New Band of the Week: Self Torque

Brighton band Self Torque offer up a catchy and lively punk rock sound that specialises in short and sweet songs led by feisty shouty vocals.

Self Torque started as the solo project of Gabriel Pentin, who had been playing in bands in Brighton for around 10 years, including the latest, now defunct ÜNHANG. He had a few songs that didn’t fit in with the band’s approach, so decided to go it alone and brought his pals Luke and Jay along for the ride. And on what to expect from the Self Torque sound, Gabriel says: “Like Against Me! and Ash having party/sad convo.”

Our latest taste of this is the band’s debut EP No Rest For The Depressed, which was released in December. It opens up with cool guitars in the intro to Daydream, which lead into a lively verse and chorus. That’s followed by the aptly titled Anxiety in the UK, which has serious Against Me! vibes, opening up with stabbing guitars that continue under Gabriel’s engaging vocals that flow into a big shouty chorus supported by driving guitars.

Next up is No Rest, which is essentially the title track with the line “there is no rest for the depressed” and is probably a personal favourite track from the EP. It opens up with funky guitars that drop into laid-back vocals before a big engaging chorus. The pace drops after a second chorus, before building up to a final blast of the chorus.

On the track, Gabriel explains: “No Rest started from the frustration of not being able to write a song, the opening line is ‘When will the inspiration come, when will things start to be fun?’ It’s kind of about not knowing where to start with life. It’s based on not being able to do anything in yourself, but also recognising how far you’ve come.” Check it out in the video here:

The EP continues to deliver with the delicious Sea, Stars, and Moon and the final track A Retrospective, which features a cool little guitar lick splitting up engaging verses before a finale of particularly feisty vocals.

On the EP, Gabriel told us: “It’s been really nice. I think it’s definitely connected with people better than anything else I’ve done. Possibly due to the subject matter of some of the songs and with it being a bit poppier than previous works. Saying that, you can expect short and fast songs with me shouting over the top of them.

“I wanted all the songs to be pretty fast and energetic so there was no let-up. I didn’t want there to be a slow song in the middle, so they’re a group of songs that have a certain energy to them. Lyrically, they all share a common sense of desperation, but I think there’s also a vibe of positivity in those songs, like Daydream, there’s a message in there that there’s always tomorrow. There’s a lot of desperation, there’s a lot of anger but there’s also some hope in there.”

The Self Torque sound draws on a wide range of artists and genres. As Gabriel explains: “So many but this project I really wanted to do something that sounded like an early Tom Petty record. That’s not really what came out but that was the vibe I was going for.”

And on what inspires them to write music, he adds: “It’s more of a compulsion I think. This EP is very much about mental health and addiction but there’s a love song in there too.”

Self Torque just finished up a run of shows across southern UK and have plans to get into the studio to record an album. So stay tuned for more new music soon!

You can follow Self Torque on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. And for more bands like Self Torque, check out their record label Not Saints, who we’ll also be covering very shortly.