The buzz around Static Dress might be impossible to ignore, but - while so often such excitement can be built on unstable foundations - they’re the real deal. A band who build a whole universe around them, they’re one to believe in. But what is ‘Rouge Carpet Disaster’, and why did it nearly bring their whole world crashing down?

Words: Jack Press.
Photos: Olli Appleyard.

Great art often comes with hefty consequences; the stories of artists pushing to extremes to realise their vision are all too well known, extending themselves past their breaking point in the process. For Static Dress's Olli Appleyard, the making of their debut album threatened to not only derail the train of hype they were riding but to throw those on it off a cliff of burnout.

"Everyone was worried about everything, and it forced you away from yourself. I lost track of everything. It was the lowest of lows," reflects Olli, lit only by the light of his screen in a moment of vulnerability.

"We weren't a band. There were moments where it wasn't even a thing anymore. Like, it was over and dead. Trying to do this just killed it."

As the train began to leave the tracks, driven by artistic ambition, Olli pulled himself into out of body experiences just to hold it all together for everybody else.

"It's really funny because you went through people's different stages. You saw this record slowly start to break everyone, and I'm sat there like, I have to make sure this happens, but I'm already broken before everyone else is."

Joined by bassist Connor Reilly, drummer Sam Ogden, and guitarist Contrast, Olli drove Static Dress to the deepest depths of their mental and physical limitations. In some ways, it's a miracle the album will even see the light of day, with original members Tom Black and Sam Kay departing the band halfway through, amidst the strain of tying it all together.

So, now the mysteriously titled 'Rouge Carpet Disaster' is done and dusted, does it still feel like Olli's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, or is he finally feeling a sense of relief?

"I'm kind of just glad because, in my head, it was such a trauma doing it that I'm like 'alright, sick'," he laughs, without losing a sense of seriousness. Of course, it's not all doom and gloom - excitement is bubbling under the surface.

"I'm excited for people to hear it and for people who like this band to finally get the album," he enthuses, before his own experiences of it come clawing back to the fore. "But for me individually as a person, I'm so glad to get away from this record. I know that looking back in a few years, once I'm over certain things, I'll be able to enjoy it, but right now, it still sends me back to a time when in my head I was the worst I've ever been."

For a pessimist, Olli is pretty optimistic at times. While it's hard to let go of a period that will continue to haunt him for some time, he has hope that it'll mature like a fine wine. As they take it out on tour and their listeners make it their own, he hopes to learn to live with it.

"I think it'll change once it comes out because I'll see what it'll be able to do for people. Not in a selfish way of 'oh this album let us go play this show' - I'll see what it did for people emotionally, and I can say, 'I'm glad that it helped you because it hurt me'."

It's that hurt that trickles through 'Rouge Carpet Disaster' like blood pulsing through its veins. While its story picks up where last year's 'Prologue' EP left off, its musical DNA diverges. Like a ripple effect, that pain is felt throughout every song. It's steered musically as much by trauma as anything else, every corner and crevice packed with different influences.

There's the post-Britpop indie-rock that simmers underneath 'fleahouse', the pummelling post-hardcore pomp of 'Courtney, just relax', or the electronic underbelly that boils up in '…Maybe!!?'. 'Rouge Carpet Disaster' is like listening to a collage of clashing styles that ultimately complement each other. And it serves an important purpose: to push away from their past and put out the firepit of pressure the hype of being quite probably the UK rock scene's most exciting new band has dealt them.

"It's been daunting. I find that if for half a second we sit there and go 'oh, is this as good as…?' – it won't be. It'll just absolutely cripple us. I feel like as an artist, if you self-compare to your old work, you're never going to progress from that moment," Olli admits, openly aware that 'Rouge Carpet Disaster' isn't simply the Static Dress we're used to.

When Static Dress first dropped their debut track 'Clean' in 2019, they took the underground by storm, suddenly shooting onto festival bills and up-and-coming lists. When it came to their debut album, they felt it haunting them like a ghost.

"If you hyper-focus on the first thing you did, and it was brilliant like 'Clean' was, then you worry about it. It'll destroy you in the end," Olli asserts, pausing to reflect before divulging further. "We tried it; we were like 'alright, let's write 'Clean' again', and now we've got nine different versions of the same song.

"We would go into the studio to record new things, and we'd pull up these demos and realise it's exactly the same song nine times over. And some people love that," he admits, pausing almost dramatically to deliver his own punchline. "But for a project that's meant to be moving forwards and making waves - trying to change this whole 'rock band world' to make something more interesting - it's just not going to do it."

Static Dress's desire to deviate from rock's established model is a driving force behind everything they do. While a lack of a record label and limited budget constraints keep them grounded, they thrive with the necessity to stay creative with what they've got. Not only does it push them to try new ideas - it offers authenticity too, as every note you hear is real.

"There's no drum sample replacement," Olli enthuses. "There's no fake anything. The strings you can hear, that's all us, it's not programmed. There are string sections made up from one violin being pitched down, but it's all real."

On top of that, as Covid-19 kept them apart, they had to take being a DIY band to new extremes.

