Australian alternative bright lights Yours Truly have announced their brand new EP Is This What I Look Like? will be released on 15 July via UNFD. The exciting news from the Sydney band is accompanied by a new song Hallucinate which features Josh Franceschi of You Me At Six.
Speaking about the new single vocalist Mikaila Delgado explains:
“Hallucinate is an anxiety attack turned into music, detailing how it takes over your body so totally that it feels as if you're under the influence of something. I've struggled badly with anxiety and it's debilitating every day to be at war with your own thoughts. It's one of the darkest songs we've ever written but I found a lot of power in pulling out the chaos of how anxiety feels and sounds to me and putting it in a song.”
Is This What I Look Like? will be the first full release from the band since their huge debut Self Care back in 2020, and also features a guest spot from DR€W ¥ORK from Stray From the Path.
The EP marks the start of a new chapter for Yours Truly, inspired by the music they are all collectively listening to now (Bring Me The Horizon, The 1975, Bloc Party, Head Automatica), the seven tracks see the band scatter in every direction possible.
There’s the electro-thrash of Lights On (one of 31 songs that had us moshing this March) the aching alt-rock swagger of recent single Walk Over My Grave and the fearless pop stomp of If You’re Drowning (I’ll Learn How To Hold My Breath).
Though actually, this new EP was never meant to be a bold step forward for the group and was originally planned as a three-track companion to their debut album Self Care, called Self-Sabotage. The EP was meant to tackle something other than the “sunshine and butterflies” of their debut album, dig deeper, and be more true and reflective of the band now.
“We spent that whole album telling people everything was going to be alright but the world had clearly taken a turn. Over the past few years, self-care has been incredibly difficult, we wanted to explore 'that'.”
Is This What I Look Like? stays true to that goal, but once they got into the studio with their “anything goes” attitude, they realised these songs “felt like a different universe entirely". Rather than running scared or trying to dial it back, the band decided to jump in, accept these new challenges and make themselves at home. It’s a bold move for a band who, in it for the long haul, wanted to just gradually push things forward on every record. However, two years without touring and without being able to get in the practice space together has changed that patient mindset. “Now we just want to write the songs we want to write. Let’s not be afraid. Let’s just be the best band we possibly can.”
While Self Care was inspired by conversations between all four members of the band about their mental health,Is This What I Look Like? saw Delgado isolated, alone and uncertain about her place in the world. “My entire adult life has been Yours Truly. With that taken away, I was in a bad place. Not being able to perform was depressing,” she explains. She poured that into her writing. Brutal, raw and revealing “all the songs are about coming to terms with who you are and who you want to be.”
Yours Truly have always been a band to champion honesty but this EP takes it even further. “I wear my heart on my sleeve. I’ve always been open with things like my health and what I’ve gone through, but I was very aware we live in a world where people use social media to show off idealised versions of their lives. We never want to pretend everything is perfect. This is my dirty laundry,” says Delgado. “It’s me saying I’m an anxious mess, I don’t know who I am but I’m trying to figure it out.”
After wrapping up 2021 in fine form - sweeping up an ARIA nomination for Best Hard Rock/heavy album for Self Care and supporting Holding Absence on their UK run, Yours Truly have hit the ground running for a huge 2022. With the band having stepped off the stage at UNIFY after one of our most memorable sets of the whole shebang, finishing supporting Against The Current on their UK tour and Delgado having just supported Slumberjack's Like A Version set, Yours Truly are now geared to play a run of festivals in the remaining months of 2022, including appearances in the UK, Australia, Italy and Sweden.
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