High Vis, UK Post-punk Band, Releases New Album – Blending

Let me introduce you to Edward Harper. Harper is my point of contact for the band High Vis, but, among his bandmates and friends in the UK, Harper goes by “Ski.” I start our conversation by asking if Ski is his “punk name.” With a laugh, he says yes, and the stiff frost at the start of any Zoom call eases into a thaw.

Witty, sharp, and good-natured, Ski is one of several key members of High Vis, a London-based rock band that’s developed “a cultish reputation” on London’s DIY scene, according to UK tastemakers NME.

Ski is the band’s drummer, technical mastermind, chief composer, and driving force. Ski encountered underground DIY music early through UK garage, a funky electronic offshoot of jungle music that dominated UK clubs in the ’90s. As a teen, Ski listened to garage music via pirate radio stations, of which many are still active in the UK.

Dance music might not be a typical path to making underground music, but it makes sense in light of High Vis’s new album and its multifaceted title: Blending. Blending is the band’s second full-length album, and it’s streaming wherever you listen to music.

“‘Blending’ is Liverpool slang for looking good,” Ski tells me, “but, for us, it takes on all sorts of different meanings... like the blending of cultures in London, the different types of people we hang out with from other scenes — like dance music scenes, metal, grind, hardcore. It’s all blended into one.”

High Vis’s front man Graham Sayle also connects blending to class issues and social expectations. “Just because I wear a trackie [a tracksuit], it doesn’t mean that I haven’t read a book,” he says in a recent press release for the album. Sayle’s artistic scope and prowess are often at odds with his roots. Fronting a modestly successful band in the nation’s capital was hardly written in the cards at Sayle’s birth. Yet he is the latest entry in a long line of artists who emerged from Liverpool, the musical heart and soul of Northern England, an area that has spawned numerous notable British acts including the Beatles and Echo & the Bunnymen. But, unlike these predecessors, Sayle was born in the Liverpool region during times of rampant unemployment and austerity caused by the shuttering of industries — all factors that shape and define High Vis’s music.

Origins

Jumping back to origins, High Vis members spent their formative years immersed in heavy music and dirty DIY shows. “We’ve all played in hardcore bands,” Ski says, noting that Graham and bassist Rob Moss used to play in an act called Dirty Money that did quite well. He and Graham also played together in a hardcore band called Tremors for some time. Yet, despite heavy roots, the High Vis sound is often compared to Britpop and post-punk bands like Gang of Four, Joy Division, and the Stone Roses.

Now firmly in their 30s and middle-aged, the band’s hardcore veterans are turning the distortion down (slightly) to explore more vulnerable turf. They merge post-punk’s driving bass and steady beat with soaring textures, Britpop-tinged hooks, and sugary-sweet riffs to help their songs’ wounded messaging go down smoothly. Graham Sayle describes their debut record, 2019’s No Sense No Feeling, as “post-industrial Britain misery punk.” In contrast, Sayle feels that Blending explores similar themes but through less selfish means.

“In the past, I couldn’t see past whatever was going on with me. It’s about accepting things, being open to conversations, and learning to talk to people rather than just thinking that we’re all doomed,” he writes. The change is noticeable across Blending, where tracks feel more like commentary on the human experience at large rather than the hyper-specific commentary of one man. No matter how smooth High Vis gets, the rhythm section feels only a few bpm away from reverting to the punishing muscle memory of their hardcore years.

Inspired Momentum

This past summer, the band shared a stacked bill at Outbreak Fest 2022 in Manchester with classic hardcore bands like Madball and contemporaries such as Turnstile, Basement, and Knocked Loose. The latter bands have racked up significant critical and public support through fresh takes on hardcore, metal, and shoegaze. It’s an inexact recipe, but one that seems to work out for bands on both sides of the Atlantic.

Comparisons will inevitably get drawn between High Vis and their UK contemporaries Idles, the Bristol band who’ve worked hard to distance themselves from punk (admittedly sounding very, very punk). Certainly, High Vis shares some musical and social fronts with Idles — both share the foundation of working-class roots in their music and find themselves at odds with punk’s traditional nihilism and machismo. They battle these traditions by embracing therapy and sobriety (in the case of Idles’ Joe Talbot) and by grappling with heavy topics in their music rather than burying them beneath the symbolic violence of power chords, expletives, and mosh pits. But, more so than Idles, the High Vis sound takes some cues from thriving femme-fronted UK acts such as Wolf Alice and Cultdreams with open, airy songs that use heaviness and distortion as just one facet of their larger sound and dynamics. The resulting music carries itself with a pithy, street-smart swagger that’s catchy, dynamic, and appealing to both punk aficionados and fans of classic Britpop.

A Home at Holy Mountain

Blending faced some initial delays. Ski says it was largely because of setbacks at vinyl pressing plants where the physical copies get made. But, when it comes to the studio, High Vis has its approach boiled down to a science. The band has always been welcomed and found a second home at Holy Mountain Studios where members have recorded numerous projects as far back as 2010, long before High Vis was even christened.

“Holy Mountain has been going for a long time. We’ve recorded anything High Vis there,” Ski says. “It’s nice and familiar, and I’m quite into bands that stick with one place and record with one person. There’s something cool about evolving together like that.”

