by Andy Sykes
Everything's Nothing Forever Again
- Nowhere Forever
- Burst Like A Star
- Another Black Hole
- Amber
- Heavy Gravity
- White Noise
- Everything is Nothing
- Lost In Your Orbit
- Dark Matters
- Exhale and Expire
wrest are back with their third studio album ‘Everything’s Nothing Forever Again’ to be released this Friday.
Frontman STEWART DOUGLAS sat down with Andy Sykes to discuss the album, track-by-track, as the countdown continues to their sold-out Glasgow Barrowlands gig on August 31.
There is a decidedly ‘space’ theme to the song titles. Have you been watching a lot of Brian Cox or The Sky at Night?
Ha! I probably have a limited understanding of the universe and stars and all that from a science point of view. The others are more space-minded. So, it’s a more philosophical kind of bigger picture concept and all that.
I guess the album is about how the problems in your life are so huge and significant at the time and everything's a big deal to you. But, actually in the broader context, it's really nothing and nothing really matters.
It’s making the best of it while we're here and it's just very wrest themes.
It follows the ‘happy/sad’ theme of wrest songs but has that undeniable ‘everything will be OK in the end’ aspirational tone. How would you say it differs from Coward of Us All and End All The Days?
The albums are always written in context of the live show, right? It's always about playing music live because first and foremost we see ourselves as a live band and that's why we do it.
Album one was unexpected in that anyone listened to it. So, the second album was like ‘right, shit, people are listening now, we need to bolster the set’ so it was maybe a bit heavier.
With album three, there’s a bit more freedom and we’ve more licence to be creative.
I like to think this is somewhere in the middle of the first two. End All The Days was maybe more optimistic and hopeful than Coward Of Us All was. Maybe this sits somewhere in between.
You rattled this out in five or six months – much quicker than your first two albums. How was that process?
The album was put together in like quite a much tighter time frame than what we've had previously. There was some trepidation that we were going into the studio and didn’t know the songs as well as the other songs when we recorded the first two albums.
But, yes, maybe we had more confidence and were therefore more comfortable.
It's definitely a tighter time scale than we're used to and it's a hard-fought project to get up to where it where it is now. But we're really buzzing for the release and can't wait to share what we've got.
There is something good in the pressure - maybe not at the time when you're sitting staring at the walls - but there's something good in the pressure of having the courage of your convictions and say ‘this is us, this is what wrest will sound like for the next couple of years’. We can’t wait for what is to come.
TRACK BY TRACK REVIEW
NOWHERE FOREVER
‘Things will get better…your misery’s dead to me’ sings Douglas on the opening track, which builds into crashing guitars. A real statement of intent.
“That was the first single and the first track on the album which is quite an important call…or it feels that way to me,” he says. “This was the first of the album songs that we played as a band. It follows the theme of the album…whatever happens, happens.”
BURST LIKE A STAR
Jonny Tait’s thumping drums set the scene for a track destined to be a live favourite.
‘People like you, aren’t easy to find, you burst like a star, light up the night’, Douglas sings as a driving beat powers an album highlight through four wondrous minutes.
“Everyone's the centre of their own world, I suppose,” he reflects.
”Nobody's coming to save you, it's on you to do your thing to the fullest extent.”
ANOTHER BLACK HOLE
The sound of a band truly confident in their own skin as the album settles down into the ‘Space’ theme, with Stephen Whipp’s trademark nimble guitar work to the fore.
“This is a counterpoint to Burst Like A Star, right?
“Burst Like A Star is the more optimistic side of wrest and Another Black Hole’s the inverse of that.
“It’s about things that seem like the end of the world and staring into the abyss.”
AMBER
Get the phone torches ready. It’s the anthemic ballad, Douglas repeating the same lines over and over for maximum effect.
“It’s the flagship song of the album, really,” says Douglas.
“Can you let go of past-sadness and past situations and whatever? It's kind of happy, sad optimism. The ‘Human’ of this album. It seems to have been the best received of the songs and captured the imagination the most when we’ve played it live.”
HEAVY GRAVITY
“I guess this is about watching life situations come to an end but everything is still with you. “The pressures of the world pulling you down and making you what you are.
“The ‘weight on your mind’ thing is like a throwback to the early days of wrest before wrest existed. There was a song that we used to play as Shooting Stansfield that had that line in.
“So, it’s a nod to that and maybe only a handful of people will remember and join the dots.”
WHITE NOISE
This author’s favourite track on the album. A crackly radio effect kicks into an earworm melody as Douglas’ confident vocals shine through.
‘Nothing lasts forever, nothing ever can, I just get up and do it’ he belts out, that smooth Scottish burr purposeful and powerful. It features a staggered chorus ‘I can hear it in the white….noise’ - a departure from his usual delivery.
“See, the guy who recorded the album Mark Morrow, was the same guy we've recorded the last two albums with. That is the one that stands out for him, too.
“The main thrust of it is everyone's so busy with their own lives that actually maybe there's stuff that gets missed along the way.”
EVERYTHING IS NOTHING
Acoustic guitar fans…this is your time. Coming to German radio stations (and the Barrowlands) forthwith…
“This is the track from which the title sort of derives for the album.
“Everything’s Nothing Forever Again encapsulated in a song.
“Nothing matters, everything is bleak, but here we are, so let's get on with it. That may sound depressing, but I’d like to think it’s not delivered that way. It’s quite heavily acoustic throughout.
“We are currently getting pushed for radio in Germany by a notable plugger over there and she’s highlighted this as the ‘radio’ song which was a surprise to me.
“I actually thought she'd mixed it up with another song.
“It's hard to actually gauge how things go down until you put them out. You can have your own ideas, in house discussions and talk one song or another up. So, it’s great to hear other people’s perspectives.”
LOST IN YOUR ORBIT
The fourth single release, a slow burning introspective lament where Douglas sings ‘The stars came to shine, I don’t want to miss this.’
“This was the first idea that I had when coming up with the album and probably what led into a broader theme.
“It feels like it fits the theme musically as well as lyrically.
“It’s about being lost in the orbit, trapped in someone else’s surroundings.”
DARK MATTERS
Breathe Out, Lost On You…and now, Dark Matters which takes the coveted penultimate track of the album slot. And it’s a belter, a punchy guitar beat building to another explosive finale. But it almost didn’t make the album…
“This was the struggle song!” Douglas laughs.
“This went through numerous different iterations. I wanted something driving and you said punchy, right? That’s a good description.
“This song gave me sleepless nights and had me climbing the walls.
“Sometimes a song is difficult to complete and this was an example of that.
“I wasn’t sure it would make the cut for the album then everybody around me was saying, ‘oh, that's really good, you should definitely keep that’.”
EXHALE AND EXPIRE
“I don't necessarily want to keep linking everything back to past songs but this was this is like the ‘Breathe Out’ from the first album. Or that's how we see it. Breathe Out and be done and everything will be alright in the end.”
‘Is anyone here? Are you still here’, Douglas asks as the album comes to a close with another epic ending.
Everything's Nothing Forever Again is out on Friday 16th August 2024.
The Glasgow Barrowlands show on Saturday 31st August 2024 is now sold out.
A waiting has been setup for anyone who missed out on tickets: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Glasgow/Barrowland-Ballroom/Wrest--Support---Glasgow-Barrowland/36338850/
Photos by Jordan Duncan