It may be a slow, glacial record bound by years worth of longing, but the new record from slowrock shoegazers Outlander certainly manages to kick the forlorn mind into quick overdrive. But such is the nature of this brilliant albeit ashen band. Formed of Daniel Jones (Bass), Ian Grant (Vocals, Guitar), Jospeh House (Guitar) and Jack Davis (Drums) and hailing from the concrete-clad corners of Birmingham, the foursome present long form music that is the musical equivalent of staring blankly beyond the window of a silent barren bedroom.
Their new record, Acts of Harm, embodies this. It’s isolationist, introspective, and quite frankly, proper miserable. But it’s also brilliantly authentic and strangely cathartic. No other record this year was quite managed to mirror the quiet solitude that characterises mundane modern living quite as potently as this. It’s sure not a record for those seeking a swift dopamine kick, but it it’s one that will sure leave an impression long come it’s end.
With that in mind, and with Acts of Harm out now via Church Road Records, we got in touch with Outlander to break down the record, track by track.
Related: Outlander – Acts of Harm | Album Review
“Acts of Harm came together over a four year period, with the first tangible demoing happening during lockdown 1 in 2020. We’d had Sundowning/Unconditional done for a while at that point and had prettymuch agreed that the logical next step was an album. We were aiming to do something more stripped back and natural sounding in comparison to that record and tone down the heaviness somewhat – focus back in on the loud/quiet thing and just make the whole listening experience a little more varied and kind of nod to a wider range of the influences we have as a band.
The writing process was vastly different for this record as I’d just moved a couple of hours away from the rest of the band and obviously the pandemic made it tricky at the best of times to get together for a couple of years. Normally we’d just take an idea into a room and jam for hours until it resembles a jumping off point, but these limitations meant the only way we could work for a while was in front of the laptop with a guitar and a tinny. We were keen also to diversify the instrumentation on it – we were a little bored of just being a guitar band, so finding ways to add new textures was a big focus for us.
The recording process was somewhat broken up, with a lot of time between sessions. We did a week in January 2022, a week in May 2022 and a few extra days in August 2023. It was nice to let the songs breathe a little, which helped us figure out exactly what was missing and plan for the sessions. The record was pretty tricky to make and there were times when it seemed like we were at an impasse and the album just wouldn’t ever get finished, but after a lot of planning, it really came together during the final session.”
Bound
Ian: “Bound was originally intended to be an interlude, I set out to write a short and direct song with one section, but over time we found ways to develop it and felt that the resolution in the second half was beneficial especially for pacing as it sits at the front of the record. It was tricky to keep the original feel of the track in place, but ultimately it felt like the correct decision.
We wanted everything to sound super roomy and natural, so there’s a lot of room mic on everything on this one, and a distorted drum layer that really makes the second half feel propulsive. The track ebbs and flows around a synth drone, from an old 80’s kids keyboard with the headphone out through some pedals and a selmer treble n’ bass which we double tracked with a super mashed up and distorted take through the second half. Sounded unreal and super fucked up in the room.
Lyrically, the track is intended to juxtapose the short-term peace and calm of giving in to a problematic habit against the long term destruction and pain caused.”
Want No More
Joe: “Want No More is about the suffocating monotony of life, in-short. Days spent in the office and evenings spent in front of the TV. After all, who could want more than that? There’s a comfort in the ease of it all, and sometimes I can see the appeal of that. We really wanted this song to function as a balanced look at the emptiness of modern life. We usually have a track that’s structured this way, that begins with a traditional verse-chorus-verse first half then kind of devolves into a long, linear bridge-outro. The difference with this one is that it’s maybe the most driving song we’ve ever written, and we really wanted the end of the song to feel like the energy had built up to a point where the song couldn’t can’t contain it any more and falls apart. My favourite of Jack’s performances on drums.”
I – Nuclear
Joe: “The first interlude on the record – we’ve never really done interludes before, but we spent a lot of time on this one thinking about the flow and structure of the thing. Functionally, this is the release of all the built up tension from Want No More. We originally wanted it to sound like it was playing in another room, but we opted for a more moderate approach with a bass heavy mix that makes it feel super lumbering and lethargic.”
Orbit
Joe: “For a band with a back catalogue full of 10 minute songs, I don’t think any of us really listen to that much long-form music. It can get heavy to try and engage people when everything is super drawn out and we really wanted to try to get to the point a bit quicker at times on this record and vary the track lengths. Orbit was a fun challenge, in part inspired by songs like Ithica 26 / 9 by Mogwai, Murderer by Low and Unrecovery by Duster, as an exercise in making something that feels fully developed fit into a compact format. It’s something we’ve tried to write for years, but felt right this time. Orbit was written to represent diminishing returns – one idea that starts powerfully and develops but ultimately resolves in a weak and timid way.”
New Motive Power
Ian: “New Motive Power is about escapism after a breakdown in communication in a relationship, and the distractions you find to remove yourself mentally from an untenable situation. One thing we really like to do in this band (and on this song) is a mismatched tuning set-up with Dan tuned to the bottom 4 notes of a 5 string bass, myself on a baritone guitar in B Standard and Joe on a regular scale guitar tuned to E flat standard. This gives you a really wide sound, with each guitar in it’sown natural register, and allows you to create some cool sounding extended chords.
One of the less obvious influences at play here is from spaghetti western soundtracks – the “sad cowboy” has been a verbal reference point for a fair few of our songs, and New Motive Power is no exception.”
Lye Waste
Ian: “Without a doubt this song was the most challenging to write for this record. There were probably half a dozen total revisions of the entire structure and style in order to get it to a place where we were happy to record it.
If Bound is trying to capture that initial relief of a habit, then Lye Waste is the antithesis of that. It’s admitting that things you choose are causing you and people around you harm, and the feelings of shame and embarrassment that come with that. It contains both the loudest and quietest moment on the record and is by design the most intimate and vulnerable song and also the most outwardly cathartic. We wanted to capture both extremes of emotion in the context of this scenario. We wanted to play with space and really let this song breathe, aided by Neil’s great-sounding drum capture. We built in loads of texture to this one – guitar drones, amplified rhodes, piano, acoustic guitar which adds a lot to the instrumentation and makes the song feel sonically deep and varied.”
II – Habituation
Ian: “A calming and dream-like but ultimately ambiguous end to the record. We wanted to do as little as possible here, and hold the listener in the aftermath of some thematically heavy songs.”