Rising alt-rock outfit newshapes channelled creative burnout into inspiration on their introspective new single “Falling Away,” turning writer’s block into one of their most instinctive and fully-formed tracks to date. Blending emo roots inspired by My Chemical Romance and Blink-182 with a darker, melodic edge, the band continue to evolve while staying true to the sound that shaped them.
“Falling Away”, the new single, it feels quite introspective. What was the moment or that feeling that sort of sparked that song?
Ian (vocals): I do a lot of the lyrics and Falling Away is actually a really old song for us… it’s one of many backups – I think there’s a 2023 timestamp on the very first demo of this one at least from like the guitar and stuff. It probably came about the same time we were writing “Sick of Breathing” on our last record like a year and a half/two years ago whenever that was coming out, so there was a total writer’s block, this long period. So, I spoke to one of my closest friends and he said just write about the fact you’ve got nothing to write about – and that kicked off the song.
Then once I got that whole creative explosion out the way this kind of came as the aftermath of that and I sat on it, at least the lyrics came through, but the guitar hook has been there a long time just in my head. I’m always doing like riffs and stuff and this is one that I think Logan latched on to day one and he was like this one great.
Logan (drums): I did! There’s a folder of about a million demos that Ian writes, and he showed me this one and I was like honestly, you could release that! You could record it as it is and you could release it and I’d be so happy with it!
Every so often, Ian, who’s the main songwriter, will come with a song which is pretty much there, it’s pretty much done and that was definitely that one for me, because I remember having a little bit of resistance against some other people trying to add some stuff to it, probably the most resistance I think I’ve ever had to any song that we’ve written. When Mikey and Stephen were trying to change some bits to it I was like nah! There’s a kind of dark element to the demo and there’s a dark element to the end of the song and I feel like we’ve kept that from the start all the way to the end. Yeah, it was a banger from day one!
See when you write a song in particular, do you find that you follow a particular pattern of lyrics come first or do you create like a sound in your mind?
Ian: I’ve been trying to do lyrics first or at least continue to note one-off lines, be it things I’ve stolen from a movie that just sound good, or things that come to mind and I think ‘that sounds profound, I’m sure that’ll be a springboard at some point’. I’ve been trying to do that more recently. I grew up as a guitar player, I’m a guitar player first. Nobody wanted to sing in the bands when I was 14 years old, so I did it, so it’s come to me as a learned skill to me as well as the writing lyrics. There’s been times like months on end I’ve been like, here’s instrumental after instrumental just for vibes, and then lyrics for full records almost just come to me. Once I’ve got the concept and I’m getting sort of 80%-90% of the lyrics nailed down and all that I’m fighting against is ‘do I want this to rhyme or not rhyme’ then I’ll pass off to some of the guys, to ask them their thoughts, or check is there any way we can tighten this up etc. But ultimately I’m guitar player first, I’m all about melody and structure.
How would you say you sort of keep the chemistry within the band with each other?
Logan: I don’t really think we’re stubborn people, (albeit I guess that other people probably say I’m the most stubborn), but I think there’s a lot of coming and going between each other with song ideas and having Mikey who plays bass and Stephen who plays guitars, they’re all songwriters in their own right, and they’ve come from different projects into this. I’m not so much a songwriter as I like drums, I like structures, ideas etc. But these guys also come in with their own ideas and there’s also an element of, if you’re outvoted you’re outvoted sort of thing. We’re very constructive with ideas and very fair with ideas. There’s never an occasion where it felt like it’s going to come to blows or anything like that, there’s a nice diplomatic process.
Ian: Just to add to that on the topic of being outvoted, one example is an older track called “The Rain”, I obviously wrote it first off and I kept getting pushed to write it, and I was like ‘guys, this song – I hate it. I hate it. I hate it’. And they were like ‘no just stick with it.’ But there’s also been songs like ‘Forget’ which looking back it’s probably just because Michael and Stephen were newer to the band and they kept trying to put their own spin on it but that’s another one that I was putting my foot down. Logan hated it, and I put my foot down, I wasn’t taking no for an answer, and they did trust me in the end. I eventually won them over and it ended up being our best performance song. So I think it goes both ways. There’s just a lot of trust.
