Asylums are just one of hundreds of bands who have had their big plans for 2020 scuppered.
It wasn't meant to be this way, of course. The band had spent the first few months of the year ploughing work into the release of their Steve Albini-produced third album, Genetic Cabaret, in May. The hard work had begun to pay off: the UK alt-rockers were enjoying a surge in interest, activity and bookings – including their biggest headline shows and a summer's worth of festivals. But we all know what happened next. Instead the band headed into six months of... nothing.
It wasn't a complete disaster. Though they might not have been able to get together, the band spent the time quietly working on new music until it was safe for them to pile into a rehearsal room again. And when they did manage to play together again, six months apart only served to remind them why it had all been worth so much effort in the first place.
While they were there, the band recorded this set of songs – both as a reminder to themselves of the joy of "playing really loud rock music with your friends" and for anyone else who's missing live music at the moment. Hang on in there, friends. This is what's on the other side.
"A little while back all four members of Asylums met up in a local Southend recording studio and played music together for the first time in six months," says frontman Luke Branch.
"It was genuinely an emotional experience for all of us – there really is nothing quite like playing really loud rock music with your friends. We had definitely all missed that feeling during the first lockdown.
"A few days before, we decided to invite down our friend Andrew Delaney to film the rehearsal to capture the moment for us. Muscle memory is a strange thing, after a few minutes of jamming all of the musical parts for our third album Genetic Cabaret came flooding back and it was as though we had never had any time off.
"This month we were due to play our biggest headline show to date at London's Moth Club, this would have followed a summer of festival bookings which included Glastonbury and Isle Of Wight. Obviously like most other bands we had to cancel all our shows this year and stayed productive writing new music instead.
"We decided to share this rehearsal footage publicly for anyone who is missing live music as much as we are.”
Check out the set below.
Asylums' new single, The Distance Between Right And Left is out on October 30. Their album Genetic Cabaret is out now via Cool Thing Records.
