Photo courtesy of Marianne Harris

This global pandemic really did hit us like a flying haymaker, and by that I mean square in the face really, really hard! We had not long finally received the final cut of our latest EP, Heart, Mind & Hell, which we had recorded with Innersound Audio in York back in September 2019. We were playing shows and planning our release process; we had chosen which tracks we were going to be shooting music videos for and had plans in place for the social media build-up along with a couple of UK tours on the horizon with some great bands.

Needless to say, the UK’s lockdowns put everything on hold. The tours were cancelled, the video shoots postponed and along with all that we now had to make a decision as to whether or not we would sit on the EP or put it out there anyway! We decided to wait, which seems to have been a saving grace as it gave us more time to prepare for all of the background work that goes into releasing new music.

On a personal note, this did actually make things difficult as I was placed on furlough from work for two and a half months with nothing to put my focus into. Fortunately for me, my housemates (Matt, who plays bass and provides some of the vocals also in the band, and his girlfriend) were also off work, which meant that we could at least provide each other with some form of human interaction. Matt came up with the idea that we should try to make weekends mean something so that we would constantly have something to look forward to each week. By that he meant let’s only get drunk on Fridays and Saturdays…this didn’t last long and we were soon drinking most days. I did, however, get back into reading fantasy novels and putting hours in on the PlayStation.

As the UK went in and out of lockdowns towards the end of 2020, we made the decision to finally release the EP. We managed to get videos done through the brief moments of lifted restrictions and also had the plans in place to slowly release teasers and songs over the first few months of 2021 with the big day coming on the 9th April! We were thrilled with the response that we received from new and old fans, which spurred us on to keep the content coming after the release. The lockdown gave us the time to put together our merch store and get it looking as good as possible before going live.

As we appear to be getting back to some sense of normality in England we are looking forward to getting shows and possible tours back in the works with the hopes that this year we can finally play live the songs that we recorded back in 2019. I think that due to not being able to practice with the guys and play shows in so long I have realised that I was taking certain aspects of being in a band for granted and I can honestly say that I will be putting in all the effort possible to ensure that I don’t do that again.

If everyone could spare us a few moments of their time to check out the latest Next Stop Olympus EP, Heart, Mind & Hell, that would be amazing. Thanks for taking the time to read this.