Introducing Sorry: The London band combining rock with hip-hop and R’n’B
对不起guitarist Louis O’Bryen on relic’ing his Strat, living in London, and the band’s sophomore album Anywhere But Here.
Image: Felix Bayley Higgins
对不起do things differently. Never ones to be tied down, these indie shapeshifters take in hip-hop, R’n’B and even electronic elements.
乐队的2020年首张专辑925was a peek into the neon-lit corners of their London home, on which core members and guitarists Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen – alongside bassist Campbell Baum, drummer Lincoln Barrett and synth player Marco Pini – explore desire in the big city and punctuate it with everything from 1990s alt rock to bracing post-punk.
遗憾的核心是路易斯（Louis）和阿莎（Asha）之间的动态，这是两个互相表现最好的歌曲作者。穿过Anywhere But Here，他们采用多种措施，从主角到对手，随着歌曲从一种声音转向另一种声音。
“Because we’ve known each other for so long, it is a really hard thing to make music on that level with someone,” says Louis “We’ve been honing and practising that without really knowing for so many years. Also, I just respect Asher a lot. I think she’s an amazing musician and hopefully she’d say the same thing about me.”
New albumAnywhere But Here是一个残酷的肠道分手记录。它的歌曲像爱情蒙隆的瘀伤一样闷热，充满了孤独的时刻，就像在最黑暗的夜晚一样回家。但这不仅是情感上的激烈，还标志着乐队迄今为止最重的吉他使用。
“On this album, the guitars are more central to the songs because we recorded live with the band. That’s the basis of the album and everything around it is a bit more hidden this time”.
In the earliest iteration of Sorry, while in high school, Louis and Asha self-produced music in their bedrooms, which soon turned into a collection of eclectic demos that demonstrated an early willingness to evolve.
“We always want to be progressing and changing our sound, not just for the listener but also when we’re writing new songs,” says Louis. “We like to feel that we’re progressing. The idea of us doing the same album four times is boring to us. We try and keep it interesting.”
二人作为吉他演奏者的进步可以在整个过程中听到Anywhere But Here.
诸如Tell Meshowcase their ability to switch gears at a moment’s notice – subtle, forlorn notes morph into bolder, more expressive chord progressions before the track bows out with a hail of discordant noise, the two lead guitars clashing against each other.
“We really wanted that song to explode at the end,” says Louis. “That guitar part is super. It locks in with the drums and we wanted it to keep you on the edge. That song could have become a super-crazy rock song but we wanted it to still be interesting.”
对不起，重要的是要找到适当的平衡，在尝试新的，大声地表达吉他的方式之间，而无需进入全面的岩石领土。是什么联系Anywhere But Here他们在一起是他们将情感强度与完美的语调相匹配的方式。
The album feels concise with its projection of woefully lost romance, however no two tracks are similar. One of the main outliers isWillow Tree, a track that has a sense of playfulness throughout.
“We wanted that song to kind of sound likeThe Kinks和to be just super-simple and have this repeating motif that plays throughout. We tried to not do too much because we have a tendency to over-produce songs a bit, so we wanted to test ourselves and make it really simple.”
另一位简单的旋律变成黄金的艺术家是对不起的多米诺（Domino）唱片公司Alex G.对不起。路易斯说：“我说的最令人钦佩的事情是他写了多少，一致性是疯狂的。”“他是一位了不起的抒情作家，他的旋律超级感兴趣。”
保持简单的功能非常有效，以至于感到遗憾的是，他们已经将自己推向了新专辑。即使从卧室切换到工作室之后，Asha和Louis一直保持着DIY的音乐方法。
在Anywhere But Here，他们与Portishead的Adrian Utley合作，后者认为Louis对保持乐队保持正轨并在专辑中创造连续性至关重要。他说：“生产方面对我们真的很重要。”“当我们写歌时，我们会在计算机上制作它们。
“在这张专辑中，我们希望不要退后一步，而要对其他想法更开放。对我们来说，感觉我们正在尝试不同的工作方式。听起来像是来自同一世界的歌曲，我认为这确实有所帮助。”
写作过程还使乐队思考着不同的工具方法。“我们想以不同的方式处理吉他，”路易说。“最初，我们试图摆脱吉他世界。吉他不一定是中心，但它总是在那里，我认为我们的新专辑中有很多吉他钩子，比以前做的更多。”
Louis plays a blackFenderStratocasterthat he’s owned for six years. It gets better with age. “When I was younger, I used to draw relic’dStrats,” he says. “I really wanted one. Buying a pre-relic’d Strat is a bit naff. I’ve chucked my Strat around so much that the pickguard has gone a bit green. I’m really proud of how I’m relic’ing it myself.”
对不起are often by proximity compared to bands in the South London Windmill scene, including the likes of耻辱和Goat Girl. It isn’t a comparison they’re offended by but the connections are vague and do little to capture Sorry’s singular sense of identity.
Though London has been good to Sorry, in recent years the city’s independent venues have come under increasing pressure, as they have across the UK. “I have noticed it changing,” says Louis, “not necessarily the gig circuit but places that we used to go when we were younger.
“One place, The Lock Tavern, was bought by Camden Brewery. Back when it was independent, we used to play there loads.” Louis also mentions The Monarch, among other London venues that have shut down. During the pandemic, Sorry made a live album recorded at The Windmill in Brixton and sold it on Bandcamp, with the proceeds going to the venue to help it stay afloat.
There are times where it feels as though the city itself is a background character in Sorry’s songs.There’s so Many People That Want to be Lovedsees Asha describe the lonely people of London as if they were landmarks themselves, standing on street corners or waiting for trains in a kind of heartbroken harmony.
London has been the setting to every key moment of the band’s personal and romantic lives, and that bleeds into their lyrics. On城市的钥匙，阿莎（Asha）描述了尽管一生都住在伦敦，但感觉迷失了，这就是某人不再存在的影响。
“It’s where me and Ash have grown up all our lives, all of our loved ones are from London and all of our friendships and relationships happen in London, so it feels like a backdrop to all that.”
因此，鉴于一个城市的音乐历史在朋克，污垢，摇滚和无数其他类型的民间传说中，这并不令人惊讶，对不起，已经拿起了一些技巧。他们正在成为英国最折衷的乐队之一。
对不起Anywhere But Hereis现在出来.
