By Jack

Yorkshire pop-punkers Conflare are well loved on the local scene for their positive vibes and high-energy tunes, but things get real on new single ‘Lies’.

‘Lies’ finds the usually upbeat four piece in a surprisingly bittersweet mood. And the change is immediate – with a staggered intro, a solitary guitar playing over the echo of jumbled vox. It’s a stark contrast from the urgency of ‘Tempted‘.

Singer Toby explains: “The intro was a weird one, it took us a while to get it right. We were still changing it when we went to record. ‘Lies’ gets bigger and bigger as the song goes on, so I wanted to start off quietly and by the end blow everyone’s head off.”

It speaks to a more ambitious approach to pacing the tension of the song, staggering the release of the chorus. ‘Lies’ is heavy and it would have been easy to translate that into a dirge – the fact the song pops and is full of energy is a far more exciting interpretation.

The vocals too are the best we’ve seen from the band. “Me and Rob (guitar) put a lot of thought into the vocal delivery. It’s quite an angry song, I wanted to put that across.” The take is noticeably raw. It feels genuine and unrehearsed. They’ve upped their harmony game too (see also ‘Dirt’).

And of course – the bridge is killer.

Conflare are playing in Leeds in October – tickets here. Follow Conflare here.