Function: Bleach Lab Unleash Hearth & Fury on ‘Near the Flame,’ a Devastating Dream Pop Reverie

Bleach Lab proceed that life-long journey on their newest EP: The place Misplaced in a Rush of Vacancy distilled 4 years of grief, reckoning, and renewal right into a cathartic full-length effort, Near the Flame finds them leaning into heavier textures and darker themes with grungier edge with out dropping the dreamlike high quality that has outlined their sound from the very starting. Written via trial and error, and formed in equal components by intuition and exploration, these 5 tracks replicate a bunch each increasing their sonic horizons and reasserting the intimacy, vulnerability, and visceral emotion which have all the time made their music so particular.

“We’d be mendacity if we stated that the observe up report wasn’t a little bit daunting,” Jenna Kyle tells Atwood Journal. “I believe it was maybe a little bit exhausting to get going at first, however after just a few classes with Louis we already had ‘In Your Arms’ and ‘Shut To The Flame,’ so it began to really feel very pure fairly rapidly. I believe the important thing was to simply let that course of play out, and work out the form of music we wished to write down. We actually gave ourselves time to discover the brand new dynamic of getting Louis within the band (who additionally produced the report alongside Kieran) so it was actually necessary to permit ourselves that point.”

Quite than go in with a hard and fast imaginative and prescient, Seaside Lab allowed the songs to take form organically. “The one purpose was to write down music that all of us resonated with, because it’s all the time been,” Kyle says. “I believe the purpose was to simply roll with no matter was coming naturally till one thing cohesive began to kind. The imaginative and prescient was consistently shifting to be trustworthy – we wrote some softer songs, shimmering ‘80s tracks and barely folkier tracks which didn’t make the reduce, all earlier than we began to mildew the EP as it’s now. I believe what we ended up happened via plenty of trial and error and exploration.”

The result’s one in every of Bleach Lab’s most resonant efforts but. Near the Flame is about being caught in relationships the place you’re consistently pulled between love and ache – “whether or not it’s desirous to be the whole lot to somebody, holding onto somebody that’s slipping away, or fighting guilt and nervousness that make it exhausting to maneuver ahead,” the band shares.

“It captures the messy actuality of making an attempt to carry onto love, while coping with self-doubt, remorse and the worry of dropping your self within the course of. Combating for connection however feeling the load of all of it. It’s a uncooked journey via relationships that eat you, from the joys of a whirlwind romance to the heaviness of carrying remorse and nervousness, exhibiting how love can each elevate you up and drag you down on the identical time.”

In some ways, Near the Flame is a reintroduction – a press release of who Bleach Lab are in 2025. The band describe themselves as being in a fantastic inventive place, with new guitarist Louis Takooree’s presence and proximity making writing and demoing simpler than ever, and with extra time spent on these songs than any of their earlier releases. It’s a report that carries the contemporary influences Takooree has introduced into the fold whereas staying true to the whole lot that has outlined Bleach Lab’s artistry from the beginning – “the right reintroduction,” as Jenna Kyle places it.

The title is taken from the observe on the EP’s core. “‘Near the flame, keep heat’ is a metaphor with a number of meanings – one is that so long as you keep close to no matter is impacting you, negatively or in any other case, you’re going to stay in that state till you take away your self from the scenario,” Kyle says. “It felt like a fantastic metaphor for the form of relationships we had been exploring all through the EP, so it turned the title observe. While the flame could make you are feeling heat, it will possibly additionally hurt you for those who get too shut.”

The title observe sits on the coronary heart of this EP, and it’s one of the vital highly effective statements Bleach Lab have ever made. “‘Shut To The Flame’ is about being in an all-consuming relationship, desirous to be completely the whole lot to somebody and the very purpose they exist,” the band share. “Maybe a whirlwind romance primarily based on lust over love. The refrain represents driving quick down a street at night time, with streetlights passing overhead. Suggesting that they is likely to be escaping the world collectively.” Rigidity and launch outline the tune’s each second – aching in its verses, exhaling in its hovering refrain – till the listener feels simply as consumed because the narrator.

