Harrogate Hardcore Heavyweights BLOOD YOUTH Take us into the Dark Depths of New Album ‘Starve’

Harrogate metallic hardcore bruisers Blood Youth are set to unleash their dark, crushing new album Starve on February 22 and follow it up with a full UK tour. Ahead of the release of the album, we sat down with the band to get an insight into the inspiration behind the songs on what is going to be one of the albums of 2019!

1. 51/50
– “5150” refers to the California law code for the temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness. It has been more generally applied to people who are considered threateningly unstable or “crazy.”

2. Starve
– “Starve” was something musically we’ve had parts for since the Beyond Repair cycle, it was such a painful process to try and piece the sections we had together to make it a song. It had so many different versions, that at a certain point we knew that this was going to set the pace for the album, due to its drastic contrast to our older material, as hard as it would be – we knew we had to keep working at it, otherwise this album wouldn’t have ended up the way we wanted it to. And we needed it to open the album. We released it a few months before the album was even announced. From the music, to the video, to the lyrics, it was the perfect song to show what direction we were going in for this album. Lyrically, it’s about being trapped in a very dark place, allowing yourself to be consumed by everything you fear and using starve as a metaphor for universal isolation.

3. Cut Me Open
– Following the experience we had with “Starve”, “Cut Me Open” was actually a lot easier to put together and understand. At this point we had already come to terms with and committed to our mission statement. We know what we’re doing with this album, this is what we want to do and this is how it’s gotta be. This song is a real statement of intent. We are about to go deeper and darker than we have ever before. “In truth, all I wanted was to take off this skin”.

We are literally shedding all previous perceptions of this band, and inviting you to take a look into what goes on in our heads, and be apart of our next life. Love it or hate it, you can’t stop it.

4. Spineless
– This was the very FIRST song we had written for Starve, and was actually demoed immediately after our last album released, I think it was just the painful feeling of being sucked into a pigeon hole of expectations and comfort from those around us that really gave us the feeling of urgency to start this new process for Blood Youth. Spineless is about not being able to change your fucked up state of mind. No matter what we do or how much we change our appearance, we have an inner darkness that always creeps back up and it can make people hate you. You eventually learn that this is your reality and it will stay with you forever. We were actually told by previous members of our team that this song was “stale” and “boring”. We slowly began to believe that, but then realised that deep down WE loved it. And that was the entire approach to this album, that this was what WE want to make, and that we need to learn not to listen to the outsiders.

Don’t be “Spineless”! Check out Blood Youth’s new video here:

5. Nerve
– “Nerve” goes to a place we have never really been before as a band. It was written in the perspective of someone being pushed to the edge, someone who nobody listens to when all the signs are right in front of you, someone who’s struggling and “passing by” life as a shadow with nobody seeing them, showing any love or effort to reach out – until it’s too late. It’s quite an ongoing theme these days for people to sit back and unknowingly watch their friends or people they know self destruct. But when it’s too late, there’s nothing you can do. And then all of a sudden, everybody has your back. Regret comes too late, and this song is a wake up call to us, and the people of today. This song is meant to make you feel uncomfortable. It’s a collection of thoughts and feelings from when you are at your lowest. The soundtrack to a nightmare.

6. The Answer
– This song is about questioning your own worth. We put this enormous pressure on ourselves to succeed. To always be happy, to be rich, to be in love, and it can really suffocate you. Sometimes you have to accept that you may not be any of those things, and find comfort in what you REALLY are.

7. Waste Away
– “Waste Away” is a song that a lot of people will be able to relate to. It’s probably one out of the couple of songs on Starve that people may be able to find relation in to our older songs. There are times when you wake up with this crushing fear and anxiety. That feeling never seems to go away, it’s like an anvil has been dropped on your chest. You can try swallow it as much as you like but you still end up suffocating. This record was never meant to be a pick me up story, this is real shit. What we see and experience in life. And what we all go through together, but are too proud to open up about or share.

8. Stone Tape Theory
– “The Stone Tape Theory” is the speculation that ghosts and hauntings are analogous to tape recordings, and that mental impressions during emotional or traumatic events can be projected in the form of energy, “recorded” onto rocks and other items and “replayed” under certain conditions.”

9. Visitant
– We’ve written songs in the past that have been about the end of relationships and moving on from someone, but we’ve never really written about the darker side of heartbreak. When a person makes you feel like a ghost. Like you never even existed. This obsession to find peace of mind because of the way somebody has made you feel, can mentally and physically fuck you up and something we had to come to terms with through this song. We approached this song musically to have the chorus become more and more repetitive to reflect the unhealthy and repetitive routine your life falls into whilst being stuck in this hole. It’s like a tape going round and round and round, never stopping. False hope and false reality.

10. Keep You Alive
– “Keep You Alive” was the very last song we had written and demoed before going into the studio. It was a song that started off as a brief idea to see how simple we could make a song, which then slowly turned into something uncontrollable. The anthem we’ve always needed. Being so simple, it opened so many new doors to what we could do musically. It’s the slowest song we have, yet one of the heaviest. We knew this track would be a single the first time we heard it. This song is about the inevitable traumas we will all face in life. Death, loss, addiction, abuse, heartbreak. Nobody teaches us how to deal with any of these things. For better or worse, it changes you as a person. You can always push them aside but sooner or later the reality will find you and live inside you like a parasite. Once faced with these challenges, for someone who was not prepared for them – it can push you into a state of isolation.

Check out the sinister video for “Keep You Alive” here:

11. Nothing Left
– “Nothing Left” was a song that made our producer Robin nearly throw up when the intro riff was tracked. It’s quite a contrasting song. But when you are in a band, you put so much of yourself on the line. You spend months and months and in this case – up to a year writing and constructing really personal songs. Songs that can be dismissed and disregarded very quickly by critics and shit talkers. You learn that you just have to keep doing what you want to do, because if you truly believe in what you are doing, nothing else matters.

Music outlives everyone.

“Your time is up, now fuck you”

12. Hate
– A song for that for that blinding rage that lives in all of us. We stand on so many stages, in so many different countries and see it every night. People that have just come from working the job they hate, spending each day surrounded by a bunch of people they can’t stand. You see this instant release of anger as soon as we start the set. This one is for you.

13. Exhale
– “Exhale”. The last action before we leave this life. And you better be happy and stand by everything you’ve ever done by time that moment comes. We as a band have ALWAYS been the ones left outside the circle. People think we’re different. We don’t beg for help from others. We don’t pester or leech off other bands because they’re on ‘the up’ or they’re more successful than us – kissing ass on social media, just so people think we’re friends with them to maybe one day land a tour or begin a relationship with them. It’s fucking sad to watch. We do what WE want, and we’ve got to where we are today off our OWN backs. This song really took it out of everyone. The whole point of Starve as an album, was to take our listeners to hell, and then leave them there. So they can experience where we are coming from and what we go through. Exhale isn’t even a song to us, it’s a condition, a daze and something we’ve been itching to capture for a long time. Something we can’t explain, but just express.

Tour Dates:

03/01 – Southampton – Joiners
03/02 – Leeds – The Key Club
03/03 – Glasgow – Audio
03/04 – Newcastle – Think Tank
03/06 – Manchester – Star & Garter
03/07 – Birmingham – Mama Roux’s
03/08 – London – Underworld