Jeremy Williams, Arts Correspondent
east exchange: “We Love Writing Sad Songs”
Photographer: Dylan Cox
Now, they arrive with their long-awaited EP, torn between ties., a six-track collection that explores loneliness, loss, anxiety, connection and the complicated process of figuring out who you are — both individually and as a band. Recorded with GRAMMY Award-winning producer and mixer Adrian Bushby, whose credits include Foo Fighters, Muse and Feeder, the EP captures the nostalgic sonic east exchange. have been chasing while retaining the immediacy that has helped them build a sizeable online following.
The road to torn between ties., has been anything but straightforward. After being forced out of their rehearsal space at Elevator Studios, the band decamped to a run-down warehouse on Liverpool’s docks. What initially felt like a setback became a turning point, providing the isolation and freedom that helped shape much of the EP.
Since then, east exchange. have taken their music far beyond those walls, appearing at 2000 Trees, Outbreak, The Great Escape, Liverpool SoundCity and Dot to Dot, while sharing stages with the likes of Enter Shikari, letlive. and Return To Dust. With their debut festival season now behind them and torn between ties., finally out in the world, we caught up with the band to talk about growing up together, writing through difficult periods, working with a ’90s production legend, nearly losing their gear to their own crew and why Glastonbury is firmly in their sights.
You’ve described being torn between ties. as coming from a difficult period of figuring out who you are as a band. What did you learn about yourselves during that process that you didn’t expect?
Probably just fuzz pedals for the fucking win — and that we love writing sad songs.
Being kicked out of your rehearsal room ultimately led to the warehouse where ghost. and other songs came together. Do you think that environment changed the music you made?
Yeah, it definitely did. We left our nice, cosy community at Elevator Studios and moved into the warehouse down on the docks. We had fewer people to talk to and drink with, fewer distractions and, ultimately, a whole new space to write our music.
It forced us to knuckle down and really get our heads together. I guess there was a sense of, “Let’s fucking do this and get the hell out of this shithole.” Although, to be fair, that ‘shithole’ felt like home in the end.
You were put in touch with Adrian Bushby through a mutual colleague before working together. What was your reaction when someone with his track record wanted to work with you, and what did he bring to the EP that you couldn’t have achieved yourselves?
We were actually put in touch with Adrian through a mutual colleague at the time. I’m not sure how much TikTok had to do with it — Ade is old school, haha.
He was sent our demos and said they took him back. When it was suggested that Adrian could be the man for us, we didn’t think that was going to be possible. It was one of those things where we thought, “Yeah, we might as well hit him up, ’cos you never know what could happen,” but we all prepared ourselves for what we thought was an inevitable answer of “no”.
We thought we might get the interest of an up-and-coming producer, maybe someone with some decent work under their belts. We never thought that a legend like Ade would love our music so much that he wanted to work with us — and, in fact, would do everything in his power to make sure it happened.
Adrian lived and breathed the ’90s, literally — an era which, as you know, we wanted to capture sonically on the EP. I remember when he came to the praccy room to watch us rehearse, travelling on a little three-hour train journey from LDN to LPL just to come and watch us play a set. We played the songs in the room and he just said, “That’s it, that’s how I want you to sound.”
We couldn’t have achieved the feel of the EP without him. You can write a hit song, but if it’s produced wrong and doesn’t align with the vision, then it isn’t gonna be a hit. Ade nailed the production. Absolute legend.
Who knew a man could watch every single Star Wars film consecutively on repeat, from start to finish, for seven days straight? Safe to say, we all can too now.
You’re childhood friends as well as bandmates. Does that history make the creative process easier, or can it actually make disagreements more difficult because you know each other so well?
I think being friends beforehand just solidifies us as a band. We can talk to each other easily and have discussions which might otherwise be awkward.
We definitely have our ups and downs. The creative process is something we all agree on maybe 80% of the time, haha. For the other 20%, we have a 3/1 rule that keeps order.
There’s a strong emotional thread running through the EP — struggle, self-reflection, connection and things left unsaid. Is there a particular song that feels more vulnerable to perform live than the others?
Every song has its vulnerability. They’re all written about real life, real experiences and real struggles.
However, torn. really hits home for me. It’s a song I wrote about someone very close to me who I care a lot about. It’s one that came from the soul and was already written in my heart before the pen went to paper.
It’s a release of one of the worst feelings in the world — that you’re losing someone and they are losing themselves. It’s one I feel in my chest for sure.
