Bristol quartet Our Nameless Boy are a band that has appeared across the pages of Already Heard several times over the years. Their brand of stirring emo-rock has constantly won us over, making them one of the UK’s hidden gems. This week, they’re returning with a new EP – ‘Thorns’.
Across its four tracks, the four-piece carefully craft an immersive EP that dials down on an assured quiet/loud. Along the way, vocalist/guitarist Iain Gorrie, bassist Chris Brain, lead guitarist Ewan Simpson, and drummer Will Purcell throw in impassioned and frenetic moments. It makes for an impressive and digestible EP, serving as clear evidence of a band that deserves wider acclaim.
Besides its somewhat brief outing, ‘Thorns’ sees Our Nameless Boy‘s main songwriter, Iain Gorrie, reflect on the constant dread of fascism, hollow politicians, and the modern human condition. It makes for a thought-provoking listen, only to be aided by big guitars (see ‘(Not in My Name)’), Brain’s subtle bass groove, and Purcell’s ample drum work.
With such a dynamic sound and lyrically gripping collection, Iain was on hand to offer a window into the creation of ‘Thorns’. Our Nameless Boy‘s frontman discussed the meaning behind the four tracks and how they came together from the initial ideas to the finished songs
‘38
I wrote ‘‘38’ almost two years ago, during the first of what is now many times that I felt like the end of the world was imminent. As well as referencing what many these days might list as contributing factors to the downfall of humanity – greed, ignorance, and the press all get a mention – the song is trying to put across that, no matter what your perspective is on major, far-reaching events in the world, ultimately when they land on your door, they will take you by surprise.
Musically, I took a cue from Thrice’s ‘The Earth Will Shake’ with the stark dynamic shift at the start, and I think the extra gotcha of shifting the strumming pattern to briefly make the melody feel different works to bolster this idea of being taken by surprise by things you don’t believe could happen to you. The original structure of this one was a little different; it had a more conventional middle section with quite a ‘Pride’-by-Manchester-Orchestra feel to it, but this final version just felt far more natural for us to play to. It’s the most ‘does this song even have a chorus?’ song we’ve done since ‘To the Heart’. It’s also the one I was most desperate to release because, as time went on, I was more and more starting to recognise just how not-alone I was in having these feelings that really underpin the track.
(Not in My Name)
‘(Not In My Name)’ highlights the hollowness I often believe I see in political speeches and discourse; that there are certain things that almost shouldn’t need to be said, and then when they are, it feels like there’s no substance or action to back those words up. In my mind, this character is standing at a lectern, all eyes on them, as they fail to convince anyone listening of their sincerity.
This one went through more changes than ‘’38’. Not in a “this needs saving” kinda way, more in a “how can we really make the most of this idea” kinda way, honest, guv. The tempo got sped way up, the verse vocal melody completely changed, likewise the back half of the chorus, lyrics went through their fairly common four draft minimum. I completely lost sight of whether this one was any good and got quite nervous leading up to release, but the reception to it, especially hittin dat sweet Kerrang! chart was more than I could have asked for, or deserved, I’m sure.
Thorns
The main character in ‘Thorns’ has become frustrated with seeing themselves and the people around them trying and failing to beat the rat race and accomplish the suburban dream. They see their bosses’ bosses becoming more and more affluent, comfortable and greedy, all the while seeing more and more people in less comfortable positions around them being hit even harder than they are. There are two parts in the song where the perspective is flipped in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner to that of one such ‘boss’. I’ve only recently decided, since locking in the track order for the EP, that this more affluent perspective is the same as we get in to ‘Little Bird’…
‘Thorns’’ best highlights the approach we took to pre-production for this EP. The tempo map for this looks absolutely bonkers. Aside from the random bars of 5 and the near-unnoticeable switch form 6- to 4/4, we would take the click track from the demo into rehearsals and play to it just to make sure it felt as natural as when we play it live. This meant an arguably ludicrous number of tempo changes, but the end result feels more ONB, which is nice (subject to opinion).
Little Bird
‘Little Bird’ is told from the viewpoint of a person who was childhood friends with someone who would grow up to be a prominent populist figurehead. This person is starting to see history repeat itself and questions what they could have done in their past to steer this friend of theirs in a different direction. They start to see how this person’s views and rhetoric are making targets of people, questioning if they themselves are the good person they believed they were, and beginning to grow fearful that they could one day be targeted. In writing this song, it dawned on me that this character would likely never actually have this epiphany. However, I think it does a decent job of conveying that no one is safe from this now all-too-powerful person. “Little bird” is a reference to a certain real-life megalomaniac, no need to spell that one out. Every verse very intentionally starts with the same word…
This is the only song we didn’t do a full demo for, because we didn’t start developing the initial sketch until about 3 months before recording, which, for us, is not a lot of time. That initial sketch had the fully formed structure and maybe two lyrics I liked; everything else just came about from us being in a room together; I had no clue how we were going to arrange everything until we started jamming. I felt zero connection to the sketch lyrics I‘d written about 4 years prior, so there was a bit of pressure to put something together that I was happy with by recording time. I really don’t remember where the idea came from, other than constantly being kept awake at night by the dread of fascism taking over (still am). What I do remember is that the final lyric tweak was made about two minutes before recording vocals, and that everything about the recording process for this one was just effortless and magical, especially Will’s drum performance as that just set the tone for the rest of the session. This is the best song we’ve ever written, fact. It doesn’t have to be your favourite. You don’t even have to like it. But it is. So tough.
‘Thorns’ EP by Our Nameless Boy is out now on Bandcamp and all other platforms from 17th April.
Find Our Nameless Boy on: Facebook | X (Formerly Twitter) | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
