DEFENCES

track-list:
The Curse
Gold In The Dark
Perish
Ego(Maniac)
Silence & The Sound
Breathe It In
Inspirit
The Almost
Greatness
Shadowlight

DEFENCES are:
Cherry Duesbury – vocals
William Young – keys, vocals
Calum Wilmot – guitar
Owen Hughes-Holland – bass
Kyle Parke – drums

live-date 2024:
07.12. UK, Brighton – Hammerdown Winter Militia

Alternative Press:
“Frontwoman Cherry Duesbury is one of the most interesting voices in modern metalcore.”
Rock Sound:
“Stronger, more confident and with more clarity than ever before.”
KERRANG!:
“Some bands deserve to still be put in the ‘new’ category because it’s like they have truly been born and found themselves.”

Future alternative metal greats Defences return with their stunning new album ‘Shadowlight‘.
Following strong support in the form of millions of streams across their catalogue of releases – the band from Hertfordshire, U.K., now present their label debut for Long Branch Records.
“‘Shadowlight’ stems from a period of solitude and deep reflection, as we explore what it means to accept your inner darkness”,
comment the band.
“Acknowledging, understanding and ultimately accepting it for what it is, learning how to sit with it or use it to change your outlook. The album sees all sides of this, tying in the parallel of the artistic process itself and what it is to create. To open yourself up to the possibility that you may not achieve what you believe in your core to be something you deserve, that you may not reach your potential. This cycle of disappointment and self sabotage is commonplace, with nothing left but to chase a sense of absolution and validation forever out of reach.”
Defences have completed numerous U.K. tours with multiple sell-out headline shows, not to mention numerous festival appearances including Download, Takedown, Turbulence, Burn It Down and UK Tech-Metal Festival.
These shows and releases, combined with the online community being cultivated in their #TheHeart fan page, ensures that the band remains connected with their constantly growing fanbase as they move into their upcoming release.
“‘Shadowlight’ stems from a period of solitude and deep reflection, as we explore what it means to accept your inner darkness. Acknowledging, understanding and ultimately accepting it for what it is, learning how to sit with it or use it to change your outlook. The album sees all sides of this, tying in the parallel of the artistic process itself and what it is to create. To open yourself up to the possibility that you may not achieve what you believe in your core to be something you deserve, that you may not reach your potential. This cycle of disappointment and self sabotage is commonplace, with nothing left but to chase a sense of absolution and validation forever out of reach. To live in The Almost. We deal with this feeling of yearning for ever-elusive fulfilment over the course of ‘Shadowlight’, using the example of self-reflective Shadow Work to give a form to the parts of yourself that would normally be hidden and the parts that we wish we could change. By facing these fears, this obsession with fulfilling an ill-defined sense of potential, and internalising it as a part of ourselves, we are liberated. We become whole. By welcoming the reality that we may never achieve absolution in the form we expected, we liberate ourselves. By accepting things as they are rather than we wish they are, we take back our lives. We become whole.”
‘The Curse’ (working title: ‘Snakecharmer’):
“‘The Curse’ was the first song we wrote for this new record, and serves as a creative bedrock for what follows. We spent a long time after the release of our last album experimenting with different tones, implementing various musical elements and styles. We actually ended up writing most of another album more or less before we came to ‘The Curse’! The ominous atmosphere of that early demo married perfectly with the visual style we had been exploring in something of a watershed moment, and more or less immediately established the blueprint for the rest of the album! It was also the first time we had worked with an outside co-producer in Tobias Young (Our Hollow, Our Home), who was a great addition to the creative team and excelled at getting us to question our process by offering a different perspective of what we do well as a band and what this blossoming record should be. The inspiration for the lyrical content of this song came from an inside joke in the band that we are cursed. We’ve had a variety of challenges, missed opportunities and odd coincidences and sometimes it has felt like the entire Universe is against us! Cherry had been joking and teasing for a long time that she would write a song about this, and the instrumental demo (titled ‘Snakecharmer’) seemed like the perfect canvas for it. We felt like this feeling is something that a lot of people could relate to so it was important for us that we get the tone right and avoid coming across as defeatist and fatalistic. We wanted to turn it into something positive and expressive as a way of memorialising this feeling while simultaneously acknowledging to our listeners that we are not unique in feeling ‘cursed’.”
‘Gold In The Dark’ (working title: ‘Raindrops’):