Your sound draws heavily from ’90s grunge and melodic alternative rock, but you’re also building an audience through TikTok. How do you balance those influences with the pressure to make music that works in today’s online landscape?
I mean, people hated MTV when it first came about, I hear? Well, we hate TikTok, but at the end of the day, you have to work with the tools you have.
We definitely don’t write our music with the online landscape in mind. We write our music in an old-fashioned manner: if it sounds good to us, then we’re happy.
Socials are just a tool we use to push our art. Surely it would be stupid not to use a worldwide-recognised, free marketing tool? As long as the content is decent and aligns with us.
Don’t worry, we won’t sell out into ‘guess our drummer’ — you know who you are.
You’ve already played festivals including 2000 Trees, Outbreak, The Great Escape and Liverpool SoundCity, as well as supporting some big names. Was there a particular show where you suddenly thought, “Okay, this is actually starting to happen”?
Yeah, I think we can all agree that opening the main stage at Outbreak was an eye-opening moment.
Frank sent me the line-up earlier in the year saying, “We have to go and watch Basement — they’re playing in Manny.” £100 a ticket was looking a little steep since we had all sorts to pay for with the band that summer, but anyway, next thing, our manager hit us up with the offer to open the same stage Basement would be closing that weekend.
Sound. Go on then.
I mean, our whole summer has been a madness — playing with Enter Shikari, a band I’d been listening to since I was about 12 or something.
2027 surely only gets better?
You’ve been friends since childhood — what’s the funniest or most chaotic thing that’s happened to the four of you on the road that fans probably wouldn’t know about?
We had a funny one in London supporting letlive. We played the show, had a sick night, drank the rider dry, watched letlive. tear it up and then it was time to load out.
We’d got all our gear to the top of the stairs, and myself and Frank were standing at the top by the door, waiting for the rest of the team. Three lads marched over in tracksuits, hoods up, caps on, all of that jazz, and said something like, “Alright, boys? We’re with the crew. We’ve come to collect your gear and help you get it to the van. You’ve just played downstairs, right? The support band?”
Me and Franko instantly thought this was a bit suspect, as we’d had no crew to help us into the venue earlier that day and hadn’t seen anyone all day.
Frank decided to test them: “Nah, we’re the main act, y’know.”
To which they replied, “Oh yeah, yeah, that’s it.”
Bear in mind, they couldn’t care less who the fuck we are.
We looked at each other as if to say, “Are we really gonna let these random dudes take all of our expensive gear? Fuck no.”
We closed the door to the gear, straightened our backs and said, “Nah, not tonight, lads. Forget about it. Have the night off.”
The whole team eventually came out the back door with the promoter. We explained the story: “Shit, we nearly just got robbed. Good thing me and Frank were stood up here.”
The promoter was extremely concerned and apologetic, until he asked, “Hold on, three lads? Said they were crew? Well, yeah, they are our crew.”
Me and Frank just laughed. Of course they were.
Moral of the story: don’t judge a book by its cover. I guess the lads were made up to get a night off, and we paid the price of loading all the gear ourselves.
Sending our love to that crew. Sorry, haha.
If someone discovers torn between ties. today and listens to it from beginning to end, what do you hope they understand about east exchange. by the final track?
I guess we just hope that they can feel a connection to the way that the band have felt within our own lives and realise that it’s OK to wear our hearts on our sleeves. We’re all navigating this life together.
People need to slow down, breathe and realise that we’re all just humans. This is our only chance at life, and we’re all gonna have ups and downs.
There are plenty of emotions embedded in the EP that show how each of us have felt during the time of writing. It explores themes of anxiousness, loneliness, sadness and loss, and we hope that people understand that, as humans, we all feel down sometimes. We all go through some shit and we all feel like we’re alone in this cold world, which is fine and normal.
You know, when shit hits the fan and you get that feeling like you’re the only one with trouble in the whole universe? Hopefully, people can take from the EP that we’re not alone. Everyone goes through some shit. More often than you may think.
You’re still very much at the beginning of your journey. If you could fast-forward five years and have one thing happen for east exchange., what would you want it to be — and why?
Really, until it happens, our answer is always going to be to play Glasto. Literally any stage will do.
I feel like it’s such a staple in any Scouser’s life, haha. It’s like church. It’s a festival that we go to every year, where we have stood and watched the likes of Foo Fighters, Wunderhorse, Turnstile and Brian Jonestown Massacre and said, “That’s gonna be us one day.”
USA, we are coming for ya too.