Holy Mountain Studios is owned and operated by Misha Hering. The Holy Mountain website describes it as “a studio that champions warmth, character, experimentation, and organic acoustic properties.” They back that up with impeccable staff and a collection of vintage and boutique gear. Though Holy Mountain isn’t a household name, it was designed by acoustician/architect John Flynn, who also had a hand in designing other classic UK studios including Olympic and Abbey Road.

Amplifier wall at Holy Mountain Studios, photo by Oscar Foster Kain

Holy Mountain’s API 1608 console, photo by Oscar Foster Kain

A view of the live room at Holy Mountain Studios, photo by Oscar Foster Kain

The kitchenette gives a glimpse into Holy Mountain’s humble, cozy atmosphere. Photo by Oscar Foster Kain.

“Since COVID, Misha moved back to Switzerland,” says bassist Rob. “He’s still hands-on but in a remote sense, and he mixed Blending remotely.” On the ground, Rob verifies that High Vis’s engineer, Stan Gravett, did excellent work in Misha’s absence. The band describes the studio personnel as helpful and knowledgeable, especially when giving tracks a little something special through vintage or rare gear. Beyond gear, High Vis loves Holy Mountain for its people and the steady guidance and support they provide.

“I love Misha and Stan, and they like us,” says Ski. “It works, and we can have quite an honest and open relationship and say what we don’t like without hurt feelings. Misha isn’t just a hired gun out of nowhere. He’s invested in it, knows the band, and knows where we’re headed.”

Though the setting was familiar, the band shook up the process by hiring a producer for the very first time. They tapped Jonah Falco, drummer of Canadian hardcore act F****d Up. Falco has been spreading his wings as a producer and studio gun for hire through recent work with ALEXISONFIRE and various other artists. As the band tells it, their relationship with Jonah grew organically. “I’ve been a fan of Jonah’s band for a long time, and he’s always been friends with friends or always around,” Ski says. Rob Moss recalls Jonah sitting in on a High Vis practice and casually giving the band some pointers. At the same time, High Vis was brainstorming how to approach studio work this time around. “We had the songs but thought maybe we could use another set of ears to polish them up,” Ski says.

Recording the New Album

Being working class, middle-aged, and living in the costly London metropolis, the band all work regular jobs more or less full-time. Demanding work hours meant they had to tackle 2019’s No Sense No Feeling in spurts — members often came into the studio and tracked alone without consistent oversight or project management. This time, they wanted a steady presence to anchor the process, and Falco readily assumed the role. The band feels like they flirted with the idea of having a producer before, mainly through a natural exchange of ideas between various Holy Mountain engineers and the band as they recorded. Blending marks their first experience with a dedicated producer, and it was an overwhelmingly positive one.

Rob Moss describes Jonah’s presence in the studio as “like a hype man. He’s super positive and really good at motivating people to get the best out of them. Pushing everyone to try new things and write things on the fly.” For Ski, Falco’s hype work was critical to pushing the drums on the record. As one of the band’s chief composers, he spends a lot of time working on demos and arrangements, which can sometimes be distracting. “The drums can be quite an afterthought for me even though I’m the drummer. I get more concerned about the complete song. Having Jonah there to push me was really needed and helpful,” he says.

What’s in a Name?

Now two albums deep, High Vis is beginning to find their footing and niche — financially, ideologically, and sonically. “None of us are particularly well-off,” Rob says, “but for us to go on tour and get paid enough to cover rent — that’s insane!”

Sonically and lyrically, Blending continues exploring themes evoked by their name, High Vis. In case you wondered, High Vis is short for high visibility vests, the vest being a multifaceted glimpse into how dress and appearance shape human interaction. It’s the “road workers and people who keep the city rolling” who wear high vis, Ski says.

“It’s synonymous with the working class, which we are.” But, on the other hand, there’s more to the high vis than that. According to Rob, Graham Sayle has found hidden meanings in the high vis: “He’s also interested in how invisible you can become wearing one. There’s that duality of being very visible but ignored at the same time,” Rob says. The band knows people who have been able to exploit the high vis almost like an invisibility cloak. Without naming names, Rob reports that entrepreneurial music fans have “gained access to things like festivals [for free] simply by putting on a high vis vest. Like getting a cheeky walkie-talkie and just walking through security to gain access to places.”

I mentioned to Rob that morally gray explorers of abandoned buildings (sometimes called urban explorers) have observed a similar cloaking effect. The high vis, the hard hat, a tool belt — these are regarded as “credibility props” that can make one practically invisible to prying eyes. Since the original purpose of the high vis is, of course, to boost one’s visibility, the practice is highly ironic yet also fitting. The vest still protects the user, just as intended, albeit much differently.

Tracksuit Dualism

The fixation on clothes and status, with credibility props and blending in, is a theme shared by other band members. Later, as we discussed local nightlife and shows, Ski brought up a seemingly unrelated story. “I don’t dress like a goth, but I’m big into goth. One time I wanted to go to a goth night called Slimelight. I was wearing a full Ralph Lauren tracksuit, and I didn’t think anything of what I was wearing, but I couldn’t get into the club. I wasn’t blending in enough.”

“You should’ve been walking around with all your the Cure 12 inches under your arm,” Rob jokes. “Then they would’ve let you in.”

Finding the right prop for every club is impossible in a world of expansive subcultures. But, fortunately, High Vis is blending — looking good, that is — and carving out a niche that’s built its momentum on the fundamentals — good music that connects with listeners. Blending is available everywhere now via Dais Records. Check it out below and click the links to connect with the band on social media!

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