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Lonely The Brave have shared ‘Bound’, their first single with vocalist Jack Bennett.
Bennett joined the group in August 2018 after frontman David Jakes left the Cambridge rockers to focus on battling his mental health struggles.
But as the band head into a new era, ‘Bound’ sees them leaning heavily onto their recognisable alt-rock sound – with Bennett taking front and centre for the first time.
“It was weird, because of course I’d never heard them singing with Dave,” Bennett told NME of his first experiences recording with the band.
“But it still sounds like Lonely The Brave, even if it’s a different tone in singing.”
However, he admits to feeling the pressure from the band’s long-term fans and the need to win them over.
“For me, I was thinking I needed to make sure that no one had anything on me and so they’d be like ‘this guy is shit’,” he said.
“On one hand I don’t care because I’ll do what I do, but the band have said this is amazing and it does sound like us. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of hooks and vocal lines to make it believable, so that our fans were into it.”
As for the timing of the release, Bennett said he hopes that the new release will give fans a degree of light relief and escapism amid the doom of the coronavirus crisis.
“We did have a think about whether or not to release it, so I put a little thing on Instagram that asked ‘Does anyone actually give a shit if we put new music out?’,” he explained.
“And I get that people might feel sensitive, but everyone needs music right now. People are sat at home and going mad, so it was literally one hundred percent of people who got back and asked us to release it.
“When people are told they can’t go outside, everyone’s feeling a bit more reflective so it’s exciting to release this online – even if our touring is up in the works at the moment.”
But Bennett admits that not every fan was quite on-board in the same way.
“There was one guy who messaged me and said ‘If it’s not Dave, the only person I want to replace him is Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam‘,” he said.
“I thought if that’s where your bar is, I *think* Pearl Jam are a little bit busy at the moment. But it’s great to see people’s reactions. I just want people to have something that isn’t ‘you’re going to die and stay indoors’.”
It comes as the band finish up work on their third album – which also sees Bennett assuming production duties.
“At the moment it’s nine tracks, but the track is in keeping with everything going on. It’s seventy five/eighty percent done and I’m producing and mixing it, so I can make sure the sound is authentic ,” he explained.
“I need to make sure that the sound of Lonely The Brave, which I enjoyed as a band, still comes across.”
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