Words by Amar Gera // Image by Jay Whitehead

Finding a sense of journey in finding your way back; what a beauty of a perspective.

Dealing with grief and separation can be really shitty at times, but there’s no denying that for all the pain that comes along with hardship, it can inspire some bloody beautiful music. Gengahr’s Sanctuary, out January 31st, is a shining example of this, with songwriter Felix Bushe tapping into the heartache that comes with loss and disconnection but coming out swinging. The result is gorgeous to say the least, as the North London four-piece delivering their most musically and thematically complex albums to date.

And get this, they did the whole thing DIY style! Recording the album without a label or management, the boys successfully recapture the musical aura they felt when recording their debut smash A Dream Outside, which spawned the gorgeously haunting ‘She’s A Witch’. If you’re not familiar with it, we guarantee you’ve heard it come on the radio whilst going for a night time drive with your best mate, and felt a sudden wave of calm you couldn’t quite explain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHTLykxtwdc

Linking up with a producer for the first time in Jack Steadman from the Bombay Bicycle Club, the boys prove that their craft is as sharp and daring as ever. With the already released ‘Everything & More’, ‘Heavenly Maybe’ and ‘Never A Low’ encompassing a huge range of emotions and musical styles, the North-London group have come through with an alt-pop smash that stays true to their original musical beginnings.

If you’re just as hooked on these blokes as we are, you’re in luck, they’ll be touring Australia and New Zealand in March this year. It would be a real treat to see them do their thing live. We managed to tie down singer/ songwriter Felix for a quick chat over the phone, check it out below.

Congrats on Sanctuary, it’s a really beautiful body of work. Was writing and recording it as cathartic as it was to listen to?

It was a lot of fun. It’s probably the most enjoyable experience we’ve had recording an album. I think part of that was having more people involved this time around. We had an engineer and a producer which was a cool new step for us, whereas in the past we’ve done a lot of it ourselves and most of our stuff ends up being self-edited. This time it felt like a bit more of a collective effort, and we had a bit of a party in the control room.

You’ve said that the ten tracks off ‘Sanctuary’ all “revolve around that quest to feel normal again”, why was that the case on this record?

These songs are sort of based around ideas of separation and trying to find a sense of journey in finding your way back in a sense. That’s the main focus point. At the time my partner had lost her visa and had to move back to Australia, which added a whole level of uncertainty and a feeling of helplessness. A lot of the album is written from that mindset.

Now that Sanctuary’s done and about to be released, do you feel like you’re in a place of normalcy now? Or are you still on that journey?

I just feel tired to be honest haha. But yeah, I feel a lot better. It’s great to have it finished now. It’s gotten a really warm reception so far and we’re really excited to see where the journey takes us next. We’ve got a lot of plans ready for next year and keen to see where it goes.

Now just dipping into some tracks off the album, ‘Atlas Please’ is a real lo-fi gem and has a cool nostalgic vibe to it, how’d that track come about? I understand it was one of the first songs you recorded for the album

That song was kind of the catalyst in many ways. We did it as a one-off single with Jack before we had any plans to make an album. It was after recording it that we realised we really enjoyed the process of taking a bedroom demo we had done as a band into the studio to finish it with him. That template felt really effortless and exciting.

It was less conventional compared to the way we had been recording up to that point, going in, rehearsing, staying up late and playing the songs as a live band. This felt different, which was really important to us as we want to feel like we’re doing new things, otherwise you don’t feel like you’re growing and learning as a musician. We’re always on that search for knowledge.

Other tracks like ‘Heavenly Maybe’ and ‘Icarus’ deal with some pretty heavy topics like excessive partying and the world of pain you found yourself in prior to writing the album, was writing those tracks at all therapeutic or confronting?

That’s always the ambition you know. You take your darkest moments and try to make something positive out of them, otherwise it’s all in vain really. It’s one of the bonuses of being a musician, you get to cut the costs of going to therapy and do it yourself haha. I genuinely feel like writing songs has always been a good outlet for me, there’s been times in my life where it’s gotten me through some really difficult moments. And I’ve always come out the other side better for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sNHoNCroJ0

You wouldn’t be able to tell they’re about heavy subject matter as they’re so fun and upbeat, how do you guys find that balance and not compromise on lyrical content when crafting upbeat tracks?

