SETYØURSAILS: Drawing From The Heart

It’s often forgotten how personal a song or album may be for the people who wrote it. Music is able to encompass feelings and memories that can define the time/events the writer was going through when they created it. This was the case for German band SETYØURSAILS frontwoman Jules Mitch who spoke to us about the band’s new album Nightfall.

The band signed to Napalm Records to release this new album in January 2022, and the reception to it has been very positive even in this short space of time, with Mitch saying, “…its insane I’m still in shock, I’m still overwhelmed. I try to read all the messages but my phone was really exploding. I can’t really comprehend it yet because we honestly had zero expectations because it’s the first real record we’ve released so we’re just completely blown away.”  She went on to explain that the band’s first release, Enough in 2018, didn’t really display all of what they had to offer, only having known each other for around half a year and recording the album in Mitch’s bedroom. “Basically it was just recording demos and self releasing them so that we were able to get booked for shows… It was a completely different thing with Nightfall because we really took our time to sit down and work the songs out and work with producers. This is the first time you can actually hear the real sound of SETYØURSAILS.”  Mitch did go on to say that in terms of influences, “I still stick with PARAMORE and BEARTOOTH, I always so Hayley Williams and Caleb Shomo are my musical parents. PARAMORE are just such awesome song writers, but on the other side BEARTOOTH is one of my favourites.”

This specific sound of SETYØURSAILS is more complicated to define than you would at first think, with Mitch saying she couldn’t even pick one genre and would describe it as blending five genres together and seeing what comes out. “There are songs on Nightfall that have been on my computer for four years. We started working with synthesisers and really tried to build the songs from scratch and really try to build real choruses as that’s something we didn’t really have in the first record. I’m really into pop and metalcore choruses, so I was like I want those opening up, bright choruses. I would basically say Enough was a hardcore album and Nightfall is a lot more grown up.”

This album has been in the works for a long time, even if the band themselves didn’t realise it, “We wrote Anchor in 2018, and we didn’t feel like it was the right time to release it, but it did fit with Nightfall. We had these songs in our hearts for a long time but we weren’t really able to get them out.” Mitch also mentioned that the band has been really working on the album properly for about a year, but she has had songs such as Why, Deadline and Anchor written since 2015. These songs were not written to fit together in an album or in any other case, but are just reflections of what Mitch was thinking and feeling at the time, however, when placed into their new album Nightfall, they puzzle pieces started to place themselves together, “It was pretty much writing it for myself, and I didn’t really think about the lyrics, When I sat down for the first time and I had all the lyrics I just cried, I was like ‘What the fuck where did that come from’. We didn’t want to write this on purpose, we didn’t want to go this direction or that direction, but the way it turned out I’m very happy with it.”

This album holds a lot of powerful meaning which many will be able to relate to. The band makes an effort to stand up for what they believe in and combat discrimination in all forms. This can be seen in songs such as Fckoff which screams its anger towards right wing politics straight in your face, and Reason which Mitch says is very socially critical. Discrimination against race and sexuality for example are very big topics of conversation at the moment, and SETYØURSAILS don’t understand why there is so much hate in the world. “Every normal, intelligent person out there stands against these things, as it’s basically accepting everyone for who they are. It shouldn’t have to be pointed out at any point but it’s also necessary to talk about which is actually very sad. It’s what we believe in, and we believe everyone is worth just as much as everyone else. We just really stand against hate as it’s wrong and we simply can’t understand how someone can hate others for the colour of their skin or who they love or whatever, it’s none of your business so just shut the fuck up. That’s basically what Fckoff says.”

The album also holds great meaning in also being an outlet that Mitch wrote when she was feeling down, and hopes that this collection of songs can help those who are going through similar things. “I always say that this is like my diary because it’s very very personal and honest. I had some struggles releasing it at the beginning since it’s so personal. I’ve struggled with depression since I was 13 and I’m 30 now, I just really hope that at least one person out there can relate to the lyrics and may feel understood whilst listening to the songs. I hope people just really give us the chance to dive into it and understand what this entire record is about.”

Nightfall is out now via Napalm Records.

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