Brighton post-punk quartet Egyptian Blue have just dropped their debut EP Collateral Damage on YALA! Records. Instilled with sharp, nervous energy emanating from their grinding riffs and unapologetically fierce sounds, they have earned themselves a reputation as a burning new band exploding with aggressive euphoria and gripping post-punk grooves. The four enthralling tracks possess a dark vibe, inspired by that after-party atmosphere where deep chats “trigger negative thoughts in your head”. Unapologetic and ferocious, songwriter, singer and guitarist Andy Buss gives us the lowdown on the whole EP here, track by track.
‘Collateral’
Andy Buss: We recorded this track at Church Road Studio in Hove last summer. It was the same day England beat Panama 6-1 and the thing I remember most is the stop/start takes as we heard, "hold on one second lads we've scored again" coming through the headphones from the control room. The subject matter is actually heavier than that: I'd written the track the previous Christmas after meeting up with a friend who suffers from severe social anxiety. He told me he'd fallen in love with a girl online whose name he didn't even know. I got this idea about a romance lost in coding. The music came together in my head at that moment, and meddled over me for a few days before I'd picked up the guitar. Leith’s lyrics in the second verse act as a counter balance to the distortion of the lyrics in the first verse with his experiences of different relationships. It then becomes one story, told from different view points, about ultimately having to give something up.
‘To Be Felt’
AB: At the time, early 2018, we'd got into the habit of having these really long jams at practice - only this time a friend was recording us. I think the riff appears once in a 40 minute jam, but I took that guitar line and built a song around it. In terms of the narrative, as a band and at the time, it felt like we were walking a tightrope where the drive and luck we'd had could be wiped away in a flash. It took a couple of weeks to work this one out and I remember I wrote some of the lyrics at a Moonlandingz gig in Brixton, that was the same night we missed the train back to Brighton (again) and ended up sleeping at Gatwick Airport (again). It all came together in a slightly hectic way.
‘Contain It’
AB: Probably my favourite track of the four, and the one that required the most thought to construct in the way I could hear it in my head. The lyrics came from a combination of things people had said to me or things I’d heard on the radio - both provided words that stuck in my head. I have a list somewhere of certain phrases I'd noted down that now appear in the song. Weirdly, the lyrics started to directly relate to me and my life after we recorded the track - it feels now as though I was self-prophesying. It's a track that always carries a lot of energy for me live, and it paved the way for how we perform at live shows. We always knew that a screwdriver at the start was the most imperative aspect to the song, and one that we had to incorporate in our live set!
‘Adderall’
AB: Quite often I write a song off the last chord of another of our songs, and this is where ‘Adderall’ came from. I started playing the tune the same day I wrote ‘Collateral', the chords are pretty similar, and it came together that night and was demoed the next day. I was trying to write a sibling for ‘Collateral’, but it didn’t really come out that way in the end - more of a step brother/sister. We recorded ‘Adderall’ and ‘Contain It' during the same session at Brighton Electric Studios - we feel at home there as it's where we also practice. The lyrics come from things we've remembered people saying on nights out or at the bitter ends of a night - it's another track where me and Leith sing separate verses and then together on the chorus.