“‘Gold In The Dark was where we continued the style set by ‘The Curse’ while adding in a few new fun elements. The idea that served as the creative catalyst was the music box motif from the intro, with the rest following on very naturally. We enjoyed seeing how many different ideas we could add in while still writing a catchy song, with Cherry’s distorted vocoder sections a particular favourite for us. The majority of this song was written in Summer 2022, we actually wrote the breakdown for this song the night before we played Download! It was such an inspirational time for us and it’s some of the work we are most proud of on this album. Interestingly, it marks the first time an acoustic guitar has featured on a Defences song since our first album in 2017! Despite that being a lifetime ago and a very different record from a very different band, it’s gratifying as musicians to see little full circle moments like that and ‘Gold In The Dark’ was the first song for this album that felt like it covered bases for our entire fanbase, both old and new!”
‘Perish’:
“An undeniable favourite of ours both on record and onstage, ‘Perish’ is a special song for many reasons. For one, it was one of the rare occasions where the song almost writes itself. There was very little iteration for this one, pretty much all of the parts you’re hearing are the original version save for one or two improvements. While the riff for this song is an obvious strong point and was pretty much unanimously loved by all of us from the get-go, a personal source of pride for me (Calum) was the electronic elements of this song. Stepping up into the role of co-producer was a lot of pressure and this song helped me prove to myself that I could branch out from the soundscape used in ‘Gold In The Dark’ and ‘The Curse’ while still keeping a consistent theme and sound. However, the most memorable aspect of the creation of this song was without doubt Cherry showing us her scream for the first time. It was done without any warning, she just sent over a demo with her going full Courtney Laplante on it out of the blue, which was only made more surprising by the fact that she had been adamant for years that she couldn’t do it! As soon as we heard that, we knew that this track would have a special place on the record purely on the basis that it marked a significant development in Cherry as a frontwoman. That, and the fact that it’s incredibly heavy and fun, is why we love ‘Perish’!”
‘Ego(Maniac)’ (working title: ‘Amphetamiracle’):
“Ok, that working title probably needs some explanation! We wrote ‘Ego(Maniac)’ around the time I (Calum) was first treated for ADHD. The difference was night and day, so when I was trying to think of a new working title this silly song name came to mind! This song was all about Shadow Cherry from the ground up. It was supposed to be her ‘solo number’, a slightly tongue-in-cheek Disney Villain song that serves as a proper introduction to the character. The original demo was full of over the top evil laughing samples and little things like that, which was hilarious. I still imagine them over the top of the final song when I’m listening to it! In terms of the instrumental, I’m particularly proud of how varied this song gets between different sections without sounding incoherent. When you’re writing an album, it’s very easy to fall into a holding pattern of how your songs are structured, and I’m stoked that we managed to come up with something that is so weird and unapologetically itself!”
‘Silence & The Sound’ (working title: ‘No Beef Bro’):
“‘Silence & The Sound’ was the first instrumental put forward by Owen after joining the band in late 2022. The apprehensive, almost claustrophobic opening melody immediately caught our attention and those lovely open chords in the chorus were a breath of fresh air. It’s very easy to become insular when writing an album, so having Owen come in with his own influences was a great way of adding some variety to the record. The inspiration for the lyrical content of this song is a field where Cherry used to take daily walks. This silence was a way of her setting aside time to think, reflect, break down, whatever she needed on any given day, and one of those things that she used to do was record voice notes to herself. This resulted in an especially cool production element in the final song, with the background chatter heard in the first verse being a blend of tens of these different voice notes. You can also hear sounds of the field and birds in the trees at the end of the song!”
‘Breathe It In’:
“Serving as a lower note on the journey of introspection recounted on this album, ‘Breathe It In’ is certainly one of the rawer, more despairing songs from this release. The synthwave soundscape paired with the punishing riffs were crucial in establishing a compelling backdrop for Cherry, and we’re proud of how they reflect the sometimes overwhelming emotions that can come with self-acceptance. The marching rhythm in the chorus is one our favourite parts of this song as it was done with the intention of representing the procedural and steady process through this introspective journey, remaining constant and on the beat while the rest of the instrumentation around it is far more fluid and chaotic to represent the inner turmoil about which Cherry is singing. ‘Breathe It In’ has got to be the song that had the longest time in the oven on this record. The very first demo was written around mid 2021, and was then forgotten for a long time while we worked on different things. It was only when we’d already established the sound and direction of this new album that we found a way of reworking this song, however even then it was a hassle! There was one day where Toby and Calum worked for 8 hours on it and then lost the entire song due to a computer crash and had to start from scratch. Writing out how long this song took and all of the obstacles in its creation, it’s a wonder we finished it at all!”
