North London’s band Sorry is composed of best friends and co-conspirators Asha and Louis, joined by drummer Lincoln Barrett, multi-instrumentalist Campbell Baum, and Marco Pini on electronics.
Sorry have been making music together since their teens. Emerging from Brixton’s Windmill scene, where they played alongside Shame, Goat Girl and Black Midi, Sorry have created their own distinctive musical world – one that draws together a shared passion for lo-fi sounds of grunge, trap, and shoegaze.
If their first full-length album 925 (produced by Lana Del Rey and Gorillaz collaborator James Dring) was more electronic, their second album Anywhere But Here pays homage to classic songwriters of the 1970s, such as Carly Simon and Randy Newman. Asha’s nonchalant salty-sweet vocals contrast with detuned/discordant guitar sounds echoing early ‘90s bands, Slint and Tortoise, and the irregular beats of Kanye or Capital Steez.
Sorrys second album Anywhere But Here released in October 2022 was produced by Louis, Asha and Ali Chant with Portishead’s Adrian Utley in Bristol. The heady rush of its infectious opener ‘Let the Lights On’ gives way to a melancholic duet, a form which marks the album, and one that Sorry have clearly mastered. Listen closely and you can hear it roll through the realm of a hypnogogic sunrise in ‘Tell Me’, or in ‘Screaming in the Rain’ with ‘Cold coffee on your bedstand / I have lost the ability to understand.’ These are coming-of-age songs set against the backdrop of a changing city; songs of addiction, songs of infatuation, songs of duality – the oscillating boy-girl vocals play with perspective and time.
On the back of that album. Sorry completed a run of support dates with Sleaford Mods in 2022 in the US (as well as their own LA headline show in April 2022), and a headline UK tour – which included a hometown show at London’s Jazz Café and continued touring the UK in October and November 2024; playing their biggest headline show to date in London on 2 November at Electric Brixton.
At the Pop-Kultur festival 2023 in Berlin, Sorry will show what can only be guessed seeing their performances on Youtube: they are an amazing live band!
FACTS
1. there’s only two people who know the original recipes to coca-cola and they’re not allowed to go on a plane together incase it crashes.
2. gorillas are scared of chameleons
3. chameleons are scared of gorillas
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
We like to pull inspiration from everywhere really, I think that’s important for us. Whether it be from a gig we’d really enjoyed recently or friend or something, we find inspiration in every walk of life. Recently I’ve have been into the books of Yukio Mishima, who’s a Japanese author, he uses very colourful imagery and was completely obsessed with his art form, his back story is very intense (look it up if you have a chance) but I found both the man and the art very inspiring.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
We started playing music when we were about 12/13, and then writing music came a couple years later.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
The Beatles – Rubber Soul
Elliot Smith – Either/or
Frank Ocean – Blonde
Nina Simone – Silk & Soul
Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Not to be too cliche, but usually when we’re in Berlin we stay up for hours and get a bit weird with it, I think that’s probably the thing we associate most with berlin, the party. We came here as teenagers a couple times, many years ago so it does have a certain nostalgia to us as well.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
Well, London is changing to drastically right now it’s hard to say really, back in the day we use to enjoy Camden and the area we grew up in as kids, but that has been changed into a massive shopping mall now and has lost its soul, so I wouldn’t recommend it anymore. Recently Soho has become quite fun, maybe it’s gone full circle, the big lights of central London seem to be making a resurgence.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I think about this sometimes, It’s hard to say, probably a complete loser truthfully, but I’d also quite like to be a teacher of some kind. I would like to live by the sea, but I imagine that would be quite boring without music.
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listen?
Recently have been listening to this kind of Jazzy/Psychedelic album by Bruno Pernadas called Worst Summer Ever, some of the instrumentation and melodies make me weep a bit.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
It’s hard to say, artistically probably Frank Ocean, but if we are talking about the dollar then maybe someone from BTS, times are tough in this business and there’s nothing wrong with selling your soul.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Favourite gig I’ve ever been too was Portishead at a festival in England about 7 years ago, they played an amazing setlist and the production was insane, sounded and looked amazing. Recently one of my favourite gigs to play was at a festival called Roskilde, it was emotional for some reason and it just felt great.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Well throughout the years, technology has been incredibly important in our writing process, we’ve tried to limit it at times but we always come back to the computer and the DAW. After guitar it was basically the second instrument I picked up and so it holds a very special place in my heart.
11. What can we expect from your Pop-Kultur 2023 show?
Some music, some theatrics, some pyrotechnics, who knows !
