View this post on Instagram

We can’t wait to share the album with you on the 20th of November! Here is the final artwork by the amazing @rivercousin Keep on listening to Craziest Things it’s a banger link up top

A post shared by babeheaven (@babeheavenband) on Oct 6, 2020 at 3:31am PDT

The track opens with a velvety bass line underpinning a reverberating electric guitar. A steady drum-beat soon enters alongside Nancy Andersen’s angelic voice singing: ‘I have been losing sleep// My minds on the craziest things// I lie in bed, trying not to think// but my heads on the ceiling.’ 

Front-woman Andersen says that the song is about ‘[her] anxiety and insomnia, not being able to make sense of [her] emotions and mania’. This can be felt in those opening lyrics, which beautifully depict the all too relatable feeling of racing thoughts before sleep.

As the song continues, the echoing chorus ‘I’m sorry I’m climbing up the walls// I couldn’t lay their anymore…’ gets more insistent. There is a continuous motif running through the track, which sounds like a harp but is in fact a detuned ukulele, giving it a dreaminess typical of Babeheaven’s music.

The fluorescent-hued video, directed by award-winning animator Sacha Beeley, is a playful and surreal depiction of sleepless anxiety. The trippy visuals of dripping taps and floating hearts on the ceiling mirror the ‘Craziest thoughts’ that Anderson describes.

Jamie Travis and Nancy Andersen, the band’s main members, have known each other since they were about 13. They used to go back to one of their houses after finishing their day jobs and ‘mess about recording songs’. This friendly intimacy permeates Babeheaven’s music.

In 2016 Nancy spoke to FADER about the band’s debut video for Heaven, explaining that she and Jamie both grew up ‘in an area knowing everybody… all our siblings are friends, and our parents are friends too’. The video ‘shows [them] in [their] natural habitat’ of West London streets and bedrooms.

A personal warmth runs through all of Babeheaven’s music as a result of this. Tracks like November and It’s Not Easy feel like they come straight from the pages of Andersen’s diary. The latter is a misty ode to guitarist Jamie in which Andersen sings: ‘I am glad you made me go and perform…my legs were shaking throughout// Jamie it’s not easy but you play so beautifully.’

Talking about Craziest Things, she speaks about her anxiety toward performing, stating: ‘As a person of colour and a plus-size woman, I’ve never felt that comfortable with myself as a performer’. Over lockdown she has worked on remembering that she ‘is on that stage for a reason, particularly as a person of colour.’ There is no doubt that Nancy and the band truly deserve their place on the stage.

View this post on Instagram

Our EP Hometime is out today! Big love to everyone involved and sharing Xxxxx

A post shared by Sunken (@sunken___) on Sep 18, 2020 at 5:54am PDT

The band are relatively new to the scene, having released their first music back in 2018 with double single Over the Days// Swoon. Swoon was a mellow track, with lead singer Poppy Billingham’s vocals gliding over a steady beat. It attracted the attention of Clash Magazine, who named it Track of the Day. They band then went on to support South London musician Puma Blue on his England tour.

Their EP is an impressive introduction to their sound. Stand-out track, Zombie, is a joy to listen to. Its introductory guitar line and soft male vocals are strongly reminiscent of Radiohead. Sorry for Everything, previously released as a single earlier this year, features dreamy synth noises and effortless falsettos. This track, as well as opener Somewhere Not Real, are sonically similar to the music of ethereal dream pop band Babeheaven, who Sunken actually supported a couple of times last year.

On Somewhere Not Real, the introductory instrumental is reminiscent of the vibraphone heavy Twin Peaks theme tune. The music video, too, has an air of David Lynch to it. That juxtaposition between the dark and beautiful is present in the red lensed shots of Poppy Billingham singing, holding the viewers gaze with her wide brown eyes.

She is only 20 years old, but her vocals have been praised for their emotional maturity and depth. In 2018, Wonderland Magazine said her voice would ‘transport you to a different planet’ and a review of Sunken’s Puma Blue support said reported that the room was ‘transfixed’ by Poppy’s vocals which were ‘soulful far beyond her years’.

Sunken is a family affair. It was started by Poppy and her brother Finn who were later joined by three others. The Billingham siblings used music as a way to quell their constant fighting, and today credit writing together as the reason for their now close relationship. You can truly feel the love in Sunken’s carefully crafted debut EP. It’s a solid representation of their musical abilities, a true joy to listen to.