The Early Mornings are a 3-piece band from Manchester now based in London. The band recently announced their sophomore EP ‘Ultra-Modern Rain,’ out January 20, 2023 via Practise Music.

Over the course of 5 songs, ‘Ultra-Modern Rain’ see’s The Early Mornings cement their renown for crafting tight and spiky minimal post-punk. The EP also shows the group dive headfirst into dynamics – bringing big, distorted noise sections and effortlessly marrying them to cool and distilled no-wave moments. Vocalist Annie Leaders’ trademark sardonic singing style shares space with sincerity and seriousness across this infectious EP. Along with the 2021 debut EP ‘Unnecessary Creation’, ‘Ultra-Modern Rain’ will be released as a special Rough Trade exclusive (also available to Bandcamp) 12” record, with one EP on either side.

What can we expect from the EP?

Annie Leader: In many ways it’s a continuation of the first EP; there’s a mix of short instrumentals, our longest song to date, and a couple of singles that show the two different sides to us – one being more on the pop side and the other more manic.

<a href="https://the-early-mornings.bandcamp.com/album/ultra-modern-rain-ep">Ultra-Modern Rain EP by The Early Mornings</a>

Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

I’m from North Manchester, Danny’s from Salford and Rhys is from North Wales. Growing up, music was always a big part of my life. My Dad worked as a sound engineer and was heavily involved in the folk revival of the 60s. I remember I played him a song by this guy I had just discovered and really liked, Bert Jansch, and he said “Oh yes, I recorded this in a wardrobe in my house”.

When did you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music? What brought that about for you?

I always played guitar and knew I wanted to do that but never considered being a singer until I met Danny and he encouraged/made me. Danny and Rhys had been in bands with their friends growing up and I think Rhys was actually playing in another project when we met, but this was the first thing we were ever really serious about.

How did it originally start for The Early Mornings?

Me and Danny started writing songs at home together and then found a practice room in an old mill. It felt like we’d never find a drummer but after a long search Rhys responded to one of our ads (we didn’t previously know each other which was strange considering how many mutual friends we had). He actually turned up to the wrong mill on the other side of Manchester, but luckily he found his way in the end and we knew he was the right person.

“I think every instrument has room to be heard”

How would you describe your sound?

I think every instrument has room to be heard. There is a certain clarity that comes across life especially because there are so few of us. Sometimes it feels like bands are adding as many members as they can and live it sometimes creates a wall of noise. We like to have a strong hook in our songs too and generally just want to make upbeat, fun songs.

Tell us about your debut release.

It’s a bit of everything that we are about – one-minute instrumentals, pop melodies, frenetic post-punk, poetic lyrics. We recorded both EP’s in the same studio, live.

How do you usually approach music making?

We tend to write the music first and lyrics and singing later. A lot of the time we start an idea with a bass line. We never come to a song with any predetermined idea of how it should sound.

What are some bands/musicians that have a big influence on you?

Kim Deal is an enduring influence as a guitarist/singer and more recently Cate le Bon has had the same effect on me. You don’t really get much better songwriting than The Kinks and as a complete vehicle for expression The Velvet Underground are still revolutionary.

Do you often play live? Who are some of your personal favourite bands that you’ve had a chance to play with over the past few years?

Yeah absolutely, after moving to London last year it was a chance to play at a lot of new venues and start to gain another local following in a new place. We’ve played with too many good bands to say but some highlights have been The Raincoats, The Cool Greenhouse, Lewsberg, Personal Trainer, Legss, Blue Bendy, Roxy Girls, Lime Garden, Porridge Radio.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Only Rhys, who will play anything he can get his hands on. He plays a combination of drums/percussion, bass, synth in Oort Clod, Boil King, Suep (sometimes) and Howell Owdly.

What are some future plans?

We’ve got a lot of songs which are half finished, so getting them done is a priority. Playing more festivals and our first proper UK tour are also on the list.