Ian: Your debut EP, Dress To Drive is out today October 9th, what does this EP represent for Afterdrive at this point in the band’s journey, and what do you hope people take away from it after listening from start to finish?
Afterdrive: We are honestly so excited to be releasing our debut EP, Dress To Drive. Up until now, we’ve mainly released singles, and we feel like now is the best time to give our fans a full project to really get stuck into. At this point in our journey, it feels like a right step for us as a band and a chance to show people a lot more of what AFTERDRIVE is about.
On the creative side of things, it gives us so much more freedom as songwriters to show people how diverse our songwriting can be. A single only gives you so much space to show what you’re about, whereas with an EP we can explore different sides of the band and give the fans more to get into. We are really proud of these songs and hope that when people listen to it from start to finish, they can hear the different sides of us in one body of work.. More than anything, we just hope people enjoy it, find songs that connect with them and want to come back and listen to it again and again.
Ian: “Jewellery” and “Neon View” both made the final tracklist, while “Fashion” has been kept separate from the EP. What was it about “Jewellery” and “Neon View” that made you feel they belonged on Dress To Drive?
Afterdrive: ‘Neon View’ from the get go was always going to be a feel good summer track with a real anthemic pop feel to it. We knew from the start that it sounded like the kind of song you’d hear on the radio all the time, and that’s exactly where we wanted to take it. We are really happy with how the song went down, fans love it both on record and live, and it got loads of support from BBC Radio 1, making it our most radio supported song so far. Honestly, we saw the vision of where we wanted it to go from the start, and we’re happy to say it did exactly that.
With the track ‘Jewellery’, we really wanted to give listeners another side to our music. The song is very impactful, starting with a piano intro and melodic vocals which really set the scene before building up to a hard hitting chorus. With this song, we felt it would show a different side to our writing while still sitting perfectly in a project alongside tracks with a sound our fans are already familiar with. We feel like that contrast is important to the EP and it’s narrative, and for the fans it gives them something different to while keeping that AFTERDRIVE sound running through the whole project.
Ian: “Fashion” has a slightly different feel and was released separately from the EP. Was leaving it off Dress To Drive always part of the plan, or did that decision come later as the EP started to take shape?
Afterdrive: ‘Fashion’ has a real stand alone energy that we felt would be best left on its own. It’s a relentlessly energetic track, and we wanted people to listen to it, get completely caught up in the vibe and be left with that feeling afterwards. And underneath all that energy, there’s actually a deeper, emotional side to the song that we wanted fans to connect with. Lyrically, it’s about being infatuated with someone because of the way they look, the way they dress and everything you find attractive about them, to the point where that infatuation starts to outweigh the fact that the relationship itself might actually be bad for you. It’s almost about knowing that something isn’t good for you, but being so drawn to that person that you can’t really see past how you feel about them.
We love the track, and it’s so much fun to play live because of how much energy it has. It felt like such a great song to put out at the start of the year, especially going into our UK & EU support tour with Maggie Lindemann. It went down so well across the UK and Europe, and it was really exciting to see people connecting with it in different places. We had ‘Fashion’ merch that became a real fan favourite across the tour, with graphic tees featuring the bold hook from the song, ‘your fashion is turning me on’. We loved seeing people rep the track and make it their own through the merch, and it was really cool to see how much the song connected with people beyond just the music itself. Looking back on all the amazing things that have happened this year, it definitely felt like the right move having it as the song to kick start the year for us.
Ian: You’ve already played some seriously big shows, including supporting McFly and Maggie Lindemann. What were those experiences like for you as a band, and did playing to those different audiences change the way you approach your own live shows?
Afterdrive: We have always put a lot into our live shows, it’s something we’ve taken seriously from the very start. Having the amazing experiences of playing to 20,000+ people in our hometown stadium, going on tour with Maggie Lindemann across the UK & Europe, and supporting huge names like McFly, we’ve realised just how well our music translates from record to live and how well it can be received by different audiences.
To be able to play a stadium with an artist who leans more towards the pop side of things, and then go on tour with Maggie, who has a more alternative leaning sound, and get an amazing response from both audiences has been really exciting for us. It’s shown us that we can bridge that gap between different audiences and that our music can connect with people in different spaces.
