Lately, it seems like Brighton is on a mission to deliver dreamy, fuzzed-out pop, and FatCat Records’ latest signing, Breathe Panel, is only too happy to join the cause.

Harry Vick (bass guitar) enjoys growing plants from other continents, and Josh Tyler (lead guitar) enjoys living in the smallest space he can find – he calls it ‘nano-living’. The childhood friends left Devon for the buzzing beachfront, where they met Nick Green (vocals/guitar) and Benjamin Reeves (drums). And their band name truly reflects their sound – which is a happy accident – considering it originally derived from an anagram of ‘elephant’ and ‘bear’. Their debut single On My Way has arrived as a limited two-track 7” with B-side Try to See and beautifully illustrates their influences; life experiences, nature, colours and dark ales.

Clementine Zawadzki: How did you all meet?
Nick Green: We all moved to Brighton at various stages. Josh and I met through a mutual friend and started writing in my basement until finally having enough songs to start playing shows. Harry lived with Josh and we knew Benji as he was in another band and visited a few times so it went from there.

CZ: What can you tell us about On My Way and Try To See?
Josh Tyler: They were both written around the same time and were recorded at home with the help of a few pals. Both songs hold similar meaning, looking at the confusing themes of natural movement and change through life.

CZ: How did the video for On My Way come about?
NG: We knew of Chris (Dogbrain Videos) through friends, gave him an email to meet up and shot some footage. We had a really fun time. He’s a great guy and gave us exactly what we imagined.

CZ: What is your writing process like?
NG: We don’t really have a specific process. It varies between us playing through an idea and developing it as a band, or an individual will come up with a few parts of a song and bring ideas forward to everyone else. We’re constantly writing small ditties that never become full songs, but sometimes that library is handy for pilfering ideas for new songs. Three of us moved in together about a year ago which made everything quicker and easier!

CZ: What’s the first album you bought?
Harry Vick: Rachel Stevens – Sweet Dreams My LA Ex. It holds no relevance to the music we write now, but it’s pretty fucking funny.
NG: Our music tastes are constantly adapting and we’re all in to a variety of stuff which helps bring ideas to songs.

CZ: How much do songs change when you go to record them?
JT: It depends on the song really. As you record you can listen back and it’s easier to add or take parts out, compared to trying to listen whilst playing all together. Some songs have stayed exactly the same as when we’ve written it, and others have changed in structure etc. It’s important for us to make demos as a band. It really helps cement a new song. It’s also super fun and good practice for when we go into the studio.

“It’s important for us to make demos as a band. It really helps cement a new song.”

CZ: The Brighton music scene is really having a moment. Why do you think that is?
JT: There’s just a good community down here. As Brighton is fairly compact it’s easy to get to know different social groups or mutual friends who most likely play in a band, or do some form of art. It encourages people to go to shows or take time to listen to your music.
NG: We tend to write songs that we could imagine driving to, either under water or through a forest. There’s sea in Brighton and there’s some trees in the South Downs, so it works pretty well.

CZ: And you toured with The Big Moon earlier this year?
NG: We were running through St Pancras once with all our gear trying to catch a train and there was a dude playing the Pink Panther theme tune on a piano, it really put our lives in to perspective, but we saw the funny side. Yeah we’ve played with The Big Moon a couple of times now. We’re good friends with Soph, we love her. It’s always nice to see the other girls too, especially when it means playing a show with them.

CZ: What sort of effect does that sense of community have on you as a new band?
NG: It’s pretty encouraging knowing that there’s a lot of people doing cool things around you and being able to see shows all the time. But we’ve always just done what we want and written songs that we think sound good, rather than trying to make a specific sound. For us, it’s an emotional output, so as soon as you try and change the noise that comes out, it just doesn’t feel honest or be as fun to play.

CZ: What’s next for Breathe Panel?
JT: We’ve got loads of new material that we want to share with people. Looking forward to playing shows and recording some more too!

Follow Breathe Panel here.