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The album cover for the self-titled debut album from TORUS started out with the band “playing around with a load of different ideas for ages”, explains bassist Harry Quinn. The band played around with several ideas, but it wasn’t until they looked at old photographs that their parents had taken that they had found the perfect cover. The album cover is a photo taken by drummer Jack Orr‘s dad in New Zealand in the 1990s.
“We really liked how you can’t tell what it is, but you can make out little things. We think that represented the whole theme of the lyrics of the songs, as a lot of them are about confusion and being in your own head,” Quinn explains.
The band describe themselves as a band who “write catchy pop songs with fat [guitar] riffs”, but they are not really stuck in one genre. In terms of what genre direction to go in, lead singer Alfie Glass explains that the band “knew what our sound was from pretty early on in our inception, so with our debut album, we just looked at it as a step up from our EP, Sail, which was released in 2022.”
The biggest difference between the EP and the album is the recording process, as instead of the band recording in Glass‘ bedroom, which is how the band started out, they went to a recording studio for the first time.
“It was a bit scary as we were a bit hesitant to get someone else involved,” Quinn explains, “because with the EP, we just recorded it in Alfie‘s room and I produced and mixed it, so it was weird and new to us to go into the studio. But when we found the right producer, and we had a trial day to test the waters, we came out with When It Comes, and there was no doubt that we could work with him.”
“We really needed an outside opinion as well because from the start, we were in our own little bubble as we’re really protective of our work,” Glass adds.
TORUS chose to name the album after themselves because they’ve always looked up to classic ‘album’ bands, such as BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN. Even though TORUS have been around for a long time, their debut album felt like the start of the band as this is the first album that has Orr recording the drums. “Also we couldn’t think of anything better,” Quinn jokes.
TORUS‘ album has twelve songs, but trying to decide which songs would make it onto the album was hard work. There were loads of demos from the end of 2019 until the day they decided to go through and see what ones the trio liked the most. “We didn’t want to overthink it,” Quinn explains.
But the ones that were definitely going to be on the album were opening song Avalanche, which was one of the newest songs that they had when they were going into the studio, and Speed Trial, which is the “big, epic, colossal monster at the end”, at six minutes long.
The recording process for Speed Trial took the longest, but “it was quite fun, drums-wise,” Orr explains. “It sounds really easy on the drums, but it was probably the hardest song to play, if I’m being honest. I had to really pull back on the drums. Normally, when I play to a click track, I’m playing in time to the click track, but it was almost as if I had to play behind the click track, so I felt like I was playing behind.”
“It was really fun as well because we were experimenting with loads of weird old machines that we were playing around with and getting weird noises and feedback loops,” Quinn adds.
When it comes to song writing for the album, TORUS do things a bit differently. Most people will assume that a band will write the lyrics first and then record the instruments around the lyrics. But for TORUS, every songs starts off with Glass writing a riff or a brief idea, then he’ll bring it to Quinn, who will tell him what he loves and hates, as well as what his input is and cut up Glass‘ ideas. As Orr is in the band, they’ll take it to the rehearsal room and Orr will put his ideas in. Then Quinn and Glass go away and create a little demo.
Although they acknowledge that every song is different, they all agree that lyrics always come last because they are all different, but for Glass, he explains that “I am better at expressing my feelings through sounds rather than words.”
As Orr is still new to the band, he found the recording process for the album “was cool, but a bit scary because it took a long time to figure out how to involve me, but once we figured it out, it was really fun. As we all play the drums, it was really helpful when it came to recording the drums. Although I did find it a bit scary because this is my first band, but it’s a great experience.”
TORUS are still balancing their full-time work-band life, as there isn’t a lot of money in the music industry, but they are constantly putting things into TORUS, and acknowledge that although it’s full on, it is worth the stress. Their determination and commitment is clear throughout our chat and in their music. Life can offer up a lot of exciting and scary opportunities, but as Orr says: “if it’s scary and exciting, then you should do it.”
Torus is out now via MNRK Music/Inside Job.
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