The last time NE Volume caught up with Embrace they’d just released their, then, new album ‘Love is a basic need’ and were about to roll out some shows in the North East.  Managing to follow the album promotion tour up with a reunion tour of The Good Will Out album pre-covid, Embrace are emerging from lock down with new tracks in the bag and an excitement for some summer shows.  Damian robinson caught up with Embrace bassist Steve Firth to hear more about new music and about how the band are gearing up for the regions Hardwick festival.

Hi Steve did you manage to finish the promo tours for Love is a basic need or did covid cut that short?

We were incredibly fortunate that our final shows for the album, and the Good Will tour, coincided with the covid lock down.  When we played the last few shows of the tour we noticed the mood had changed and people looked a bit uncertain about what was coming

Love is a basic need was a great album do you look back fondly on that?

Yeah we do it got a great reception from the press and people who came to the shows or spoke to us about it.  We’re working on a follow up at the minute and in the last couple of months we’ve been sending a number of demos to each other.  It’s sounding really good and really rocky and angry, it’s maybe the direct opposite of the last album, which had a number of piano ballads on it, though like I say it’s still relatively early days.

Brilliant, can we expect to hear some of those tracks at your Hardwick show?

I’m not sure of that, potentially, but we won’t play anything new unless we’re sure that it matches what the final recorded version will sound like.  Hardwicks in august so new songs could happen; we’ll see what happens when we start looking at the set list

You’re looking forward to Hardwick?

Absolutely, I’m in another band as well as Embrace and we played a show recently and it was such a nice experience. As a music fan it’s so exciting to see bands you like playing and as a music player it’s just as exciting, if not more, to be playing live.  Hardwicks an important gig for us this year for that reason and we’re really looking forward to it.

Anyone you’re looking forward to on the Hardwick bill?

Yeah I’ve never seen Elvana and they’re on before us so I can’t wait to get there early and see them. I’m told they’re a great live band and I’m fascinated to see how the combination of Elvis and Nirvana works in real life.

Embrace play Hardwick calling. 21 and 22 August.