I think that’s something we’ve always done. Songs like ‘She’s A Witch’ from our first album are a good example of that. We’ve always kind of had that gory lyrical nature with a softer poppy side. Well, I guess it’s kind of grunge at times but we’ve always had that juxtaposition you know. I think that’s something we quite enjoy. I’ve always been wary of things becoming too cheesy. Although I’ve always been a lover of pop music and I want the songs to hit hard, I really don’t want it to be cheesy. That juxtaposition is a bit of a way of keeping tabs on that and ensuring nothing becomes too kind of like traditional love songs you know.

You guys went down the DIY route this time around, recording the album without label management and paying for the sessions yourselves, was that in any way connected to you trying to find your way back in a sense?

That was sort of a needs must. It was a weird position we had found ourselves in. It was the loneliest we’d ever started a record, not just me personally but the band as well. We parted ways with our management after the last record because we could tell it wasn’t really working. It was fairly amicable, but we just needed a fresh start. When we were having discussions with the label, we didn’t think they could meet the ambitions we had set ourselves. So, we thought “you can either give up or you bet on yourselves”. We chose the latter.

Is it true you wrote over 60 songs for ‘Sanctuary’? How’d you decide what songs made the cut and which didn’t? I imagine it’d be hard to get the tracklist down from 60 to ten…

Yeah, it was a bit of a juggling act haha. One of the best things about working with Jack though was we had him as a sounding board. So, before we had even finished the album, I would still be writing songs, and I would just send over the ones that had me the most excited. We kind of just let him pick which ones were the best, which sped the process up a lot. So, rather than going into the studio to record 50 or 60 songs, we would record like 15 and pursue the ones that sounded the best.

That element of self-editing was taken away from me and given to someone else, and that’s usually the bit that’s most time-consuming. I think it’s a lot harder to decide what’s the best stuff when you’ve been at the centre of it.

You gotta tell us about ‘Moonlight’, it’s a gorgeous closer, and a perfect eulogy for the hardships that influenced a lot of the songs on the record. Why was it important for you to end the album on a positive note with that track?

Generally, I think I just didn’t want the album to be all doom and gloom. Everyone likes a happy ending and it wouldn’t have been fair to end the record on a sad note, because I feel like by getting through the process and finishing the album, I ended on a happy note myself. I wanted that to be reflected in the music you know.

How do you think Sanctuary compares to your previous albums? What sets it apart

I think it’s our best one yet. It’s the one I’m most proud of. It’s more personal than the last two but also the craft on this one is better. We’ve all grown and developed as musicians and songwriters. But yeah, I’m definitely most proud of this one so far.

You can definitely see the growth you guys have had since your previous albums, both musically and personally. But when listening to ‘Sanctuary’, it had an eerily similar energy to ‘A Dream Outside’, although the music has changed significantly from then to now. Was there any sort of underlying effort to recapture the energy, or recreate the vibe you guys had when recording the first album? I’m sure doing it DIY style and reuniting with James Bragg who engineered the first record would’ve gone a long way in doing that

Maybe we all kind of look back on our pasts with rose coloured glasses, but that’s honestly one of the best times of our lives. We had all the excitement of signing a record deal and going to record our first album. And just the excitement of being a band. We had gone for almost ten years before that without any real success, so that moment was so big for us, and it was such an enjoyable process. We just wanted to get as much back into that mindset as possible. So, going back to James was an obvious choice because it was all where it started for us.

Now talking about upcoming shows, you’re gonna be touring Europe and the UK this year, as well as some special headline shows in Australia and New Zealand. What song off ‘Sanctuary’ are you most excited to play live?

There’s a couple. We’ve already been playing a few of the songs on tour with Bombay Bicycle Club for a couple months now which has been really cool. So that was our first outing when we started to play ‘Sanctuary’. We were playing ‘Heavenly Maybe’ in that set before people had even heard it. it was getting some really good responses in those rooms. You could see people who weren’t even fans of us beforehand getting really into it.

So, I think that’s gonna be a fan favourite for sure. But then tracks like ‘Never Alone’ and ‘You’re No Fun’ are gonna be really interesting to see how people react to them live.

And here’s a bit of a fun one to finish things off. If you had to describe the sound of Sanctuary as a drink, alcoholic or otherwise, how would you describe it?

Ooh….. A blue lagoon haha. I think it sets the tone of the album well. It’s definitely a cocktail as well, not a straight drink. There’s a lot going on. It’s sweet and it’s sour.

Gengahr will be returning to Australia in March for some very special Aussie shows at the Howler and the Lansdowne, you can cop tickets to both here.