Stepping back with fantastic new recordings, and the prospect of new shows, Newcastle alt/indie rockers The Agency have solid momentum on their side.  New single, Harbour Song, a call-and-response concept with local act The Samphires, starts the ball rolling on an upcoming album and tour.  Damian Robinson caught up with Steve from the Agency to find out more.

Hi Steve, great to have you back, tell us a little please about Harbour Song.

Thanks, it’s good to be back.  Often time between albums and singles take longer than we plan, we’re always being creative, but sometimes it takes a while for us to land on the sound of a new idea.  Harbour Song is something we’re really proud of to return with, it sounds like us but there’s a structure to it focused on the myth of Hero and Leander, and we’ve worked with The Samphires, who we love, who add texture to the song that would have only been possible through their own style. 

There’s quiet an interesting vocal style in the song, as well as musical production.  How did that come to life?

We tend to start the idea of a song on an acoustic song and then we’ll all come up with ideas which sit on top of the song and take it in interesting ideas.  As a band we have our own recording and practice room which really helps us to work out different ideas, and often we go through multiple versions as we require.  Here we wanted something dark and encompassing, so we played with feedback and intricate guitar work, and then once we had that we moved into production.  We take our time, which can help, and sometimes it means a song ends in a different place to where it began. 

There’s a tour to support the release and new songs, are you excited for that?

Absolutely, it’s always difficult when you’re a band to book gigs and create a tour, but we’re excited that we have dates in place.  The diy thing always helps in a way. 

There’s two shows in Newcastle, can you tell us anything about them?

Because there’s moving parts in terms of our live show, we don’t know which combination of the band will be at the shows just yet.  So the two gigs will probably be different in terms of who’s playing and the way we perform.  So it’s likely the two shows will be very different.  We enjoy how that approach works as it means each show often feels like it’s very unique and different. 

Finally can you tell us about the album?

It’ll come in 2025 – it’s mostly mixed and recorded now, but we’re still trying to finalise a few of the songs and make final decisions.