It feels like the time is right for The Mysterines to deliver their debut album. Created during a pandemic, ready to arrive once it starts to subside (for now, at least - Ed), ‘Reeling’ is an album that confirms the Liverpudlian gang as bonafide talents. We caught up with Lia Metcalfe to catch up on how the album came together, and what to expect next.

It feels like the process of putting together an album and the whole Covid lockdown thing came pretty much hand in hand for you as a band. Did working on it during a period like that make a big difference to the end product, do you think? I think the strangest thing about the pandemic and the writing/recording process of ‘Reeling’ is that I’d never experienced either recording a debut album or a pandemic, and nor had the lads - I guess like most people. It was a time of completely new encounters for us all, and I guess because we didn’t really know any different about recording at that point, it didn’t feel like limitations were in place, or we were doing anything differently to how an album is constructed… You know, it’s sort of like placing someone on a rollercoaster for the first time, without a seatbelt, and them surviving the experience and then asking them to describe how unsafe they felt… I mean, if they didn’t know seatbelts existed, they’re not going to know any different, and quite possibly, they’re always going to want to ride the rollercoaster that way.

Pandemic aside, did you encounter any unexpected challenges making the record? Yes, of course - but the challenge is the fun part; it’s where the vitality of something is born. I don’t tend to trust things that are completed too easily.

What comes first for you when writing a song - the subject, or the music? What do you enjoy writing about? Is it usually the same process? It’s a process I don’t get to choose and something I wouldn’t wish to choose either. I see it as more of a channelling process, without getting too spiritual about it… All I know is that survival for me is writing every day.