Introducing: Shallowdrown

Leicester band Shallowdrown have crafted a diverse sound that fuses elements of heavy rock, indie, grunge and shoegaze and they describe as “loud, jangly and whimsical.”

The band started out in December 2024, when guitarist Lenny Allott, who previously played in Leicester band Ant Hill, discovering vocalist Molly Henry’s solo work and asking her to start a new band. They posted online to drum up some interest and found bassist Dom Tawiah, who was a prominent member of the De Montfort University Music Society, and drummer Sam McLean, who’d previously been in the band Spellgaze. As Molly tells us, “We had one practice and it all fell into place.”

And on the sound they’ve crafted over the last year, Molly explains: “We have quite a lot of influences particularly from grunge and shoegaze genres, but I think we’ve managed to define our own sound. All our songs are something different, ranging from Keep Your Light, which is quite heavy rock, to How To Care, which was more indie. I don’t like to define our music, we’re Shallowdrown and you’ll have to hear us to find out more!”

Our latest taste of this is the band’s debut, self-titled EP, released at the end of last month and from which they sent us the second single I Bet You Hate Me. The track is very much the most melodic and shoegazey on the EP, opening up with dreamy guitars that continue under Molly’s engaging vocals. The pace picks up as it flows into a catchy chorus driven forward by lively drums, which drops into light guitars and laid-back vocals before another lively chorus.

On the track, Molly said: “We’ve had a really great response. Out of the three songs we currently have released, it seems to be the most popular. From a lyric point of view, it’s about something very traumatic that happened to me, so it was very healing writing a song about it. And especially with how much people have enjoyed the song, it’s helped to turn that pain into something positive. If you haven’t heard it yet, please give it a listen. It’s the first song we wrote as a band (writing our individual parts and bringing it together), so we’re very proud of it!”

The EP epitomises the band’s diversity, opening up with a delicious stabbing riff before shoegazey guitars dip in and give way to the riff continuing under Molly’s vocals. The pace slows before effects-ridden guitars flow into a big atmospheric chorus. A second chorus gives way to a cool guitar solo before a final chorus.

Also on the EP is the feisty Fist Fight, which adds a punchy grunge flavour, opening up with chunky guitars that give way to dreamy guitars that continue through a light opening verse. The heavier guitars kick in again under engaging vocals through the chorus, which drops back into a mellow verse. The pace drops right down with laid-back instrumentals before bursting into a delicious solo that continues as it bows out with a heavy final chorus.

And the EP bows out with a banger in Keep Your Light, which starts out with guitar noises that drop into a lively darting riff. Molly’s edgy wails come in and continue over shoegazey guitars, before flying into big cries of “I hope you find your way, I hope you make it back home.” A second chorus ends with a wild blast of guitars, then delicious driving riffs over big cymbal crashes to bring the EP to a heavy conclusion.

Speaking ahead of its release, Molly said: “We are gassed for the EP, we’re so excited! Our producer Max Miracle has done such a great job mixing and mastering it, and I think we’ve done an amazing job. We put our all into recording this EP (and our next project….), so we’re just really excited for people to hear it.

“For me, I’m really excited for Fist Fight to come out. It’s the third track on our EP and hasn’t been released as a single yet, so that’s exciting having a new song out! But also I’m very excited for it to come out as I wrote Fist Fight when I was 16 in year 11 at school about a girl I was friends with that wasn’t very nice, and it’s a really warming feeling having this random riff and lyrics I wrote 6 years ago become a whole song. I’m so grateful to have Lenny, Sam and Dom’s input on the song, it works way better as a band than solo.”

The Shallowdrown draws on a wide range of influences, including Molly’s love of Alanis Morissette and The Cranberries, as well as The Moldy Peaches, Fontaines D.C. and Mom Jeans. Lenny draws on the likes of King Krule and The Cure, and Sam’s drumming is influenced by Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Neil Peart (Rush) and Ben Thatcher (Royal Blood, not the footballer).

And on what inspires them to write music, Molly explains: “For me, it’s a way to get a lot of my emotions out. Most of the topics I write about are quite sad, but it’s a very nice feeling having that pain and raw emotion put into a song that I hope people can relate to and I guess understand me a bit more. It’s very therapeutic to write about your pain and turn it into something beautiful. I don’t think you can tell most of our songs are sad songs though, as we make quite upbeat loud songs.”

Shallowdrown tease us with new music coming in their next project sometime next year. You can see the band when they play The Big Difference in Leicester on 20 December, with tickets available here. And they’re keen to play gigs outside of Leicester, so if you like what you hear, get in touch.

You can follow Shallowdrown on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.