STACK #216 October 2022

MUSIC FEATURE

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Image credit: Peter Eason Daniels

Sorry, L - R: Louis O'Bryen, Asha Lorenz, Marco Pini, Lincoln Barrett, Campbell Baum.

Anywhere But Here by Sorry is out Oct 7, including on transparent bottle green vinyl, via Domino.

Agitation and anxiety flutter through the second LP from notoriously genre-chowing North London act Sorry, but you'll also experience a distinct cleansing of the brain by its close.We put some questions to the indie-rock duo turned-five-piece's co-singer-songwriter Louis O'Bryen, all about the impressive Anywhere But Here . Words Zoë Radas LOUIS O ' BRYEN SORRY

Stevens’ WildWorld (though he sings “nice friends”).Were you deliberately reflecting on that song’s wholesome sort of style? Urmmm, no, not really! I think that was a happy coincidence. A few people have mentioned that song and compared it to Wild World … Cat Stevens is great. I get a real patronus feel from this deer we see in some of the album’s visual art.What does it mean to you? The deer is reference to the line, “You said I always look like a deer in the headlights", and I think that image is quite reflective of the song itself. Asha does all the artwork, and so it always correlates to the music.

Sorry co-vocalist and co-songwriter Asha Lorenz, who co founded the band with Louis O'Bryen. Image captured by Iris Luz.

You've described this album’s version of London – as opposed to [2020 debut album] 925 ’s – as a more ”haggard” place, which is so evocative because you usually hear ‘haggard’ to describe a person. Do you feel as if London cycles

There are some awesomely dissonant parts that pop up across the album. Do you think there’s always a distinct line between harmony and discord?

That’s important to us: we want the music, videos and artwork... to all come from the same place, and correlate. There are heaps of curious sounds and effects on the album, but the most unexpected was your use of horns ( Willow Tree, I Miss the Fool , muted trumpets in Step ).They fit so beautifully.What do you like about how they change the feel of a track? Sometimes stuff like that happens quite naturally. For Step , our bassist Campbell Baum was in the studio with us and had his saxophone, so we just decided to lay some down for that song, and [it] ended up working really well. Sometimes you need to throw sh-t at the wall and see what sticks...

I think dissonance in music is important to us. That give-and

through personalities or tempers or what have you? I think as you grow older your view of life, people and the city around you changes... We were younger when we made 925 and had

take feeling when you go from dissonance to the resolve is very potent. I think when I listen to music, that’s the stuff that draws me in

Sometimes you need to throw sh-t at the wall and see what sticks

most. So, that’s just what comes out naturally when we write music; if we don’t think about it too much, that’s the stuff our brains produce. I don’t think there’s a line between discordance and harmony. I think they’re playing off each other. There’s a line in Key to the City which goes “Hope you make a lot of rich friends out there”, which sounds like a line in Cat

a more innocent, kind of tongue-in-cheek way of speaking about stuff. Anywhere But Here feels a bit more sincere and face-on; there’s not much crypticness in the album. It

wears its heart on its sleeve. So if 925 was innocent and youthful, Anywhere But Here is a bit older and more self-aware.

Continue reading the full Q&A online at stack.com.au

OCTOBER 2022

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