Photo by Sam Hiscox
One of North London’s most exciting offspring, Sorry – the musical brainchild of duo Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen, in addition to drummer Lincoln Barrett, multi-instrumentalist Campbell Baum, and Marco Pini on electronics – revealed that they were concocting something in the studio late last year, prompting the gears in my head to begin turning in anticipation. After a few months spent wondering what they could be up to, the recent ambush-release of two stellar singles, “Separate” and “Cigarette Packet” (produced with the help of James Dring, who has worked with the likes of Gorillaz, Jamie T, and Nilüfer Yanya) finally satiated my hunger and launched the group into a vortex characterized by whirring motors, hypnotic melodies, and abrasive synths — take the breakdown at the very end of “Separate,” for example, which finds an entrancing club beat combined with static, whispered repetition, inducing chills to travel up and down one’s spine.
Luckily for us, Sorry weren’t quite done after just two singles, though. Just a short while after the world received “Separate” and “Cigarette Packet,” on Tuesday, April 6, the band released an additional three tracks that come together with the initial pair to form a brand new EP called Twixtustwain.
This new release finds Sorry positioned at the crossroads between where their debut album, 925, took them, and where they had been prior, a time characterized by a pair of 2017 demo mixtapes called Home Demo/ns I and II (each of which are available on streaming platforms for the first time as of this week!). Despite this new EP signaling a return to their earlier more experimental, electronically-based sonic roots, this is anything but a regression for the group, but, rather, a sign of their unchanging brilliance, and ability to transcend expectation and time.
Much like Sorry’s past material, Twixtustwain is riddled with personal monologues, calling upon moments of doubt, dismay, and even discovery to serve as a device through which the pair could grapple with their intrusive thoughts and feelings. With one of the newly released tracks, “Favourite,” for example, light-hearted instrumentation and snippets of laughter are contrasted by lyrics that express a feeling of internal struggle, in which one grapples with their importance in someone else’s life. After all, this past year has almost encouraged self-introspection, an examination of the soul, and it only makes sense that Asha and Louis weren’t immune to the crushing reality of their own thoughts over the past few months, and thus, channeled those musings in their most recent works. That said, Twixtustwain is a release drenched with a slightly dismal glow, but one that is ultimately perfectly fitting, considering the time it’s being released.
In addition to channeling their beginnings on a thematic and instrumental basis, this EP also gave the group a chance to emulate the video collages that accompanied their earliest demos, as well. Helmed by Flasha Prod (the filmmaking partnership of Asha and longtime friend and collaborator, Flo Webb), the Twixtustwain video compilation features anything from iPhone photography of street debris, hand-held first-person imagery shot by Asha as she rode her bike down the snowy streets of her town, shaky VHS-style city landscapes, a puppy jam session, and day out on the town (which absolutely has the power to bring anyone to tears of joy). The bright, playful imagery seen throughout the compilation deeply contrasts the intimately emotional air exhibited throughout the EP, a decision that perhaps helps make the existential relatability of the content easier to swallow. Either way, it’s a joy to witness Sorry’s creativity at work, and to receive new content from them at last.
Ahead of Twixtustwain and shortly following the release of “Separate” and “Cigarette Packet,” I sat down with Asha over Zoom to discuss the pair of singles, how the new EP came to be, and more.
Hey, Asha! How has lockdown been for you over there?
Asha Lorenz: Oh yeah, I’m a bit fed up, now [laughs]. It’s alright, but, I mean, it’s pretty shit for everyone, isn’t it? It’s sad, but hopefully, that means everything’s coming back to normal.
So, I think the last time we sort of chatted was for Brooklyn Vegan in December, before I personally had any idea of the singles, let alone the EP. So, by that point, had everything been finished already, or was it on its way toward being finished?
AL: Yeah, I think it actually was finished, yeah. It just took a bit of time because we were doing videos and stuff to finish everything, and because of all the lockdowns and stuff, we have been sitting on it for a little while.
With that in mind, have you guys been kind of itching to get it out? Or does the thought of releasing it still feel intimidating in a way, since it’s like the first fully solidified material since 925?
AL: I’m excited for it to come out. We’ve been writing more new stuff [now], so it’s always weird when you’re sitting on stuff for a while. It’s nice to get out. It is a bit intimidating because it’s a bit different, like kind of more unfinished, and sort of different sounds have come about. But, hopefully, it’ll just play a good part of just being something for the interim before the next album, just to have.
And is that already in the works, would you say?
AL: Yeah, we’re nearly finished writing now.
Oh, awesome! So, how did this EP come about, then? Was it the result of you guys wanting to release something, like you said, as a place-holder between 925 and any potential future album? Or did something else guide you to put something out now?
AL: Well, we’ve just been sitting on some songs and we wanted to put something out. It wasn’t actually going to be an EP, really, it was just going to be those two tracks [“Separate” and “Cigarette Packet”]. But then I kind of thought, maybe [the singles] didn’t make as much sense as they could without a few more other things with them, so we thought to finish the other tracks we had, just to make everything a package sort of thing. I think it just works better.
