Fresh is a London-based indie punk band that has made a name for itself through short, sharp songs that combine lo-fi intimacy with noisy urgency. Following on from their 2017 self-titled album and a number of singles in the meantime, the outfit are back with a brand new record, Withdraw, which will be released on Specialist Subject Records early this summer.
Lead single ‘Willa’ suggests that the the band have honed their style even further, the carefree rhythm of the instrumentation belying the emotional vulnerability of the lyrics. “I wanted Willa, as a loud song with fuzzy riffs, to capture that kind of ecstatic, post-show high feeling you get when you’ve truly had a good time performing, when you feel really invincible,” explains vocalist and guitarist Kathryn Woods. “It’s also got a lot of frustration in the lyrics because I can’t change how the rest of the world sees me as a woman and I often feel like women can’t make the art they want to make without it being fetishised or tokenised. I want to be acknowledged as a musician and that’s it!”
The title is a nod to US author Willa Cather, whose works such as My Antonia explored both the beauty and horror of the working class existence in the American West. Such an embrace of the good and the bad of life is intrinsic to Fresh’s sound, as is the feminist underpinning of such a position. “[Cather’s] got quite a fatalistic style,” Woods continues, “and I wanted that ‘whatever happens, happens’ vibe to go into the song.” Fresh aren’t here to tell you that everything will be okay, but they are willing to walk through it with you, fighting for every inch.
Withdraw will be released on the 7th June via Specialist Subject Records and you can pre-order it now.
Photo by Francesca Tirpark