couldn’t be happier.'
As with most bands/artists right now, live shows have been something that have been dearly missed. Talking on this, Dxwnsides regarded that: 'honestly we’d love to play anywhere we can as soon as it’s safe to do so, one of the things we’ve missed most during the pandemic is playing shows, and after being away for so long we can’t wait to see how the new record will sound In a live setting. We’ve been fortunate enough to have already played to venues we’ve always dreamt of playing, such as The Flapper and O2 Academy, but as our ambitions evolve, our goals do too. We’d definitely love to play some larger capacity shows in the future.'
It was a great pleasure to talk to Luke, and gain a deep insight into Dxwnsides' debut album. We look forward to future releases from the band, and hope to see the group live in the near future!
You can check out Dxwnsides latest album below...
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