Whisper softly to me
Wanna be the air you breathe
Wanna be the whole lot
Write my title in your pores and skin
Like a wave I’ll pull you in

Lights passing
You by my facet
Life’s passing
You retain me alive

The reintroduction begins with “Drown,” a tune that hits with uncooked urgency and unrelenting pressure. It’s Bleach Lab at their heaviest, channeling heartbreak right into a whirlwind of grungy guitars and pounding drums. “It’s about being caught in a poisonous cycle with somebody who is not any good for you. You all the time say it’s the final time you’ll let it occur, however one way or the other you retain discovering your self again at sq. one. You retain going again to them regardless that deep down, you already know it’s not proper,” the band clarify. That stress is carved into Jenna Kyle’s voice as she cries, “You damage your self to really feel alive, holding up the entire weight of the sky.” Her phrases ache with self-destruction, whereas the music swells like a storm, refusing to let go. From there, the band pull inward with “Really feel One thing,” a quietly devastating tune about dependency and the exhaustion of carrying another person’s sins. Kyle sings of sleepless nights and damaged guarantees, her voice trembling with each fragility and fury. It’s one of many EP’s most haunting moments, a reminder of how simply love can corrode when imbalance takes root.

The ache continues with “In Your Arms,” maybe the EP’s most quintessential Bleach Lab ballad – tender and expansive, aching with a determined need to carry on to one thing that’s already slipping away. Recorded alongside a windswept video at Seven Sisters, it captures the dizzying collision of devotion and heartbreak, the euphoria of reminiscence tempered by the dread of loss. It’s additionally one of many band’s proudest moments: “I believe we’re all large followers of ‘In Your Arms.’ That’s the one all of us preserve coming again to – I believe by way of the songwriting and manufacturing it truly is one in every of our greatest but,” Kyle grins.

The EP’s closing observe, “If I May Be Something,” brings the whole lot to its darkest level, wrestling brazenly with guilt, nervousness, and intrusive ideas. “If I may very well be something, I’d be lifeless,” Kyle sings, her phrases chopping straight to the bone. It’s an unflinching have a look at how remorse can weigh an individual down, but additionally an act of catharsis – the form of tune that provides launch by naming the ache out loud. “The heavier shoegaze refrain is one thing we’ve wished to do for some time, so there’s one thing fairly cathartic about that,” Kyle provides. “We’re very excited to play that one dwell!” Collectively, these tracks kind a journey that’s as consuming as its title suggests, each an intimate exhale of sorrow, longing, and survival.

I’d run to you
In a burning room
First time that we met
You advised me
I used to be made only for you

Bear in mind once we kissed that night time
I might’ve died inside
And are available proper again to life
In your eyes
I don’t wanna overlook
However I can see that it’s fading in
Your thoughts

For Kyle, who struggled with bouts of author’s block all through the EP’s creation course of, these lyrics all maintain particular that means – some greater than others. “When it began to circulate, it was an actual aid,” she admits. “I like to create a visceral picture in my writing, so one in every of my favourites is ‘Sitting by your window, morning lights simply coming via’ in ‘Drown.’ I really feel prefer it actually units a selected scene. I additionally love the darkness and literality of ‘carry guilt like a sequence on my neck’ in ‘If I May Be Something.’”

Every tune on Near the Flame stands as its personal world – a journey value taking, stuffed with stress, tenderness, and catharsis. Collectively, they kind a physique of labor that’s as consuming as it’s cathartic, with each observe revealing one other layer of Bleach Lab’s honesty and artistry. It’s an EP that doesn’t simply burn; it glows, sparkles, and smolders in ways in which linger lengthy after the ultimate notes fade.

Within the context of their discography, Near the Flame looks like each a continuation and a rebirth. All through their profession, Bleach Lab have all the time made music that cuts to the core of what it means to be human. Their newest work takes all of that hard-earned emotional gravity and pushes it additional – darker, louder, heavier – with out dropping the dreamlike high quality that has outlined them because the very starting. Near the Flame is greater than a return; it’s a reintroduction, and a strong reminder of why this band proceed to be one of the vital important voices in indie music immediately.

Replay it time and again in my head
Wishing I might return
To the beginning, reset
Carry guilt like a sequence on my neck
If I may very well be something
I’d be lifeless

Eyes are closing coronary heart charges
Slowing down
My physique turns into frozen
Wishing I might return now…

– “If I May Be Something,” Bleach Lab

It’s no surprise the band themselves describe this report as grungy, dreamy, and introspective – three phrases that seize each the place Bleach Lab have been and the place they’re headed. That mixture is uncommon, and it’s what makes this EP really feel so particular: A uncooked but ethereal reckoning, grounded within the shadows however all the time reaching for the sunshine.

Expertise the total report through our beneath stream, and peek inside Bleach Lab’s Near the Flame EP with Atwood Journal as they take us track-by-track via the music and lyrics of their newest launch!

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