Brighton’s Porchlight are a sight for riff-beaten earworms. With the drooliest of lyrical-wax this side of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, the “blue sky blinded” quintet formed of Sam, Oli, Criddle, Tom C and Tom H respectively, are a bunch of genre-shifting-troublemakers who’ll take your world by storm.
An anagram of its members’ names, Porchlight began their descent into anarchic-articulation, when Sam, Oli and Criddle met whilst studying. Portsmouth natives, the project truly came to life once the gang made the big move to Brighton- joining forces with pals Oz and Rob, (“who produced the first two singles”) and Archie, “who co-runs Only Mellor.”
“Collaboration makes Porchlight, Porchlight. Recognising talent amongst friends and establishing a community with our friends and peers to create an immersive sonic experience.”
With, in their own words, their faces “pressed against rain laced windows whilst we waited for the day where [Tom H] would eventually assemble us”, it wasn’t until the trio met the duo of Tom’s, that all the sleep deprivation, “lusting hopelessness”, and general dreams of peace, love, and “world domination under the name Porchlight”, would come into true, fateful-fruition.
Now, don’t for one minute think that this is a tale of Patterns club one minute, Pyramid Stage the next. “Stacking shelves, books, and failing to hold down jobs”, all might sound like a bunch of adolescent dreamers clinging to the romanticised ideal of an inevitable creative destiny, but the road to glory is only ever as rambling as the minds of its weary travellers; and with Porchlight, the path to Punk-ish prosperity is luminous.
Inspired by “Greggs sausage rolls”, “hiding our lack of comedic qualities behind stupid references” and the creative-influence of “being in a room together”- the space in question: a big room in Brighton’s ‘South Lane Studios’, the motley bunch of wit loving reprobates quickly settled into a headspace of collective-faith, and nuggeted voice-notes. “Some of the things that happen in that room could only possibly happen when five humans are completely unashamed and comfortable” they note. “Honestly, shit gets weird.”
Porchlight in So Young Issue Thirty-Five
Recorded at ‘Brighton Electric Studio’ and released via Only Mellor (a “community led events, label and management company based in Brighton”), ‘Drywall’ and ‘Country Manor’, the groups only releases to date, are two spotlight’s in the grander scheming’s of Porch-lit splendour, and meticulous, sardonic-success.
Written, unsurprisingly, at a Country Manor, the three-minute commotion was loosely inspired by an upper-class family tea party that Sam worked at. Fuelled by a banded distain for the “gritted-teeth and Oscar winning facades” of its namesake, ‘Country Manor’ is a vivacious, borderline-glam-anthem of untouchable realities, and frenzied call-outs; all blue-collar outrage, and scathing attention to detail. Everything, right down to the track’s press-shots (taken on “the location in which said party was located”) has been minutely knit-picked in order to spin a turbulent-tale of deviously-derivative narrative.
As for ‘Drywall’, a blissfully slacker number conspired in the bedroom of Oli’s window-less, 3rd year flat? “There was something about being surrounded only by walls that made me feel like I was surrounded only by walls”, Oli muses.
In the end, all that remains to be spoken for is left in the capable hands of Porchlight’s own devices. After all, when asked ‘what’s next?’ The answer will more-or-less only ever be, “more”, and rarely less.
Catch Porchlight at The Social, London on Thursday 31st March for We Are So Young 14. Entry is free.
The new issue of So Young is out now! Issue Thirty-Six features interviews with Wet Leg (Print Cover), Jockstrap (Online Cover, below), Black Country, New Road, Metronomy, NewDad, Teeth Machine, ENUMCLAW, Been Stellar, Blue Bendy, BODEGA, Catcher and more. Order your copy here or read the digital edition below.
