Charlie Herridge runs us through the fast-rising duo’s new EP, ‘Weaponized Youth: Part 1’

The concept came about from an idea for a music video. I had pictured in my mind a video where kids all mobilised en mass to stage a coup against the adults. Tired of how things are being run, they take over, round up all the weapons and burn them as an end to conflict. I then had a little phrase, “We’re the weaponized youth”, in my mind and nothing else. The lyrics came much later; Ollie and I spent a couple of days in a rehearsal room going over the riffs. I knew I wanted it to cover a lot of the topical moments over the previous years, and it became a huge release, reflecting on Brexit Britain, fake news, Trump’s America, and generally sum up the feelings of today’s youth.

Fast forward a couple months later, we were in the studio recording the EP and running surprisingly ahead of schedule, so we thought we’d try and squeeze in another track and write it there and then on the spot. We had a few ideas we’d been experimenting with, so we just decided to start laying down parts as we went in the studio. I threw in a few melody ideas, and we carved out the drums and then had the core of what would go on to become the titular track, ‘Weaponized’, on the EP. It was a spontaneous song born out of the concept above.

We recorded the EP at Brighton Electric Studios. Before we went in, we sat down with producer Josh Harrison with our songs purposely not fully formed to allow more creative ideas from a producer’s perspective. The songs turned out completely differently to how we originally imagined, and it was an exciting process to embrace change in the room and work collaboratively. As a band, we also really like to experiment during the recording process (and have fun), so for one of the tracks ‘Drill’ (feat. on the LTD vinyl for the EP), we decided to take things literally and record us drilling into a breeze block which we then ran through various compressors, and it became a key part and sound on the final recording. We learnt to never be precious about our song parts… you may just end up making something better and way more exciting, and working with the right producer can bring the best out of you.

As a band, we’ve always been heavily involved in the direction or at the helm of filming our own music videos.
For our first single from the EP ‘Work’, we shot the video on the hottest day of 2022, so we started filming at sunrise to beat the heat, especially for Big Ron’s (Charlie’s dog) acting debut. We were absolutely cooking for our parts later in the day. Albeit a simple idea, for anyone who’s seen a live show, we love a high-energy performance and wanted to encapsulate some of that and persona in the video whilst also giving a snapshot of our lives behind closed doors. Featuring some of Newhaven and Seaford’s finest locations…
For ‘Deranged’, we needed a video with a fast turnaround, so Charlie came up with the concept of just filming it on his phone, dug a hole (grave) in his back garden, hand-built a coffin out of an old door, roped in some mates and a neighbour, and we began filming a couple days later on Christmas Eve. Due to running out of time, Charlie ended up having to take the coffin with him across the border to see family in France and shot the remaining video in a run-down shack he found nearby, creating the maddest contraption to hold his phone, you’ll ever see… It came out far better than we could ever have imagined. Who would have thought it would end up being featured on MTV and Kerrang! TV! Especially considering it had zero budget and was filmed on an iPhone…
‘Body Language’ was another last-minute one due to heavy touring commitments for the start of this year, so we had to fit filming around our tours with Kid Kapichi and Panic Shack. We drove down south from Sheffield on our one day off to film the first half, then straight back on tour. For the second day of filming, we’d got back from Cardiff the same afternoon and then set off for Europe after filming that night. The concept was very rough, and we were struggling for inspiration due to the exhaustion from tour, so we asked the chat GPT AI to write the concept for us… It’s being edited as we speak, but look out for that around the EP release.

We’re releasing a limited-edition vinyl version of the EP with local independent label called Austerity Records. Garry and Jim, who are behind the not-for-profit label, were at one of our first-ever gigs and have believed in us since day one. Big shout out to the Austerity gang; it’s people like this who give new bands a platform, and we have a lot to thank them for. The ‘Hot Pink’ Vinyl sold out on pre-order too (!) and features artwork on the inner sleeve which perfectly depicts the concept behind ‘Weaponized Youth’ we explain above. She’s a beauty!!

The bulk of the tunes were written in Ollie’s bedroom with his encyclopaedia of ready-to-go riffs and then often finished off in my shower, where I tend to have most of my best ideas. I’m always struck with a melody or riff and end up leaping out to grab my phone and record it quickly before it disappears. Ollie has great fun at times trying to transpose my phone rambling into an actual, workable part of the song.