Until they released their shimmering comeback single, the bittersweet 'I Feel Terrible' last year, it had been a minute since we'd heard from Brighton trio Orchards. "We just wanted to be people for a bit!" exclaims vocalist Lucy Evers.

"Between Orchards and previous bands we'd played in, we've all toured pretty consistently since we were 18," Lucy explains. "We just wanted to experience what life is, heal, then come back and make a record that meant something to all of us."

"After we released our EP 'Trust Issues' in 2021, we'd initially planned to quickly get another record done," adds bassist Dan Fane. "We all took a step back and realised maybe having a bit of a break would be good for us. The idea of rushing another record overwhelmed us all, and it didn't feel right."

The band describe their new record 'Bicker' as "the quintessential break-up record," and as Lucy describes pulling lines from therapy sessions to create lyrics, you get the sense that a lot has gone on behind the scenes in the last few years. Don't worry, though; they haven't gone and made a super sad tearjerker. True to form, Orchards have taken the heartbreak and turned it into something blissful: a gorgeous balance of soaring indie-pop bangers, glittering synths and quirky math-rock time signatures.

"It's incredibly cathartic for me," states Lucy. "There's a couple of songs on this record where the lines and words are taken from my therapy sessions - I've always said I'll never write about something that isn't a true experience. In the space of two years, with ourselves and within our friendship groups and circles, there were something like twelve break-ups; it was like there was something in the water!

"Our break-up album isn't like, 'Oh we're so sad, play the tiny violins', we're still jumping up and down on stage and kicking the shit out of stuff, but we're just doing it with emotional lyrics. I've always been someone who writes poetry. I'm an open book, and I'm quite happy to bleed over everyone. It's not just about showing vulnerability; it's about making people feel seen."

As Lucy discusses lyrics, both Dan and guitarist Sam Rushton eagerly chip in to compliment her. "I think Lucy's lyrics are a lot more direct this time around, there are no mincing words, and that makes it a lot more relatable; she's outdone herself on this record," says Dan.

"I was listening to one of the songs the other day, and I realised, 'Oh my God, she means this!'" laughs Sam. "For me, as someone who has heard these songs so much to suddenly get a new realisation, that totally changed the connection to the song."

With all the love and appreciation the trio clearly have for each other, it's hard to believe the new record is called 'Bicker' because they reckon they sometimes sound like they hate each other. "Sam and I have known each other since we were little kids; we grew up together in Liverpool and moved to Brighton together, so we argue like brothers all the time," says Dan. "We met Lucy on the first day of Uni in Brighton twelve years ago, so we don't hold back!

"We all love each other, really; it's just we can be quite abrasive in the way we speak," says Lucy. "We made a joke about the album being called bicker because that's all we ever seem to do, and it just stuck."

"It also sounds good in a scouse accent," adds Sam. "Bicker!" (said in the thickest Scouse accent you can possibly imagine).

Given how tight-knit the band are, it's apt that one of their rules when it comes to working with people, stated by Lucy, is: "If we don't think we could introduce them to our parents or go for a pint with them we won't work with them."

It's a mantra that led them to work with old friend and producer Jack Wilson, also a member of fellow Brighton band Fickle Friends. They credit Jack for sparking a whole new level of creativity within them that comes across on 'Bicker'. While the record doesn't demonstrate any drastic change of direction, it's Orchards at their purest, most pastel-hued form with added 80s-inspired synths.

"With our debut 'Lovecore', we made such a conscious effort to have a sense of cohesion across the record, whereas, with this record, we decided to just treat every song as an individual," says Dan. "We didn't want them all to fit into one box. People consume music in a different way now, so you don't have to make a record that sounds like just one thing."

"Jack said something that really stuck in my head," recalls Sam. "We were all second guessing ourselves, and he pointed out that we've all been making music since we were like 14 or 15 years old, and we've all played with a bunch of different bands, so if we think something is good, it probably is good! He just gave us a confidence that we all bounced off."

The aforementioned parents/pint rule is perhaps one of the reasons Orchards have found themselves a part of the math-rock scene, which is renowned for its friendliness and inclusivity. While they've always experimented with playful time signatures, Orchards have more in common with the likes of Paramore than Shellac.

"I'd never necessarily pause at a math-rock gig and go, 'Yeah, we fit in', but I think the way we treat our instruments, vocals included, lends itself to that sound," explains Sam. "When we first started, we definitely tried to go for that vibe. We loved all the math-rock stuff, but we've developed our songwriting now. We used to put weird parts in the songs purely for the sake of it to make people go, 'What the fuck?' Now, if it's weird and it works, it goes in, but if it doesn't really work, we'll leave it. But we're still math-rock nerds at heart!"

"It just boils down to having fun – the whole point of writing music is to express yourself, so we just want to enjoy ourselves. If that means we get put in a math-rock bubble, then amazing. The math-rock community is so accepting and kind, and we love being part of that scene. Math-rock is basically just a genre of runaways. It's all people that grew up listening to something else, whether that's hardcore or 2000s indie, then they run away to a field for a festival like ArcTanGent and shove all that in one big pot!"

One of the big comeback gigs Orchards played last summer was actually at ArcTanGent, and they were clearly in their element, with Lucy bouncing around the stage in a voluminous pink dress as fans clung to the front barrier singing along to every word.

"When we play typically heavier festivals like ATG, people have called us a sort of sorbet or amuse-bouche," laughs Lucy. "We're the palate cleanser to everything heavy!"

Orchards' album 'Bicker' is out 28th March.