‘Inspirit’ (working title: ‘Gold Flex’):
“The writing process for this album was sadly marred by a series of personal losses for us. ‘Inspirit’ is a song written for them and for all those who have lost loved ones in their lives. This was one of two songs put forward by Owen on this album (the other being ‘Silence & The Sound’). Beginning life as an energetic, full band song, it quickly evolved into something more intimate and raw. It’s a beautiful encapsulation of the feelings of longing and disorientation that come with personal loss. The whole song has a sense of surreality, reflecting the disbelief we felt upon receiving that life-changing news and, as is sadly so often the case in life, has an unexpected ending. Haunting and soothing in equal measure, ‘Inspirit’ is as unfiltered as we’ve ever been and we are immensely proud of the final result.”
‘The Almost’ (working title: ‘Full Send’):
“This song began life as an experiment, with us essentially trying to write a bass heavy vibey rap beat for fun. It quickly became clear that this idea had legs and had to be on the album, so we developed it from there. It was undoubtedly one of the most collective and iterative writing processes on the entire album. There are a lot of different versions of this song out there! A particular highlight is the guitar riff in the second verse, which is made up almost exclusively of pinch harmonics. It’s the wacky things like that and the rap beat that give this song a lot of personality in the context of the album, and once again Cherry’s vocals in that middle section completely elevate the song, with the storytelling in particular from that passage being a standout element.”
‘Greatness’:
“The writing process of ‘Greatness’ was almost in reverse, in the sense that we had the song name and meaning before any lyrics were written, with us wanting to write a song that reflected how easy it is to make unfavourable comparisons to others, and to play down what you have achieved. In this way, the title ‘Greatness’ is ironic; a mistaken belief that we can never achieve the ‘greatness’ we were meant for or imagined. The instrumental was equally bizarre, with this song almost being scrapped completely. It wasn’t until Owen and Tobias added in those beautiful quiet verses that the song took shape. Another special highlight for us has to be that Shokran inspired middle section, which was originally (unbelievably) even longer! It has many more prog elements than we normally go for, but we had a great time writing something that was a bit out of our usual comfort zone and we can’t wait to see how it works live!”
‘Shadowlight’ (working title: ‘A New Direction’):
“This is an extremely special song for us. Aside from the obvious reason, with it being the title track of the album and a neat way to tie up the main themes spoken about on the record, the thing that blows my mind is that it so nearly never happened! We had this demo almost from the beginning of the writing process for this album, however it was never the top priority for writing and quickly was forgotten. Then, one day, Cherry sent over what would essentially be the final vocals for the song, with her vocal ideas having completely transformed the track into one of the strongest we’ve ever done. If this album is a film, I imagine this track as what would play over the end credits. As a result of being quite a lot lighter than some of the other songs on the record, ‘Shadowlight’ was very liberating to work on. For example, our co-producer Tobias went mad with those little 1975-esque guitar leads in the verses, which are subtle but add so much. Equally, going for a much sparser mix was refreshing and extremely inspiring. As with a few other songs on this album, ‘Shadowlight’ essentially wrote itself as everybody was so motivated to work on it, doubly so as we knew it would be something that would appeal directly to our O.G. fans who have been listening since album 1! We don’t often get a chance to write a song for them while keeping to our modern style, so that, as well as many other reasons, is why this track holds such a special place in our hearts.”
Formed in Hertfordshire, U.K, Defences are an Alternative Metal band featuring Cherry Duesbury (Vocals), William Young (Keys, Vocals), Calum Wilmot (Guitar), Owen Hughes-Holland (Bass) and Kyle Parke (Drums).
Since the group’s inception in 2014, they have released 2 E.P.s and 2 full-length albums, as well as multiple singles to accompany these.
Following strong support in the form of millions of streams across their catalogue of releases, the band have partnered with Long Branch ahead of their upcoming album.