Photo Credit: Fordtography

05) Defences sign with Long Branch Records:

Hailing from Hertfordshire, U.K., Defences are here to showcase their futuristic alternative metal style by embarking on their next chapter, signing with Long Branch Records. To showcase what’s to come, the group, consisting of Cherry Duesbury (vocals), William Young (keys, vocals), Calum Wilmot (guitar), Owen Hughes-Holland (bass), and Kyle Parke (drums), has unveiled a video for their new single, “The Curse.”

Singer Cherry Duesbury comments:

“‘The Curse’ is a song about feeling like the universe is against you, trying to sabotage your every endeavor despite your best efforts to achieve something. The feeling of being just a little too late, or pipped to the post, and having to start over again. To demonstrate this, it references the individual struggles of trying to be creative in an oversaturated industry, focusing on the internal fortitude required to not only persevere but to enjoy creativity for its own sake.
By making these fears and inadequacies into a character, we wanted to show how powerful this feeling of being cursed can seem, and the importance of recognizing and accepting it as part of yourself. The video shoot was really fun – it was the first time Shadow Cherry was on set for anything. She’s an idea I’ve had in my head for some time, so it felt quite surreal to have her come to fruition in front of the camera.
A really liberating side of me comes out when I’m made up like that, which I think we’ve started to capture in this video. It was an exciting shoot for us; we hadn’t shot a music video for a couple of years. It was our first official shoot with Owen on bass and Will on keys, and we were all stoked to finally bring the ideas we’d been working on to life! We used more props and cool visual elements for this video than I think we ever had before.
So many candles, which I really enjoyed! I always have candles lit at home. We’re really leaning into the witchy aesthetic for this era, which is right up my street. I was sat in a circle of them for one of the shots, it felt like I was having a seance, I loved it!”

Photo Credit: Jonathan Vivaas Kise