Portrait Generation are a Southend-based band that have kinda snuck up on me over the first half of the year. They first caught my ear a couple of months back with a song called “Shapeshifter” which had a really woozy and addictive guitar part that felt like it was doing unspeakable things to my brain, and “Fight Or Flight’ – released just over a week ago – is their second single since then. It’s got a lot going for it too, with propulsive drums and some pretty gnarly guitars constantly driving it forward, as well as a particularly scuzzy solo that again does funny things to my mind. As a song, it’s only a couple of minutes long but it’s a concentrated burst of energy with an explosive swagger and confidence that’s difficult to resist. You know how when you were a kid you’d have squash but sometimes your mum would buy the double concentrated one instead. You’d go in all guns blazing, fill that sucker up with water like normal and then be hit with the strongest shit (or squash) imaginable. Well, in the context of Portrait Generation songs I’ve heard so far, this one is the double concentrated Fruit & Barley.

There’s a lot I like about them. As a band, I like that they seem to stand for something, but mostly I like that each of their singles could almost be by different artists. Something about Shapeshifter made me think of Bernard Butler-era Suede, their most recent release “Sonic Life” had a kinda Velvet Underground vibe, and this has a more feral energy that puts me in mind of Wet Leg and Wolf Alice. There’s a cool pull between the more reined-in verses that build in tension and the violent release of the chorus, with Meg Groom’s vocals practically spitting the lyrics at you. It’s great. There’s a lot of variation across their stuff and it’s quite cool trying to guess where they’ll go next. In short, this feels like it could happily fit on Blur’s self-titled record too, and I am more than here for it.

Keep reading below for a short Q+A. I sent a few questions across to Meg from the band, touching on their influences, their approach to what they do, and the future.

ISY: One of the things that jumps out about your stuff is that each of your releases sound like they could be by a different band. I mean, obviously they sound like you, but there’s a lot of variation across them. Take Shapeshifter, Sonic Life, and the new one for example. I wonder your thoughts on that. Is it something you think about?

There is a method to the madness! We wanted this run of singles this year to show our versatility as a band and also to allow our varied influences to shine through on each release. Each single is a stand alone single with a topic, mood and sound. 

Shapeshifter is leaning more towards your sort of shoegaze sound with themes of evolving as a person and saying goodbye to the older unwanted parts of yourself. Sonic Life is all about longing for a life in music and is influenced by the likes of Parquet Courts and Talking Heads! Fight Or Flight is about what it is to exist in a world as a woman where your worth is constantly called into question and linked to your body. This track is inspired by the likes of Wet Leg, Amyl & The Sniffers and Lambrini Girls! 

We wanted to create excitement with every release and give a certain level of unpredictability. We don’t want to be a band whose last release is indistinguishable from the next!

ISY: What is your writing and recording process like? I’m always intrigued by how people go about making stuff…

The writing process varies from song to song. Grassroots for example, a song about class divide in the music industry, I wrote the lyrics for lying in bed before going to sleep. I read an article that triggered something in me and within 10 mins or so, all of the lyrics for Grassroots were written. Each of us in the band write our own parts. All drum parts are written by Sam, all bass parts are written by Dan and Harry’s guitar parts are written by him! I write all the lyrics, apart from Sonic life which was written by Harry of course, and my guitar parts. Sometimes it happens all in one room together and other times we each bring parts forward to work on. 

Harry is our engineer, producer and mixing engineer so he wears many hats in the band. We record everything ourselves at our rehearsal studio. Grassroots, Shapeshifter and Sonic Life were all recorded with us all playing in the room together at the same time whereas Fight Or Flight was recorded in parts. We’ve just recorded some new material where we’ve allowed ourselves to get very creative with the recording process and really adding in layers upon layers of sound!

ISY: Why do you do what you do? And I’m always interested in what success looks like to artists. You know, is it about making good music, shining a light on stuff, or being part of a wider community…

For us is all of those things! We want to write music that is accessible and relatable, which is why we often tackle hard-hitting topics. We want people to feel seen and heard and that maybe our music can lighten the load ever so slightly. Being a part of the local music scene is so important to us, you will often find us down at The Fickle Pickle supporting other local bands. That’s what it’s all about. Connecting with each other and supporting each other. We are all in it together and having the support from others around you makes it worthwhile. There’s no hiding it, the music industry is not in a great place at the moment, especially not for working class musicians who are having to work full time to support themselves whilst creating, but we’re still pushing as hard as we can to be able to keep doing what we’re doing! Success to us is putting music out there that people connect with and playing live shows meeting people who are genuinely enjoying what we’re doing! 

ISY: What does the rest of the year look like for the band?

So we have a fairly busy rest of the year ahead of us. Starting with our first festival appearance at Lazydays Festival 25th July which we are so excited for! We’ve got a steady run of gigs for the rest of the year as we gear up for some new releases. We’ve been very busy writing and recording so have some really cool stuff coming in the not so distant future!