Yesterday saw the release of Southend-on-Sea alternative trio in earnest’s debut EP. Having already released three of its tracks as singles in the lead up – put me under, come upstairs, and 29 – the eponymous collection is bolstered by three more unreleased tracks showcasing their atmospheric, unflinchingly honest brand of indie. The music on in earnest is rather accurately described by the band as “an exploration of mental illness, nostalgia, and hope vs hopelessness”, and you can find out my thoughts on it in my review for the excellent Sounds Good here.
Inspired by the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Noah Gundersen, Elliott Smith, and Julien Baker, the three-piece have hit the ground running with a debut EP that gives you a little more with every listen. I only became aware of Sarah Holburn, Thomas Eatherton, and Toby Shaer’s work a couple of months ago when I heard 29 for the first time, but I felt straight away that they were doing something different to a lot of their contemporaries, and wanted to find out a little more about what made them tick. So here we are. Gladly the band were kind enough to answer a few questions as well as talk through the EP track by track.
(Note: as ever my questions are in bold and in earnest’s responses in plain text).
• How did the three of you get together?
Sarah: Tom and I met through the local music scene 7 years ago and we’ve been singing together ever since. Toby, who we knew through a friend, ended up joining the band we were previously in, and that band gradually evolved into the ‘in earnest’ you hear today.
• Your band name is quite interesting. Very apt in terms of the nature of the lyrics, but I’m also quite drawn to the lack of uppercase letters. I have my own idea as to why that might be, but I was wondering how you arrived at both the name, and the way it’s stylised?
We wanted a name that resonated our ethos of honesty. Sarah randomly thought of ‘in earnest’ one day, and it took us a while to like it! The only reason it is in lower case is because there is another artist called ‘In Earnest’ with capitals – having said that, the lowercase formatting fits with our idea that everything is raw and plain and blunt without being skewed by anything.
• It’s quite a bold choice not having percussion as such. I know there’s the odd kick and a tambourine on the EP, but it’s fairly sparse. Is that a result of wanting to keep the performances honest, or do you see an expanded sound in future?
We wanted to keep it true to what we would normally play live, so only being a trio means that we don’t have enough hands to do any percussion! The intentions of the songs from the EP also lend themselves to a more raw and organic sound, so we feel that having a full drum kit behind our sound wouldn’t echo what we’re about. Some of the newer songs we are working on have even less percussion, so we use the arrangements of songs to try and push the boundaries of what we can do with the instruments (and amount of hands) we have.
• How does the writing typically work for the band?
Sarah: Tom and I write the main bulk of songs, but we can’t write songs together! Any that I’ve written are ones that I lead vocally, and the same with Tom. We bring them into the rehearsal room and the other two will work on arrangements and do their best to embellish the intention that the writer has laid out.
• One of the things I really like about the EP is the organic sound of things. I like the sense of space between the instrumentation and the dynamic range of the songs. You’ve talked about the process of trying to capture largely live takes in the recording process, as well as avoiding autotune or too much overdubbing too. I’m interested to know your thought process as a band on recording. Is the honesty and integrity of the performance essential to what you do?
Absolutely. Our producer Peter (Longcroft Recording) prefers to record a bit ‘old school’ without click tracks to get an organic core take, so he persuaded us to do it this way! It definitely fits with the sound we were aiming for, and we can’t imagine using any other methods now. Peter is great at knowing how to get the best performance out of you as a musician and singer, so we trust him fully to tell us how it is!
• You talk about wanting to start discussions around difficult topics such as mental health with your music. What is it about music specifically that makes it an ideal vehicle for this sort of thing? As opposed to, say, visual art or words on a page…
The idea that lyrics can marry up with music so well is why we choose this art form, since it’s such a universal language. On their own, lyrics can be powerful, and music can be powerful, but the combination is something quite unique to carry the intention of deep topics.
• The EP is your final release of 2020. What’s next on the cards for the band?
We’ve actually just finished recording EP#2 and we’re so excited to get the mixes back! We’ve definitely stepped up our game from the first EP and have so many interesting ideas that we can’t wait to show everyone next year. We’re also itching to play live shows again, but I think that will have to wait until next year too!
• Who are your influences? Thinking about established acts that may have shaped the material on the EP, but also are there any other bands from Southend/Essex that you’re fans of?
For the creation of this EP, we listened a lot to Phoebe Bridgers, Boygenius, Noah Gundersen, Elliott Smith and Dodie. In terms of Southend/Essex bands, we are big fans of Leo Walrus, Fraser Cattini, Suspects and Beckie Margaret.
• I like that some of the songs seem to follow quite conventional rules, but then you throw some really unusual choices of notes/chords in there that completely wrong foot the listener. Thinking of the verse melody in ‘Put Me Under’ as well as a really cool chord in ’29’ that always catches me off guard. These little glimpses of dissonance, I guess. Where does that come from and what draws you to it?
The idea is that we treat our music like life – making space for both the good and the bad, negative and positive, assonant and dissonant. The musical and lyrical choices we make are reflective of this and we’re fans of doing things that are unexpected or just slightly left field. Our musical tastes are very wide and varied, so maybe that comes into play as well, for instance, Tom is very much a fan of metal/hardcore music and the dissonance that is found in those styles of music. Ultimately, we just like to push ourselves creatively.
in earnest: track by track
29 – Tom: ’29’ was a patchwork of my childhood memories that deal with holding onto your childish sense of adventure and not getting stuck in patterns of tedious adulthood.
Put Me Under – Sarah: A stream-of-consciousness about how my brain works when I’m alone and depressed, and trying not to succumb to the shark pool of negative thoughts.
Come Upstairs – Tom: ‘Come Upstairs’ is a song that I wrote to Sarah – urging her not to give up on herself in the wake of her struggle with depression and anxiety.
Fables – Sarah: This song is a bit of a ‘carpe diem’ moment, and the feeling of frustration and worthlessness when you want to have achieved so much more in your life than you actually have!
In Between – Tom: A song about how much I love music and the creative process, and how no matter what other people think, you’ve gotta be yourself!
The House – Tom: A post-apocalyptic vision of a house party that you need saving from! It’s mostly about gratitude for the things/people that are always there to pull you out of dark places.
You can find out more about in earnest on their Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can purchase the EP through their Bandcamp.
I stood up & I said yeah 
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