Talking about the band and keeping that chemistry, if you were to describe each band member using an emoji, who would be what emoji?
Ian: I have one for Stephen, (and I hope he takes this really well) – He’s:🤬
The red face there with the censored mouth, just because he’s passionate, loud, doesn’t swear, but when he swears, he means it. He’s not LOUD, but when he means it – he’s loud!! He’s very reserved otherwise!
Logan: Definitely. He is that one for sure! For Mikey 🧠He’s the brain emoji, he is very analytical, he’s very thorough with things. I just don’t know how he does it. There’s a lot of things that he does that bore me to tears but he’s just got this ability just to grind on through.
Ian: I think the first one that comes to mind for you, Logan, is I feel like it’s maybe a bit disrespectful and I genuinely don’t mean it, but you are the clown.🤡
We gave Logan a mic on stage for the first time just to deliver an anecdote, guitar swap time, kind of like a little half a minute, and it’s just flawless… unbelievably able to just flawlessly deliver nothing. There’s absolute nonsense that comes out of my mouth that people just find interesting.
Logan: For Ian, like some kind of robotic jukebox. 📻🎼🤖It’s like you put 50p in and you come out with a riff. He’s like a riff, like a song dispenser. The guy just writes songs all the damn time.
So let’s go back to talking about the single Falling Away. I’ve read that it’s a bit about wanting a little bit of something. So for clarity, is that something that both of you feel you’ve found?
Ian: This song, both its lyrics and the visuals and everything we’re doing with this one, it’s an expansion on the song before, not so much sequel to it, but trying to do a bit of double meaning with everything. The songs are standalone and the songs have their own sort of meanings, but also trying to draw a grander thing from that, so to speak. I think ‘Falling Away’ from a personal level, it was probably something it’s come from a place of me wanting validation in the band. We’re still kind of, or least I’m still at a point where I’m doing a day job and I’m doing this with the band, and you get people that will ask ‘are you still doing the band thing?’ from people that are in the real world. And it’s kind of good to play the shows this weekend past, even a year ago, probably when the lyrics started coming to me, playing these bigger and bigger shows and seeing real people screaming lyrics back, especially just in our show in Edinburgh and also in London and Manchester the weekend before, screaming these lyrics back. It’s like growing up and watching people on stage and getting that validation back in the same way. It’s a really total mind melting experience.
Q: With ‘Falling Away’, how do you feel like it builds on the story that you started with the song ‘Baptise’?
Ian: It’s tough because I kind of want to play it smart and have things for people to look for, especially to do with the visuals and stuff. We’re going to tell that story in its own way. “Baptise” is very upfront about using religion as a metaphor for the story it’s telling. “Falling Away” is much more introspective. It’s almost like a different angle on the same sort of thing, rather than the next chapter, more like a sidestep, looking inwards from a different angle, because “Baptise” is also inwards.
This track leads into softer, mid-2000s sort of influences. Was that always a conscious decision or was it a happy accident?
Ian: I think just to kind of go back to that original demo, that first riff was there on day one, that chorus melody was there on day one, the verses changed a little bit, but I think Logan said it best. There was a few demos that we went through where it was almost getting too uplifting and it was matching some of our much more poppier songs and Logan was very adamant that we kept that emo-y dark feel the whole time. Didn’t want to lose that. No matter how poppy and catchy the melodies got, no matter how bright almost the bridge feels, you bring it right back down to the point the whole song is melancholic. It started that way and I’m glad it stayed that way because there was a time I was getting used to the more leaning for the pop punk side rather than the emo side, as much as they’re very similar. It’s all just kind of about the intent.
Logan: Yeah, I would agree. I think there’s a lot of that sound along a lot of our stuff. There’s always that dark element to it, that kind of emotive verses and whatnot, and then there’s always a really bright chorus. But it was definitely in danger of going that way into the kind of pop punk world and it just kind of lost what the very first iteration of the song was. A lot of times when people are writing songs, the process can be like the song starts with something from A and then it ends up all the way in letter Z, it’s completely changed from what it was, but this one was always just like nah, we need to keep it to where it was because it had all those influences in it from the start, so it was just key to keep that.
