Relative up-and-comers Fizzy Blood from Leeds have just released their brand new EP ‘Pink Magic’, a collection of four songs, which is expected to be their third and final EP before moving on to thinking about a debut full-length.
“I think it’s something that we all really wanna do,” bass guitarist Ciaran Scanlan told us when we caught up with the band before their recent set at Reading Festival. “But, as everybody knows, it’s a very expensive process, not even just recording it but the campaign for an album and everything behind it costs a lot of money so I think, particularly now you’ve got to be in a position where you’re really ready for an album.”
‘Pink Magic’ itself has been a long time in the making, with the songs themselves recorded towards the end of 2017. “We’ve been sat on it now for quite a while,” explains guitarist and keyboardist Tim Malkin. “Even the singles we’ve released so far, we’re like ‘oh god, it’s been so long since we recorded them’.” It’s safe to say they’re all pretty excited about finally getting to drop the tracks they’ve worked so hard on, but the Leeds-based band have definitely been growing and learning with regards to their creative process since last year’s ‘Summer Of Luv’ EP.
“You have to get all the bad stuff out first before you get to the good,” says Ciaran. “Before we released ‘Summer Of Luv’, we went away to Tim’s parents house. He lives in Glossop which is like, the countryside of Greater Manchester, and we kind of sat in a barn and wrote about fifteen songs. And none of those songs were released on the EP. The lyrics were some of the worst we’d ever written! Recently, we were doing lyrics first and then writing around the lyrics but it’s normally someone will come up with an idea, bring it to the band and then we’ll jam it out.”
“It turns out you can’t really write lyrics together,” added Tim with a laugh.
And for those wondering what kind of songs to expect from this quirky upbeat psych-rock quartet, Ciaran remarked that their records have, “always had some kind of theme, and the theme changes after every EP.”
Keen for audiences to listen and find their own meanings and messages in the music, the band, for the most part, leave ‘Pink Magic’ open to interpretation. Although Tim explained one of the newer themes and ideas was the fact that “you can perceive your life to be however you want it to be, perfect or whatever, through social media, when [in reality] it’s not really quite that…”
Mysterious and interesting, not unlike the band’s plans for 2019, which they remained fairly tight-lipped on but only because “we don’t want to say we’re going to do something and then it not happen.” We can, however, expect them to do be doing some touring following the release of the EP and then “just meander through what’s going on” as Tim told us with a chuckle. “I can imagine doing a lot of writing in 2019,” Ciaran added. In the not so distant future, however, the band will be returning in style to their hometown of Leeds to perform a headline show at the Brudenell Club, which they admitted was their “spiritual home.”
“We always seem to just gravitate to that venue even if there’s not a gig on,” said Tim, with Ciaran agreeing, “it just attracts really good artists. I wasn’t around in the 70s so I can’t say for sure but I feel like it’s what music venues used to be like, there’s no kind of animosity or I’m better than you sort of thing there We’re well excited to play there.”
Playing there will undoubtedly be an important rite of passage for the band and a milestone in their career, as was their appearance at Reading & Leeds. As fans of the festival, they’d been attending Leeds for many years, so to be offered the chance to play for the first time in 2017 was a big buzz. “I’ve always gone to Leeds,” said Ciaran, “Since I was 16 I think and then last year we played it, so it was an important thing for us. Loads of my friends were in the crowd as well, my dad was there, my girlfriend was there. It was amazing but really surreal.”
No virgins to the R&L experience, Fizzy Blood returned again this year to play the BBC Introducing stage, and with their thoughts turning from ‘Pink Magic’ to their inevitable, but mysterious debut album, don’t be surprised if Fizzy Blood will be having many more surreal experiences in the future.
‘Pink Magic’ EP by Fizzy Blood is out now on Killing Moon/Alya Records.
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Words by Becton Simpson (@swallowmyeyes).
