Mit „To All The Ones That I Love“ melden sich Press Club zurück – reflektierter, freier und klanglich vielfältiger denn je. Entstanden ist das neue Album im bandeigenen Studio im australischen Footscray, produziert und gemischt von Gitarrist Greg Rietwyk und veredelt im Mastering durch Kris Crummett (u. a. Closure in Moscow, Dune Rats, Currents). Das Ergebnis ist ein vielschichtiges Werk, das gleichermaßen von persönlicher Reife wie musikalischer Neugier zeugt. Zwischen rauer Energie und intimer Nachdenklichkeit verhandelt die Band Themen wie Veränderung, Selbstreflexion und den Mut, Fehler nicht nur zu erkennen, sondern aus ihnen zu wachsen. Im Interview mit uns dem Frontstage Magazine spricht Drummer Frank Lees über kreative Freiheit, das Zusammenspiel innerhalb der Band und darüber, wem das neue Album eigentlich gewidmet ist.
Frontstage Magazine: What was the starting point or main inspiration behind To All The Ones That I Love? Was there a particular emotion or message guiding the album?
Press Club: This album started as all our work does, with us writing a whole lot of songs. The best way for us to start working out what we want to say is to just say it and work out the meaning later. In terms of emotion that is also rooted in improvisation. By working closely together while writing music we’re able to attune to each other’s auras and approach our songs with whatever energy the situation requires.
Frontstage Magazine: In what ways does the album reflect your personal and musical growth as a band?
Press Club: Evolution is a big part of this album. Not in the traditional Darwinian sense but more of a personal and musical thing. We’re pushing forward as people and as a band, we’re finding ways to make the band and music a part of our lives now that we’ve grown as people. Press Club will never stop, but we’re at a point where we’ve done a lot of what we wanted to do when we started, so we need to work out what we’re going to do next.
Frontstage Magazine: The title To All The Ones That I Love feels intimate and heartfelt – what does it mean to you, and who is it directed toward?
Press Club: We’re talking to a few groups of people: First is our fans who’ve followed us on the journey so far and without whom we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. Secondly are our friends and families, who support us both in our music and in our lives. And lastly we’re talking to each other, we’ve come a long way together and prop each other up. To All The Ones That I Love is literally a love letter, not just to our fans and families, but also to ourselves.
Frontstage Magazine: You recorded the album in your own studio – what kind of freedom did that give you creatively, and were there any unexpected challenges?
Press Club: Yes! The freedom was a huge pro. We were able to come up with ideas together, and then work on them individually when we had time, and vice versa. We had a much better ability to recall sounds as we were always doing everything in the same space with the same equipment. One challenge was that we lost a bit of the live raucous energy we were able to imprint in our earlier recordings when we just did it all together in one big session. We had to work out ways of putting that energy back into the music.
Frontstage Magazine: The album flows through different genres and moods – was that a conscious creative decision or something that developed naturally during the writing process?
Press Club: Everything develops naturally during the writing process. We definitely have conversations as we are writing about what kind of music we want to try and make. But when we sit down to actually write we are rarely focussing too much on pretext or ambitions, we just try to write the best song we can in the moment. As for the variability of the moods, I think that’s just us being ok to explore new sounds and not chopping ideas down because we feel it doesn’t sound like ‘us’. We know who we are now, and are cool with that.
Press Club Live 2025:
15.06. Hamburg, Not Sorry Festival
18.06. Berlin, Neue Zukunft
19.06. Hannover, Béi Chéz Heinz
20.06. Köln, Luxor
21.06. Hamburg, Molotow (Special Guest: DZ Deathrays)
22.06. Dresden, Farewell Youth Festival
28.06. Münster, Gleis 22
30.06. Stuttgart, Im Wizemann
01.07. München, Strom
03.07. Gießen, MuK
05.07. Enkirch, Fallig Open Air
Fotocredit: Nick Manuell