After releasing a string of successful singles throughout 2023, Bristol indie-rock four-piece The Bedside Morale returned with the release of their debut EP ‘Still Life’ on July 26th 2024.
The band have been making music together since 2014; What was immediately apparent was that they’d found something special together, and the pursuit of the band began in earnest.
Over the years different forms of musical and self expression were explored. The group bonded over their shared love of all kinds of music, and were unafraid to bring new elements into their own writing. It’s been a storied journey since those early days but the group developed into a very close-knit unit, coming to realise exactly who they were and how they fit together. Close to a decade of life experiences and musical adventures has resulted in The Bedside Morale; sincere rock music without limits.
Their debut single ‘Safeword’, the first from their upcoming EP was released in September 2023, championed by the likes of XS Manchester, Islington Radio and Louder Than War Radio. This was soon followed up by their second single ‘Bitter Things’ in December, celebrated by Wonderland Magazine, BBC Introducing and Louder Than War Radio.
Their upcoming debut EP ‘Still Life’, produced and mixed at Stage 2 Studios with Josh Gallop (Mother Vulture, Krooked Tongue, Phoxjaw), is a four-track snapshot in time of where the band were at creatively, at the beginning of their new musical journey.
Describing the writing process guitarist Charlie Dowzell says: “The lyrics are true to life and conversational in nature; We had a lot of fun exploring new themes and sounds for this EP and the reflection of honesty from within and love for our craft were the driving forces – it just so happened that the EP culminated in a freeze-frame of where we, as individuals and a collective, were at time of writing.”
Vocalist and lyricist Tim Kazer adds: “I’m trying to write more that matters to me, lyrics that I can deliver from my chest. For this EP I wanted to write songs that reflect life, or some aspect of it. Songs that are real and that are true to it. There’s moments of love and of pain and it’s all heartfelt. I think maybe I feel some sort of need to come back to authenticity and I can say, hand on whole heart, that every song here is authentically us.”
Ahead of the release of the EP comes its third single ‘Yours Sincerely’ on July 12th, a track that exudes an impossible amount of emotion right from the opening note, masterfully taking from something dark and turning it into something beautiful.
Discussing the single Kazer explains: “Lyrically Yours Sincerely was a really tough song to write. Kynan had come in with the song framework and that beautiful bass line. It felt sad and quiet to me, dejected I guess, and I knew what I wanted to write about I just had no idea how to do it. I think like a lot of people I dealt with the trauma I had faced by detaching myself from it. I stood in the rafters so to speak. I could say the words and tell people what happened but in some way I was pretending that wasn’t me. But that’s not what felt right for this song. I wanted the song to be in conversation with that person, a chance, albeit not face to face, to say all the things I never knew enough to. So I had to force myself to really feel it. I tried to not shy away from putting it to paper, or wrap it up in clever wordplay, which was hard because it meant accepting the reality of it and how little control I had. There are still some lines in this song that, if I spend too long focussing on, utterly break me. So that’s Yours Sincerely. A song about trying to love, in spite of all the turmoil.”
