Band Of The Week #266 - cruush
This weeks Band of the Week is Manchester’s rising alt-rockers cruush who has just released their new EP ‘Nice Things Now, All The Time’ via Heist or Hit.
cruush take shoegaze’s dusty magic and thrust it into the 2020s, combining grit-your-teeth distortion with a disarming sweetness - think the delicacy of Wolf Alice whipped in the cyclonic guitars of My Bloody Valentine.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Cruush - how are you? So your EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Amazing thx! Some of these songs have been around in various forms for a while, so to have them all coherently tailored into one piece of work is pretty great. We’ve got it out on vinyl as well backed by our first EP which is really cool. They sit nicely together and there’s a neat progression/story there.
It is called ‘Nice Things Now, All The Time’ - what is the meaning behind that?
Was just a random bit we were doing in the car on way to studio like a Saul Goodman Trumpesque mad man ranting about ‘nice things now, all the time! Wanted to see how many times we could say it at the studio before Jonny was like “what on earth are you talking about?” (we managed one). We feel it kinda works nicely as a contrast to what people expect from shoegaze themes/titles, juxtaposes I guess, kind of tongue in cheek and humorous.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
Young Thugs studio in York, basically our musical Mecca. That place really feeds our imagination. Highlights are Pop World which has a revolving dance floor, a creepy b&b full of taxidermy and pictures of the Queen, and taking the time to experiment with weird stuff. The secret weapon for these recordings was an omnichord Amber bought from someone in Sweden, patched through a big old Roland RE-201. These songs overall have much more synth, even piano (who do we think we are?!) . We’ve never really thought about using a piano before but it fit into place on these sessions, particularly the little melodic lift in the last chorus of ‘Ladybird Song’. The Roland RE-201 pops up in a lot of places if you listen carefully, we hid lots of delicious analogue delay feedback through most of the songs. We had more time overall than we have when recoding in the past so spent it thinking about the rooms we recorded drums in. For example, a very small and detailed space with a lot of mics for ‘Headspace’ and a huge room with minimal mics for ‘As She Grows’ add to the confusion/mania of the song.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
Maturing at an alarming rate, confusion in your surroundings, nostalgia, your younger self, letting go of past trouble. The 70s sci-fi show: UFO, The Flower Fairy poems by Cicley Mary Barker, Wands 2019 KEXP session, the new Slowdive album, Ace Frehly, apes and monkeys of all description, Smashing Pumpkins, and Fred’s Home Bakery in York.
If the EP could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
Lost in Translation . it feels like an outsider with insomnia in night time Tokyo, moments of clarity and chaos.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
‘What is most girls’ from ‘Waterbreathers’, we realised grammatically it’s very fun to say in a Frankenstein’s monster kind of voice, someone who really doesn’t know what is most girls, you know? still induces side eye stifled giggles between us at live shows.
Now the album is out there - what next?
More writing, lots of ideas to finish that move on nicely from what we captured here. Gigs gigs gigs.
