MOULD

Support: Sans Froid. On the surface, Bristol three-piece Mould present as a new band: a rapidly-rising name on the UK alternative circuit who, in just two EPs - 2024's self-titled debut offering and 2025's 'Almost Feels Like Purpose' - have already racked up support from the likes of So Young, DIY and Dork, received extensive plays across BBC 6 Music including a recent playlisting for antsy earworm 'Float', and made their live debut in cities from Europe to New York. But bubbling underneath the impressive inroads that the band - formed of vocalist and guitarist Joe Sherrin, vocalist and bassist Kane Eagle, and drummer James Luxton - have made within their current guise sits a long and storied history of playing, writing and gigging together for a full decade. Mould - despite their name - might be fresh, but their eclectically-interwoven, exploratory music comes from years of learning exactly how they tick as a trio. And now, with debut LP 'Hoping as a Coping Mechanism', Joe, Kane and James have crafted a record filled with the idiosyncrasies that can only come from having spent time creating a strange, symbiotic musical world to play within. The seeds of Mould, in fact, came as a direct response to one of these previous ventures. Heavily involved in the interconnected Bristol scene that featured lynchpin label Breakfast Records and venues such as The White Rabbit and the sadly now-defunct Roll For The Soul where James would put on his own gigs, the trio had been dipping in and out of each others' projects for a long time. However when they were all enlisted as the backing band for folk singer Fenne Lily, the three musicians found themselves with the urge to then create something directly opposite. Oftentimes Mould are big and noisy - on propulsive, almost mathy previous single 'FRANCES', or the motorik rhythms of early track 'Birdsong' (which began life during those first soundchecks). But there are also pop sensibilities and a knack for hooks that run rife throughout; the product, Mould explain, of all their previous endeavours coalescing into one supercharged, hybrid whole. Written in snatches of time in hometown Bristol, recorded in London's 5dB Studios and produced by Sean Oakley (Georgia, Scaler, Sorry), 'Hoping as a Coping Mechanism' is the strongest display of their talents yet. In their own words, it's 'more focussed, paced and thought-out', but over 13 tracks that explore the horrors of the outside world and the internal minefield of the brain, Mould's debut also hits with the thrills of a brilliant live band who've distilled that energy to tape. A debut packed with ideas, and realised by a trio with the experience and super-solid foundations to execute them, 'Hoping as a Coping Mechanism' is as strong an advert as any for the importance of creating brilliant things with your mates, no matter what adversity surrounds you. In Mould, there's a hell of a lot of hope to be found.