KOYO: ‘We knew we wanted to capture the rawness from our live show’

A more punchy, direct, straight-up rock album to the prog leanings of their debut, I spoke to singer and guitarist Huw Edward’s about the recording and plans for playing the new material live.

Your debut album received widespread praise and saw you play at Download Festival. What are your highlights of your early years?

Definitely recording it. When I think back to making that album at Foel Studios in Wales those are extremely fond memories. It was a really fun album to make, surrounded by good people and beautiful landscapes. Then I’d say the live session we did at RAK Studios in London, recently released as well. From the countryside to the big city. It was just a hugely inspiring and special moment getting to play in the same room where Radiohead recorded the Bends, and loads more. Then as you say, playing Download, Reading and Leeds, Rockaway Beach and Ramblin’ Man etc. We really feel at home on bigger stages!

Since the debut, you have had a line-up reshuffle. Has this created a sense of a fresh beginning going into album two?

Yes and no. It was before we even released our debut that Seb had already joined. So by the time we got round to recording our second album he’d been in the band for over a year. So it was pretty honed in by that point. However, since recording the album we’ve had yet another line-up change, with Charlie replacing Seb on guitar. So I guess we have that fresh feeling again now. We’re feeling pretty excited to crack on and start working on the follow-up already.

You Said It, the new album, appears no less grander in scale than your debut but feels more refined and direct. As I’ve said in the single review, less of a band trying rather than a band having fun. Would that be fair?

Yes, definitely. I think that comes from the fact that that was our intention when we first started thinking about where we wanted to go with this one. With the first album we threw all our ideas at the wall. It was very creative but quite innocent. It was our first album. With this one, we’ve grown a lot as a band, and knew we wanted to adopt a ‘less is more’ approach. Just being more honest and less try hard. Less to prove but more to prove, if that makes sense. And with you saying that it makes me feel like maybe we came close to achieving that! But was it actually a fun record to make? Not exactly! It was pretty gruelling. The first one was ironically more fun. I reckon the next one’s going to be the most fun, though.

What influenced the sound of your new album? What bands were you looking at during the recording?

I think the direction for the sound came from just relentless gigging as a band. We just found our sound more and more. We knew we wanted to capture the rawness from our live show. I think from gigging and doing the “Live At RAK” session we knew our live set is one of the things people love and remember most about us. We also wanted it to sound polished though, with a modern production sheen. We were really happy with how our “Live At RAK” session was captured, so we listened to a load of the albums that the guy who did that had done including Everything Everything, and this wonderfully produced song called “Swallow Me” by Shields. And all of it sounded super modern, interesting and cutting edge in terms of production. So it just made sense to work together. We both teamed up with Leeds producer Tom Orrell, who’s like a young Steve Albini and really good at capturing performances, and got to work. It was the best of both worlds.

Is there a track from You Said It that you are particularly proud of? One that maybe came quite easily or one that took some time but the results paid off?

I’d say “Circles” and “Against All Odds”. We came into this album with two mind sets. One where we felt the pressure of our first album and kind of wanted to “one up” the direction we’d already taken things ie. the big, explosive wig outs and more organic playing. I think we managed to come pretty close to achieving that on “Against All Odds”, and that took a long time to get right! But that’s definitely the more free, improvisational side to Koyo. And then “Circles” kind of sums up the other side. The less is more, more direct stance we wanted to take. And even though Circles technically took a long time to get right as well, the crux of the song came together very quickly, and then again in the studio. I think we really nailed it on that tune.

You recently did a stripped back online show for Big Issue North. How did that go for you and did it feel more intense or pressured with a camera locked in?

It went well! It was the first time we’ve done two piece renditions of our songs but it was cool. It was actually less pressure than we expected. It got us thinking that now we’ve tried it once we should just go live on our own Instagram more often as well. So look out for that. Without gigs at the moment it’s at least something that can keep us in a performing mind set and keep us in practice.

What is the story behind your album’s artwork? It would seem you have a theme running throughout the singles too.

It very much came from my sister’s artwork. You can follow her on Instagram at @isobel.bronwyn. She’s had her own style brewing for quite a while now which has become more and more recognisable and we love it. As we’ve kept it in the family with many aspects of this band it made sense to get her involved! So she did all the singles. And we knew we wanted a running theme throughout to keep it all coherent. Then when it came to the album, my brother designed it again using my sister’s work as inspiration.

It’s their interpretation of the music, but I’ve kind of stamped my own meaning on it. I think the warped faces reflect the lyrical themes of the album, and Koyo’s angular sound in general. For example, a running theme throughout the album is denial and the breakdown of trust, and for me the many different ways you can interpret the face on the cover reflects that for me. How you never really know someone inside out. And the way the music never quite stays the same. It’s always unpredictable. But hopefully always Koyo.

Ideally bands can go back on the road soon. Have you any dates for this year and are you looking forward to being able to play a set list with a mixture of the two albums?

Yes, we have some dates booked in from September onwards (Covid-19 dependent). They’re probably gonna get postponed till early next year. But yes, I’m so excited to play live again. I feel like this break has reignited my hunger and appreciation of playing live. I feel like we started to take it for granted. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses and now I’m raring to get back out there and just go for it.

Your debut was released on black vinyl and a limited run of red and blue. What can fans look forward to with the release of You Said It?

First of all – I just saw the new album for the first time this morning and it looks amazing! It’s definitely a step up in terms of the whole production value. And this time around the disc is transparent…so that’s pretty awesome!

Finally, if you could collaborate with any band or artist for your next album who would it be?

We were literally just talking about how cool it would be to do some features with our next batch of material as this album was very much just the five of us, as opposed to the first where we had quite a few guest appearances. We were saying it’d be pretty cool to get Barney from Napalm Death to do some guest vocals on one of our heavier tracks! Who knows. Throw us some ideas and we’ll try and make it happen!

You Said It is out now.