“About Real Life Stuff”: Introducing The Consuming Thrill Of Coach Party

Credit: Liv Toerkell

Hailing from the Isle Of Wight, indie rock quartet Coach Party entered the alternative scene by storm, delivering three ravishing EPs, most lately the noteworthy “Nothing Is Real” this summer. For an extended spotlight on the act, we caught up backstage with them while on support tour for Britain's Wet Leg. Make sure you also check out the playlist they exclusively curated for this occasion.

12/12/2022
by Andreas Peters

It does take some energy to compete with the electric feel British Grammy-nominated wonder-duo Wet Leg, which Coach Party are joining on stage for some of their tour dates. Luckily, the four-piece from the Isle-of-Wight is more than just a little warm-up, but capable of delivering a sweat-fused rock’n roll experience on its own, as I am about to witness just an hour after our interview backstage before the show.

Centred around frontwomen Jess Eastwood and Stephanie Norris, the quartet still resides and works on the “super small” but musically thick Isle-of-Wight. Earlier this year, Coach Party has landed yet another explosive set of new songs on their recent EP Nothing Is Real, just in time to kick off their busy summer festival schedule, which has taken the quartet to exciting slots such as on Serbia’s Exit festival back in July. About the new EP, front singer Jess Estwood remarks:

Photo by Liv Toerkell

“I think we have grown with each record and experimented more, we absolutely love playing the new record. In our set, we play every song of it, which is nice. They are all so different from our first EP, the feedback has been really nice. Everyone was like, they all got their own favourite.”

Breaking The Routine

In a fashion of speaking up for themselves, with the support of frenzied vocal lines and a never-ending pool of drenched electric guitars, Coach Party’s credo lies not in the subtle, but comes with vigorous energy, suppressing any negative force of nature.

“I wouldn’t say [our music] is political, but it has lot of lean towards how people in this day and age take life a bit too seriously”, Jess has to say. “We consume so much in social media and news and everything like that, and it all just becomes one big mess. We finished the EP with Nothing Is Real and that is kind of just a way to forget about it, just enjoy life and be happy.”

“It’s more a case about real life stuff.”

Still in the wake of creating their first full-length, which is already in the works, Coach Party “tend to sing about real life things, not in a funny way, but like in a naive and young way of writing”, Jess goes on. And indeed, it is a naive way, but what a liberating and refreshing way of delivering these simple truths.

“We collectively, as four people, get along so well, it’s just any sort of spice, that each of us wants to go into, we’re all, yeah, let’s give it a go and try it out. It just all works out really nicely. It’s all a group effort also. There is no one person in the band doing all the work.” (Jess Eastwood)

Coach Party‘s Nothing Is Real is out now via Chess Club. Don’t miss it.

Every Monday, the NBHAP staff brings an exciting new artist to your attention along with a 30-track-strong Introducing Playlist over on Spotify. Feel invited to follow the playlist and give these talents a spin.

This time, Coach Party has taken over the curation and aside from some classic indie bangers, this one includes gems from the likes of Orla Gartland, Sea Girls, The Big Moon and more. Tune in below.