Playing with styles, Manchester five-piece Not Today are all about their new-found positive outlook. As it offers various musical surprises (not least the heavier ‘Coming Storm’), their broad melodic rock is pulled together by optimism. ‘Headway’, their brand new EP, is the proactive follow-up to last year’s ‘Infinity’. If that was the tunnel, this is the light.
“Our debut EP ‘Infinity’ was darker in themes and we wanted our next release to be a lot more positive,” Not Today explain. “We were collectively at much better places in our lives and we believe that the music reflects this.”
“The title and the artwork represent the theme that runs through the EP, which is mostly about moving forward from a dark period and “making headway”, which is where we got the title,” the band continue. “We wanted artwork that mirrored this theme while being bright, colourful and fun. The various things found around the edge of the planet represent the dull things in life but also the middle is meant to signify all the fun that can still be had, even if you have to go to work on Monday morning.”
“We like to think that for a pop punk band we can be quite experimental. We have a range of different backgrounds when it comes to music taste, from deathcore to alt rock to pop punk. This influences our music as we aim to do something different when writing. For example we have an alt rock song in the form of ‘Coming Storm’ but we also have an easycore track in the form of ‘This Song Sounded Better In My Head’. Because of this it’s hard to pin down exactly who we sound like but it’s safe to say there’s plenty that inspires our music.”
‘Headway’ will be available from the 20th May 2016. The band will be celebrating its impending release with a show a hometown show at Manchester’s Zombie Shack on the 13th.