We don’t necessarily approach our shows differently depending on who we’re playing to. We just go out there, give it everything, play the songs we really believe in and put on the best show we can for the audience. If anything, those experiences have just made us even more confident in what we do live and how much we can get out of our songs on stage.
Ian: I actually caught you guys at The Academy in Dublin back in April supporting Maggie Lindemann, what do you remember most about that night, and what was it like stepping onto a Dublin stage in front of that crowd?
Afterdrive: Ah, awesome! This was the first night of the tour and our first time in Dublin, so it’s a really good memory for us. It was the first show of a tour that turned out to be so incredible for us from start to finish, so there was definitely a lot of excitement going into that first night. We absolutely loved the crowd in Dublin and had the best time on stage. It was such a great way to kick off the tour, and we’re eager to get back soon.
Ian: Radio 1’s Alyx Holcombe described Afterdrive as “The 1975 meets The Weeknd.” It’s obviously a pretty huge comparison, do you recognise those influences in your music, or do you feel you’ve developed a sound and style that’s distinctly your own by this point?
Afterdrive: We were really happy when Alyx gave us this comparison, as we’ve always felt like we’re a combination of our influences. Pop and R&B are a big part of that, especially in our production, but rock is also a huge influence on us, so we’ve always wanted to bring those different sides together in our music.
We love both artists, and they’re both some of the most successful artists in their genres, so to see that we’re being recognised for being able to merge those influences in a way that feels natural to us is really cool. We’ve always said that we want to bring different sounds together while still creating something that feels like AFTERDRIVE, so hearing that comparison from someone like Alyx was a really great moment for us.
Ian: There’s a real mix of guitars, synths, electronic elements and pop influences in what you’re doing. When you’re writing a new song, do you start from the perspective of being a band, or are you more interested in simply following whatever sound feels right for that particular song?
Afterdrive: I think for us, it’s more about following whatever feels right for that particular song. We don’t really go into a writing session thinking, “this needs to sound like a band” or “this needs to sound like pop”, we just follow the song and see where it takes us. Sometimes that means the guitars are at the forefront, sometimes it’s more production led with synths and electronic elements, and sometimes it’s a mixture of everything.
Ian: With Dress To Drive being your debut EP, was there a particular moment during the writing or recording process where you felt, “This is what Afterdrive sounds like”?
Afterdrive: I don’t think there was one particular moment where we all suddenly thought, “this is what AFTERDRIVE sounds like.” If anything, making the EP made us realise that our writing can be diverse and that we don’t necessarily have to stick to one formula every time.
I think that’s probably the biggest thing we took away from making Dress To Drive. It gave us a better understanding of what AFTERDRIVE sounds like, but also made us realise that we have a lot of room to keep exploring that sound going forward.
Ian: You have the single “Find Your Body” arriving as a standalone single on November 20th, shortly after the EP. What made you decide to hold that song back rather than include it on Dress To Drive?
Afterdrive: Although the Dress To Drive EP era is just beginning, we’re also so excited for the follow-up single, ‘Find Your Body’, which will start another chapter for us. We always felt like this song had its own identity and deserved its own moment rather than being part of the EP. It’s such a strong single, and we feel like following the momentum of the EP and our headline tour, it’s the perfect song to keep showing people how strong we’re coming.
Ian: Looking beyond Dress To Drive, “Find Your Body” and everything you’ve done so far, what do you think the next chapter of Afterdrive is going to sound and look like? Is there anything you’re keen to explore that you haven’t had the chance to do yet?
Afterdrive: Honestly, it feels limitless for us at the moment. We’ve got the Dress To Drive EP coming, our first headline tour in October, ‘Find Your Body’ and then we’re already looking ahead to the new year. There’s so much we want to do, and we feel like we’re only just getting started.
For us, the next chapter is about taking everything we’ve built so far and pushing it even further. We don’t really want to put a limit on what AFTERDRIVE can become, we just want to keep growing, keep playing bigger shows, keep making music we love and see where it takes us.
Photos & words – Ian Mc Donnell @mcgigmusic