Highly acclaimed indie rock collective October Drift have announced their new album Blame The Young. Their third album will be released on September 27th 2024 via Physical Education Recordings and is available to pre-order now here.
On Blame The Young, Kiran Roy (vocals/guitar), Alex Bispham (bass), Chris Holmes (drums/vocals), Dan Young (guitar) have created an imposing record, full of powerful songs which for the band are their most personal yet. However, these songs are also universal, immediately captivating on a wider level spearheaded by Roy's deft inclusive songwriting alongside the band's infectious riffs, hooks and harmonies that run throughout the new record.
"I Don't Belong Anywhere was a difficult record to make," Roy says about their last album. "We wrote and recorded it ourselves during the lockdown in our studio and it has that claustrophobic and isolated feel to it. We also felt some pressure to get the thing written and to live up to the first. This third album I think has felt easier and more fun to make. We took ourselves to an Airbnb barn conversion on the Somerset levels, it was great to be in a different environment and I think you can hear that it was a lighter experience making this record.
"In some ways a lot has changed amongst us since the last album. I think we've all grown as people. We've all made changes in our lives. There's a sense of a journey, even pilgrimage, in this new album. I say pilgrimage because there is an almost spiritual element - it's sometimes hard to explain why we write songs and what it means for people to hear them and to play them live and have people sing them back. We're not quite sure what the end goal is, it's as much about the process and the journey and finding out about ourselves and expressing ourselves as it is making connections, communities and giving voice and solidarity and escape to others. It's an escape for us too, and a route out of the regular."
What is clear on Blame The Young, sonically, thematically, and "spiritually" as Roy puts it, is that on their third album October Drift have truly come into their own, comfortable in their own skin, yet while looking inward they've created an important record to spark connection and understanding on a much wider level which is sure to prove a hit with fans old and new.
Side A
1. Blame The Young
2. Demons
3. Nothing Makes Me Feel (The Way You Do)
4. Wallflower
5. Don't Care
6. Everybody Breaks
Side B
1. Borderline
2. Tyrannosaurus Wreck
3. Hollow
4. Heal
5. Not Running Anymore