"There were moments where we'd be recording in my conservatory at my parents' house because we couldn't meet the guy I was tracking with. I'd be sat on the floor, with a mic on two tables, both of us with masks on, and it was just so difficult," Olli explains, exhaustion in his voice from reliving the experience. Covid-19 rearing its head meant a lot to the record. From recording at home to Olli's mental state, it was like throwing a flash grenade into a burning building.

"I can't really remember anything because my head got into such a space where it just blanks now. People talk about lockdown and their experiences, and I genuinely couldn't tell you what I did. I just didn't leave my room for months."

Covid-19 gave to Static Dress as much as it took. With idle time on their hands, they dove into television and movies, discovering a whole world of inspiration for the story that binds both 'Prologue' and 'Rouge Carpet Disaster' together.

"I wanted to write a story based around really weird stuff, like The Hotel series from American Horror Story and The Shining. Stuff like that was incredible. So I started pulling in elements, here and there, and then even weirder stuff - I pulled a lot from cartoons," Olli shares, as we question what could be weirder than Stephen King novels. His reply?

"There's an episode of SpongeBob where they stop at a convention in a hotel, and it sounds bizarre, but it's the weirdest thing ever. There are so many hidden jokes. I'm like, 'this is sick' - if you watch it rather than being like 'oh look at the colours', you'll get it. I took a lot from all these places."

And SpongeBob wasn't the only cartoon character to lend a hand. Olli is reluctant to reveal any plot details, but 'Rouge Carpet Disaster' unfolds song-by-song, and we have Pixar's favourite cowboy to thank for some of these elements.

"Do you remember Woody's Roundup from Toy Story? At the end of the show, when the credits roll, they have the Woody's Roundup song going." It's an idea used with closer 'Cubical Dialog'. "You've had all this emotional stuff happen in the episode," he explains, "and then it's like the happiness at the end is there, and the song comes in.

"I thought that was better rather than leaving you feeling sad. I wanted something for people to be able to be happy because the last thing I want to do is leave people in a state in this day and age."

Listening to 'Rouge Carpet Disaster' is like indulging in a binge-worthy Netflix series. You'll end up tying clues together on cork-boards, chasing down the band for more. And that's entirely on purpose. It's meant to become a franchise you buy into, rather than something you passively comfort watch.

"The songs could all be released as singles at some stage, and that's fine, but I want to be able to have something in my hands. That I can hold and give to future generations and go, 'this is the thing that did it for a lot of people'," he enthuses. "An episode of a series sticks with you for a short amount of time, and it's your favourite episode, but a film - you're like, 'wow, this is an amazing film'. The way they hold up to each other isn't the same. An amazing franchise will completely outweigh a single show."

Last year's 'Prologue' is crucial to 'Rouge Carpet Disaster''s longevity. Even though the album was done and dusted by the time the EP arrived, it sets up the story with a legacy of its own.

Cast your mind back to Slam Dunk Festival 2021. A little band from West Yorkshire called Static Dress are getting people to buy discs at the merch table. What are they? They're not telling anyone. You've got to put your money where your mouth is and gamble on it. And if you did, you got your first taste of what became 'Prologue'.

"It was festival season, and I thought it would be cool if we started introducing a different kind of story and gave something physical to people they could only get at shows. So, we wrote all these demos, mixed them roughly and put them on a disc and had the entire thing coded and transcribed it so you couldn't read it."

It was a bold move for any band, let alone one who'd only had singles out. Olli saw it as fan service, but everyone else saw it as an opportunity. Suddenly, a disc of demos for a faithful few meant an actual EP – that they had to start and finish in three months.

"It's September, and we're putting it out in December, and I'm sat there with no music videos, no concepts, no ideas, nothing - because it was never meant to be released. There was no mastering done, no artwork in sight, so I had to call it an idea, come up with a theme and go from there."

The pressure put on Olli to pull together an entire EP that somehow fell into step with the album they'd been making was almost unbearable. Everyone in and around the band wanted it out in the world, whereas Olli wanted it dead and buried. At first, anyway.

"Originally, I just wanted it to be single, single, single and then drop the album and be like, 'bang, here's a big body of work'. But I was the only person who didn't want ['Prologue'] out. The worst thing is, I wish I'd just said yes to begin with because if I didn't fight it for so long, I would have given myself more time to prepare."

Considering it was all crammed into three months, it's clear Olli and co. can succeed under pressure. A little like rocks, they become diamonds when the going gets tough.

Teaming up with illustrator Tanya Kenny, Olli created a comic book complete with a backstory to the world of 'Rouge Carpet Disaster'. In fact, it sets the scene sensationally. But for some fans, it felt like too much too soon.

"The reason it's called 'Prologue' is not that it sounds cool, but because it's actually a prologue of what's to come. Some people were like, 'these songs aren't as good as what you've released before, I don't like this, I don't like that, there are so many interludes'. And it's like, we released it with a comic book for a reason.

"If you read it while listening to it, it would make perfect sense. If you just put it on and all you do is listen to it, you're going to miss it. For full impact, you have to have the book in front of you to read it and go, 'oh, that's where they're heading'."

Static Dress have the commitment of a great band of storytellers. Seeing is believing. Unless you fully buy-in every step of the way, you'll miss out on the breadcrumbs they're dropping. Think of it as a cinematic universe. Each release is a phase, and each phase is connected.

"We'd rather focus on the small number of people invested