With a debut EP riddled with personal self-doubt and loss, My Only look to lay down a potentially expansive ground work with ‘This Room & You’.

The subject of loss is always carried with a heavy weight yet it has a tendency to create something positive. With their debut EP, ‘This Room & You’, King’s Lynn quartet My Only explore their vulnerability and self-doubt through a short flurry of emotionally driven melodic post-hardcore.

“We all have memories of love, loss and shame,” explains drummer Tom Ward as we catch up with the band ahead of the EP’s release. “it’s why humans have written songs about since forever, and it’s much easier to write creatively about things that you actually feel and are fresh in your mind.”

It is no doubt that the former University pals show lyrical awareness throughout ‘This Room & You’. Songs such as ‘I Had to Pay For Every Breath I Took’ and ‘No World Without You’ are carried by vocalist Jon Barnes’ thoroughly honest delivery whilst his band mates underpin the sentiment with intense instrumentation. As Tom tells us, that element of honesty is inspired by the bands they grew up seeing.

“We all listened to roughly the same bands growing up, so the classic mid 2000’s emo and punk bands play a huge part. Going to shows in our formative years and seeing bands absolutely losing their minds live has almost created an unconscious instinct to write music that is raw, up front and doesn’t hide behind gimmicks. We almost want to recreate that feeling for others but taking inspiration from music we love, be it modern day or the records we listened to in our youth. We write music that we ourselves would enjoy listening to. Our writing style is a product of all the bands we draw influence from. I suppose that encompasses quite a few bands in similar genres to ours.”

Whilst early comparisons have been made to the likes of Basement, Brand New and Moose Blood, My Only’s brand of emo comes off as more refined with their songwriting process being one that requires patience. “As a team, we always tend to have short bursts of writing progress before losing our momentum. We then take the opportunity to go through what we’ve written and simplify things. I think our best work is when we take things slowly and think more about the bigger picture and structure of a song,” states Tom.

Although the “emo” tag was once a dirty label for many bands, Ward and company aren’t fazed by the connection to it, if used correctly. “I think a lot of people forget that emo is short for emotional, and if you take that that into consideration, the term can encompass a vast amount of genres. To label a band as broadly as emo is great, but when our sound is then compared to the likes of My Chemical Romance – a more conventional emo band – it feels a little lazy. We want our music to connect on a more emotional level, but the term doesn’t necessarily define our sound.”

For a debut EP, My Only brew with plenty of promise on ‘This Room & You’. With a sentimental and bleak lyrical core, the four tracks they have to offer are thoroughly effective, laying down a foundation that allows them to head in a variety of directions.

‘This Room & You’ by My Only is out now on Crooked Noise Records.

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Words by Sêan Reid (@SeanReid86)