And I know that “Cigarette Packet” at least kind of had a previous life, as a version of it had been released on SoundCloud or something a little bit ago…
AL: Yeah, like maybe three months ago or something. But, yeah, that was an old version. The kind of songs that we’re releasing on the EP are just the ones that stuck.
So, like you said, had most of the other tracks existed in the Sorry archives before now as well? Or were any of them written organically for this EP specifically?
AL: Well, apart from “Favourite” — that was kind of an old one I’d written, and we re-did it a bit — the other ones, me and Louis did more recently, in the last year or year and a half. But those are just ones we did at home, not really ones where we’d play with the band.
I was gonna say, “Favourite” kind of reminds me more of the sound on 925, whereas the other tracks, and the EP’s holistic sound, don’t feel connected to that as much.
AL: Yeah, I think, with that one, we just kind of wanted one like that — because it’s not that warm, the EP — we wanted one that was gonna sound a bit warmer.
Definitely, the EP does have a sort of dark, almost sci-fi undertone, and I almost feel like a lot of releases that are coming around right now are kind of calling on a dystopian, horrific sort of feeling. Would you say that that trend guided or inspired you guys a little bit while making it?
AL: I think it’s more just like- just doing stuff more on the computer, you’re kind of more limited, where you’re using more like electronic sounds, or morphing sounds, and that’s just kind of the product of that. But, I guess it’s been kind of a dire, monotone time, as well, so that could be part of it.
That said, where would you say that this EP fits in Sorry’s history? Do you think this EP is related to what you guys have been working on more recently, or is it a completely individual project?
AL: I think it’s more of a carry-on from the mixtapes, as more kind of home recordings, more kind of lyrical ideas or beats and stuff that me and Louis do.
I also feel like it is more separate to the newer songs that we’re working on. [The songs on the EP] are kind of like smaller ideas that we just wanted to bring to life and put out, but the new songs are more developed sounding; they’re gonna have a more like analog or organic, with a kind of acoustic sound. I think [the EP] is more just a product of what we were doing at the time, and it felt right to put them out, just to show something, to give some music to people [laughs].
Do you think the fact that this EP was made sort of spontaneously is part of the reason why it’s being almost surprise-released, as opposed to creating a huge buildup to it?
AL: Yeah, I think so. It’s kind of like that with the mixtapes, as well. It’s not like [the EP is] a full body of work with, like, full production. I mean, we did think about it a bit, but it’s more like something to move away from, so we decided to just share our thoughts and music that we’ve been working on currently.
And, going back a bit, what did the song-writing process look like for you guys with this release in mind, especially since it was probably forced to be a little different than how you’d typically go about it?
AL: Yeah, with these ones, we wrote them separately, but then, me and Louis wrote “Don’t Be Scared” together. Sometimes, he’ll write one on his own, and then I’ll just sing on it, or sometimes, I’ll have one and I’ll send it to Louis, and he’ll add his own parts. Some songs on 925, we wrote together, and it’s more so like we’ll all kind of have the song for a while, and then maybe one of us will add a little bit on top of it. But, for the most part, everything’s just written separately at home.
That said, would you say that there’s a general thread that runs through this EP, or do the tracks more or less exist on their own?
AL: I think it’s kind of about memory and lyrical mantras that you keep to yourself, that kind of thing, but all the sounds keep them together as a package. But, yeah, I think it’s about memory and just the things that you say to yourself.
Personally, which of the tracks is the one that’s closest to your heart or that you’re most excited about people hearing?
AL: Oh, it was probably “Separate,” but now it’s out already [laughs].
On another note, did the fact that this EP returns to the style of the mixtapes kind of play into the fact that you’ve gone back to emulate that video series with this EP, as well?
AL: Yeah, so we’re gonna release some videos with it, but this one’s only five tracks. It’s kind of just an extension of that (video series), but it’s a bit shorter than the previous ones. But, yeah, it’s kind of just fitting within that sphere.
Would you say that the homemade nature was also sort of a result of the limited resources that were available given the current climate? As in, making the best of a situation where things were almost forced to be more homemade?
AL: Oh, yeah, I think so. But also, we just like keeping it between us two. But, yeah, it was also because you can’t really do big things [right now], and [this EP] is just a small-scale production kind of thing, so we didn’t want to spend really all that much money and do too much. I almost think it wouldn’t have really worked to have done a bigger thing, but we like doing that, too, me and Flo who work on the videos. We like to do new things and to have fun with it.
And where did Flasha Prod originate from? Was it kind of the result of you and Flo just like goofing off and wanting to do something fun, like you said?
AL: Yeah, we just liked making little videos and, when we did the mixtapes, we were just all making videos with everyone, and we really liked it. And now, we’ve been trying to make videos with more people. But yeah, it’s just fun, and we have the same eye, which is cool.
Finally, what would you say is like the light at the end of the tunnel for you regarding this past year?
AL: Probably just being able to go to the pub, seeing friends, and playing shows, really [laughs].
Twixtustwain is out now and you can take a listen on any of your favorite streaming platforms. Additionally, check out Home Demo/ns I and II, out digitally now.
