Barely a year on from a debut that saw them emerge as one of the brightest lights in British metal, Graphic Nature return with their heavy, emotional and raw second album, Who Are You When No One Is Watching?.
It’s a title singer Harvey Freeman has been thinking about a lot. Already known for a lyrical depth and raw openness that’s given the band a unique connection with their fans, through its 10 tracks, the record seesHarvey asking big questions about people’s true identity.
“It’s the idea of your true self showing through,” he explains. “We all put on a mask around our friends and colleagues, pretending to be someone. And then when we come home, that’s our true personality. Or, on the flipside of it, it’s the fakeness of pretending to be someone that’s likable and nice, but who also does horrific things. There are many different ways to take it. It’s really just who you are.”
The past 18 months have been huge for Graphic Nature. TheirA Mind Waiting To Die album was hailed by the likes of Kerrang! as a powerful work of heaviness that tapped into the intensity and rawness of prime nu-metal, with electronic and drum’n’bass flourishes that gave them a unique flavour. An already hard-won reputation for devastating live shows was underscored by shows at Download, 2000trees, a riotous performance at Reading & Leeds, tours with the likes of Skindred, Cancer Bats and Vended, as well as a headline gig at London’s Camden Underworld at Christmas.
Behind this, however, all was not well. As detailed in the band’s recent Kerrang! cover feature, a random attack on a train deeply affected Harvey. As he tried to work through the after effects and the surprising range of emotions he was running into, he found himself wearing a mask, even when opening up about mental health onstage. It’s this that makes up the album’s backbone.
“Lyrically, it’s a journey through a lot of different emotions I’ve personally been through in the space of 12 months,” he explains. “HowI dealt with that was to write it onto paper and to put it into the songs. It’s my way of saying, ‘I’m not doing so good, here’s some shit I went through, here’s how I felt about it, here’s some things that have then come off the back of that.’ It’s really just about how everything can stem from one bad day in your life.”
This is something addressed in new single, Something I’m Not, the third to be showcased from the album, following recent cuts Fractured and To The Grave, one of the album’s most volatile moments.
“After this thing that happened to me, I became really aggressive and hateful towards people,” says Harvey. “It got to the point whereI really wanted to hurt someone out of spite. I wanted someone else to feel what I was going through, and the only way that I could do that was to do the same thing that someone did to me. It really took me aback, because I didn’t think that I would think like that. It made me think, ‘Fuck this, I’m not that person.’
“I wrote the song to say, ‘Fuck you, what you’ve done to me happened,but I ain’t ever gonna be like you.’ I never want to hurt anyone, and it mademe think, ‘Who are you? Who is this guy?’”
This level of honesty and reflection has made for an intense, cathartic record. Which wasn’t even intended to grow into a record.Working on a couple of new tracks with AMWTD producer Sam Bloor at Lower LaneStudios in Stoke-On-Trent at the end of 2023, the band found themselves on a creative streak that soon resulted in a wealth of material. Buoyed by their run of successes, they decided to seize the moment and went back to the studio at the start of 2024 to deliver a second work far earlier than is normal in the 21st century.
“We said, ‘No, it’s too soon. No bands, bring out an album this quick after the other one,’” laughs Harvey. “And then something clicked and we were like, ‘Wait, no bands bring out an album so quick after the last one. Let’s fucking do it!”
Even created at such a pace, Who Are You When No One Is Watching? finds Graphic Nature sharpening and expanding, hitting harder and going deeper. Where huge bass-drop riffs remain a key ingredient, shadowy moments of electronic respite space out the moments of carnage, allowing them to each stand individually, while also showing how big Graphic Nature’s creative fingerprint is.
“It’s more experimental from our side of things. We’ve added a lot more of our garage and drum’n’bass influences,” says Harvey. “We’ve played with the softer side of things in a sense. There’s a couple of liquid drum’n’bass bits which flow into the song and then almost become the beating heart of them, which I really thought was cool. If we like it, we’d put it in. We’re writing for ourselves because this is the music we enjoy playing. We’re not worried about if something’s a cool mosh part, or a cool gang chant. We’re just doing whatever we think is cool.”
The result is one of the best heavy records you will hear in 2024, from a band becoming more skilled and confident with every new thing they do, with a message that will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt shaken or disturbed by life’s effects.
“The most important thing to me is just making sure that the message of mental health and everything that I fucking been through, just comes through as genuinely as possible. And I feel like we’ve done that,” says Harvey. “I’d like someone to finish the album go, ‘I need a minute. That’s really made me think about my own mental state, coming to terms with it and dealing with it.’”
