Coast To Coast’s first strike is debut E.P, Dwell, a collection of dynamic rock nuggets which sees the band treading a line between pop punk and pop rock; Kei Hyland’s idiosynchratic vocals soaring atop the mix like a Hawk on an updraft. “With this being our first EP we didn’t want to bolt ourselves down to a single genre,” states Kei.
Completed by guitarists Alex Edge and Josh Taylor and drummer Darius Walters, Coast To Coast are a distinctly British band, perpetuators of their own self-effacing Twitter hashtag #dadbodsquad, and the nickname “Sad Sods With Dad Bods”. Here they give you a taste of what to expect upon Dwell’s release in April…
1. Intro
Alex – The intro for the EP was actually a really last minute thing we wrote, I think literally about a week before we went to the studio I showed the guys a demo for it. When we got to the studio we still didn’t really know what the lyrics were going to be, on the first day of vocals we just sat there with it on repeat throwing ideas around. It is my favourite track to record, seeing and hearing it all take shape was something really cool.
Kei – The intro sort of came together at the last minute. We wanted something that was a little different, as well as something short and sweet which ties together the common themes on the EP. The lyrics are taken from parts of the other songs. I’m really excited to play the intro live at the beginning of sets as I think it will really set the mood and make us stand out when playing shows.
2. Bloom
Kei – “Bloom” is my favourite song to play live. It really gets my adrenaline going and I forget about everything else just for a few minutes. As it is one of the first songs I wrote lyrically, it adds to the feel for me. When writing “Bloom” we aimed for a song which had its routes in pop punk, however showing some emotion with distinct vocals and a catchy melody. The song is about being yourself in a place where it is so easy to just follow the norm. I use to be the kind of guy who would be happy doing the average every day thing. But over the last couple of years I’ve challenged myself to ‘stand up, move on’ and put myself in a better place
3. Cornerstone
Alex – It has more of an emo/rocky feel to it than “Bloom” as we didn’t want to say “We’re a pop-punk band so we need to stick to that”. I do think of us as a pop-punk band and that can be felt right though the EP but I never want that to stop us from playing things we like. It went through a lot of changes musically, at one point it had an easy-core feel. A few weeks before heading to the studio we weren’t happy with it and so reworked a lot of the song, it was definitely for the best, because it’s my favourite track on the EP now.
Kei – We are yet to play it live as we are saving it for our EP release show. But I am so excited to see what kind of reaction it gets. Lyrically this song is about having that someone in your life who makes such a big difference. As I’m in a long distance relationship I have real ups and downs being so far apart, but I think the song captures how worth it these relationships can be when you are with the right person.
4. Bunkbeds
Kei – “Bunkbeds” was the first song we ever wrote together. I had only just ed the band and we wanted to just test the waters and see what kind of page we were on. So we went for an acoustic song to gentle dip our feet I guess. It’s a song about my mum and brothers who are very important to me. Growing up sharing a room with my 2 brother holds a lot of good memories so it is something I enjoy writing about.
