Band of Skulls are trying something new: "It was quickly obvious that we had quite a different record"

Statement of intent don’t come much clearer than the clarion call from mega single ‘We’re Alive’, the second taster from Band of Skulls adventurous new record ‘Love is All You Love’.

“It goes back to that general feeling, that powerlessness that everyone has felt sometime in their life, especially our age or younger,” reveals guitarist Russell Marsden of the band’s most invigorating track to date. “Where you want to move on in life, but there is so much in the way, you feel like you’ve been sold a bit of a raw deal. Whether it’s like having to pay for your education or not being able to move at the same pace as your parents did in terms of what they achieved at your age, and that not being as easy for you.

At a time when older generations are imposing regressive ideas upon millennials and children are going on strike to point out that the planet becoming uninhabitable might be a cause for concern, that feeling of frustration and pushing back resonates powerfully through ‘We’re Alive’ in a way few of the band's songs have cut through in the past. That they put it across in a defiant sing-along jam is all the more impressive. The sentiment of owning your future rather than being held captive by the past speaks to the musical approach on the duo’s fifth album as well as it’s lyrical content.

After four albums of blues-indebted rock'n'roll, Southampton’s Band of Skulls have taken a risk, switched up their sound and come up with some summer festival bangers-in-waiting. Having parted ways with long-time drummer Matt Hayward in 2017, the band was at a creative crossroads. “We started talking about pushing what was possible with a band like ourselves. What’s possible, what’s impossible? That’s how this record started,” Russell explains. To help them stretch their boundaries, they teamed up with super-producer Richard X, known for his work with Sugababes, Goldfrapp and M.I.A, amongst many others.