Asia is listening to PREP, and PREP is listening again

On the day PREP’s newest document drops, the boys are already within the studio, constructing the following one.

“We’re going to be engaged on some new music that gained’t be out for months, possibly even years,” Tom Havelock, the lead vocalist of the group, confessed. 

The London-based indie pop band has been sitting on the 4 tracks of their newest EP One Day within the Solar for some time now, and they’re keen for everybody to hearken to this new providing. So keen that they admit they’ll be looking by feedback in between periods with “gentle terror” of what folks will say. 

The songs themselves maintain no terror, solely gentle. The 4 new tracks construct on their breezy, marina-pop world. It’s classic at its core, however now with glossier synths and jazz that feels extra indulgent. They faucet into acquainted themes of affection and longing within the lyrics, however with a newfound knowledge this time, providing recommendation about dwelling life to the fullest in tracks like “Do What You Gotta.” 

Havelock says it wasn’t their intention to present recommendation to their listeners. Quite the opposite, he was “imagining a message being delivered to myself” whereas writing it.

“Do What You Gotta,” the EP’s lead single, options Taiwanese band Sundown Rollercoaster, persevering with PREP’s long-standing creative change with Asian artists. Beforehand, the band collaborated with well-known Thai musicians Phum Viphurit and James Alyn, and even appeared on a remix assortment of South Korean lady group Purple Velvet’s viral hit “Unhealthy Boy.”

“It’s simply been very pure,” Dan Radclyffe, lead guitarist, stated about these collaborations. Many have likened their sound to metropolis pop, the style that after stuffed Japanese airwaves within the Eighties. At the beginning, they admit they knew little about it, nevertheless it has since change into a defining ingredient of their music.

And it’s been paying off. For an English group, a piece of their high listening international locations come from Asia, together with the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan, with the band having collaborated with artists from the latter two.

So, can we anticipate a Filipino function sooner or later? The band doesn’t need to spoil something simply but. 

“There are a few artists from the Philippines we’ve been listening to,” Havelock stated, with a cheeky reminder that they’re engaged on their subsequent album. “Our antennae are up for positive.”

A sonic getaway

Their inventive relationship with Asia has change into a cycle of affect. As a result of their viewers comes from these international locations, they tour there. Touring exposes them to new sonic landscapes. These sounds inevitably discover their approach again into their music. 

Llywelyn ap Myrddin, the band’s keyboardist, recollects being taken to a vinyl bar in Seoul the place the band bought to hearken to Thai funk from the Eighties, a sound they by no means heard earlier than and will have by no means heard in any other case. 

Guillaume Jambel, their drummer, says being within the nation itself performs a vital position in how the music influences them. “While you’re within the place the place [the local music] is from and you may see folks’s reactions to it, you’ll be able to actually get it. We’ve found some superb music like that.”

Rappler launched the band to budots, the viral, repetitive Filipino dance music style that hails from Davao Metropolis. They searched it up instantly in the midst of the interview. 

“It’s already dad music!” Jambel exclaimed after discovering the style originated within the late 2000s. 

They expressed curiosity in listening to it. The band was constructed on attempting new issues out anyway. 

The boys beamed with delight and clear affection as they reminisced about their origin story: the pub the place Jambel and ap Myrddin first met, their mutual obsession with rock band Steely Dan, and the primary monitor they labored on collectively, a piano-freestyle demo of “Futures,” a music that might make its strategy to their first EP of the identical identify, all polished and groovy.

They flirt with the concept of releasing it unedited sometime. However they’re too centered on ending their subsequent album to even give it some thought. 

Concerning the future

“Do you want nation music?” Jambel inquires. The band has spent a while writing music for his or her new album in Nashville, which has pushed them to toy with acoustic guitars, an instrument they don’t normally make use of.

They want to get out of the studio quickly, although, and meet their followers, notably Filipinos. 

Whereas PREP is but to collaborate with a Filipino artist, they’ve featured their Filipino followers in a music. Tucked into the deluxe version of their album, The Programme, is a reside recording of “Years Don’t Lie” from their Manila present.

The band declares their Filipino followers are the actual vocalists there, saying they normally sing “as loud because the music” in each efficiency.

Whereas nothing a couple of tour is ultimate but, plans are being made. Guarantees, too. 

“We might be again,” Havelock assured. “There’s nothing like a Manila PREP present.” – Rappler.com