And you’ve cited bands like Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance, right? So what is it about that era that resonates with you today?
Ian: I’m a couple of years younger than the guys, and as much as those bands especially Blink 182 are even older than that, I was just 12 years old doing guitar first and it’s like if you’re not learning “Damnit” on your first electric guitar then that’s not the world you’re into. My Chemical Romance, they’re very much one of my favourite bands of all time in terms of the theatrics, in terms of really leaning into it. They allow themselves to be cringe, I guess you can call it. They allow themselves to sit in that space without being overly reliant on antagonistic lyrics and behaviours. They’re just being weirdos, they’re just being themselves, and I think when you’re young you can gravitate to that quite easily. Even as I’ve got older I’ve never grown out of it, I’ve never thought ‘remember when I used to listen to that’, I look back and I’m like yeah that album is sick, I still listen to that.
Logan: Absolutely. I don’t think a lot of people grow out of it, they just forget that it’s there and then they’re reminded, oh that’s a banger! I think probably all of us have always stayed kind of true to that sort of style, with who we grew up with. You can always recall it and go back to it. If I hear something that I like, I’m just like okay, let’s just do it until it’s absolutely done.
It was never a phase!?
Logan: No, it definitely wasn’t. It’s a way of life.
So on the theme of other bands and artists, what’s the dream collaboration?
Ian: We could go all out and do like a proper dance track. We could get Cascada or Scooter maybe? Full Euro dance, full Euro pop…
Logan: Scooter. newshapes with Scooter! I think we could definitely fit into both categories. Immediately, the first thing that came to my mind was Pendulum. I don’t know why, but I think we could definitely fit in a Pendulum bracket.
Ian: Really special, they can be on a big electronic festival and also headline Download. They can do it all, I think that is probably the right answer. If not them, then The Prodigy.
Logan: Yeah, those two. Prodigy and Pendulum… featuring Scooter as well!
What are you most excited or nervous for about the upcoming tour?
Logan: Spending two and a half weeks in a van with these guys, that’s what I’m nervous for. I’m excited that it’s our first Euro run. We’ve not really been a band a long time so to get that option for a European tour is class. It’s key for any band at our level. We get a lot of messages from people in different countries asking us to come over, so it’s finally time!
Ian: We’ve done a lot of headline shows recently, growing the scale of production, pushing ourselves so it’ll be good to strip that all away and be good to be put back in the position where its not ‘our show’ and get the crowd maybe who don’t know us – to get to know us!
Practically, it’s the longest run we’ve done. This is going to be a real trial by fire, looking after myself, doing a lot of travel. Both nervous and excited for pretty much everything.
If someone discovers you through ‘Falling Away’, what do you hope they take away?
Logan: That’s not how we sound all the time. There’s a lot of different sounding songs. The next song that is coming out is also different again so I’d say hopefully people like the chorus in ‘Falling Away’ – that’s a common theme, I think all our songs have really good choruses.
Ian: Although in saying that, when we played London there were two girls who came up to us, and bless them they said they found our song “Falling Down”… and I did keep a straight face but they came and they loved it! So if you take anything away I want you to come and see that song and be impressed by the rest of us.
What’s something you’d love to try musically?
Ian: I’d love to do a real ballad. Not just an acoustic song , a proper full ballad. Maybe not Disney Musical level, but close.
What bit of sunshine would you give your fans? (Something motivating, encouraging etc).
Ian: The next song will come. I’m yet to be proven wrong that things will get better.
Logan: Don’t give up. Better days will come.
newshapes are Ian Mann (vocals), Stephen Christie (guitar), Michael Hamilton (bass) and Logan Whyte (drums).
Catch newshapes live supporting never easy:
- 30th April 2026 – Manchester, UK
- 1st May 2026 – Birmingham, UK
- 2nd May 2026 – London, UK
newshapes’ latest single, “Falling Away” is out now
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