Bath’s indie-americana outfit Young Martyrs return with their third studio album ‘Might Just Be Enough’!
This latest album shares the story of a band striving for something bigger. Written and recorded after years of self-funding releases, relentless touring, and steadily building an audience through sheer perseverance, it’s a classic underdog story as old as recorded music itself: a group of friends with big dreams, refusing to stop believing that the next album might just be enough, capturing the optimism and uncertainty of a band still chasing their next breakthrough.
Recorded between Real World Studios and Indefra Studios, the album was created largely as a three-piece, with guitarist Rich Beeby also handling bass duties during the recording process, before welcoming bassist Phil Smith to the lineup. The record was self-produced by the band themselves alongside Sebastian Brice, engineered by Ben Koch, and mastered by renowned engineer Christian Wright (Ed Sheeran, Franz Ferdinand, Blur, Laura Marling) at the iconic Abbey Road Studios.
Young Martyrs have kindly taken the time to chat with Fierce & Fabulous Revolution regarding their latest album and you can find the full interview below.
How did the idea to form Young Martyrs come together?
Well we’ve all been in bands and making music since our teens, three of us in a band called Centrefolds for several years and achieving some success. But 2020 and all the weirdness that came with the coronavirus era forced us to take a break. After some time apart, I (Tom here!) started writing music again but wanted something new. Instead of writing to please an imagined audience (as I’d fallen into the habit of previously), I just started writing what came naturally. We were in the middle of safe distance restrictions because of the virus, so I asked some close friends to meet in a big enough studio where we could stay away from each other and we jammed through the songs. A few months later we had a name, an album and our songs were getting played on the radio.
How would you currently describe your musical style?
It’s pretty straightforward indie-rock with some influence from the 70s (Eagles, Fleetwood Mac) and 80s (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Springsteen) and I guess 90s too (early Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Del Amitri). A few of our songs have come out quite country – which was never really our intention but we’re happy to run with it – so we get listed as ‘alt-country’ and ‘Americana’ a lot, and that’s cool too.
You just released your third studio album, Might Just Be Enough. How did the idea for this album come together?
We absolutely did not have an idea! We just kept writing songs (we’re still writing songs now, working on the next two albums) and this was the result. But the name for the album we stole from Rich’s song ‘Might Just Be Enough’; he wrote it as an unrequited love song but Lee and I thought the title sounded like our hopes for this album generating some success for us, so we made it the title track. It’s also a hell of an opener. Rich writes vocal parts that really push me and this one was no exception!
This album centres on your journey together and chasing your dreams. What did it mean to you to turn those thoughts and emotions into an album?
It’s the best feeling in the world. We express ourselves through writing and performing songs, so to take some pretty heavy feelings (both positive and negative) and end up with them packaged and ready for people to be able to listen to is an incredible privilege.
Which songs are some of your favourites from the album?
I (still Tom here) am replying while the band aren’t with me and this is a really tough one! But to try and give a representation across the album…
Might Just Be Enough – Written by guitarist Rich Beeby. I think it’s the biggest journey we’ve been on within the length of a single song, it’s a BIG, beautiful opener and an honour to be involved with.
Only You – Written by me. This was just one of those that came out of nowhere and felt magical as it was coming together. My wife (Kara Leigh Ford, the potter, and not a musician) walked in while I was writing it and suggested I change one of the melodies, that’s never happened before, and it absolutely finished the track! She also had no idea I was writing it about her.
Talk To Me – I actually wrote the first version of this a very, very long time ago but it’s been played in different versions by bands involving all three of the other guys over the years, particularly in the early days of Centrefolds. Phil, who had been my co-writer in Centrefolds joined Young Martyrs just as we were finishing this album and was in time to get into the studio and help us record the song we had shared so long ago, so that’s pretty special.
And the other songs!! Come on, it’s still so new, the songs are like our babies, I can’t pick favourites!
If listeners could take anything from this album, what would it be?
I hope the choruses and all the hooks get stuck in their heads, because that’s always the best result! But really we’re a bunch of hugely sentimental songwriters so to have people listen to the words and wrap their own stories around them, that’s amazing.
What does this album personally mean to you?
It means a lot on so many levels. Getting an album to this point is really hard – it takes time, effort, money, ALL the emotions – so to finally get to hold this beautiful red vinyl with its gorgeous artwork, or to be able to stand in the kitchen and ask Alexa to play it is amazing. It’s the culmination of two previous albums and everything we’ve learned along the way. Tthanks to Honey Badger Records, Seb Brice, Redbak design, Kate Ventress Photography and Underscore Music for helping us pull it all together.
What advice would you offer to someone going through a similar journey of pursuing their dreams?
If it really is your dream – an obsession that drives you to distraction and alters the way you approach everything else in life – then just keep going, and know that it’s going to be tough. It’s a long road with no guarantees but if you care that much then how are you going to live with yourself if you don’t at least try to make something happen? There’s no such thing as failure where it comes to creating something, there are only lessons learned and experiences to be had along the way.
Finally, is there a message that you would like to share with the readers of Fierce & Fabulous Revolution?
Yes, a thank you and a please. Young Martyrs find ourselves in an amazing position right now where we’re getting played by lots of people and having a fair few people come to our shows, buy our merch etc, but if we don’t keep going and asking more people to give us a listen and a follow then all this fizzles out. Thank you so much for being there, for reading this interview and (hopefully) listening to the album, and please keep supporting the artists you love, no matter how big or small they may be. We all need you.
You can check out ‘Might Just Be Enough’ on Spotify below or via further platforms here.
Young Martyrs: Website / Facebook / Instagram.
Fierce & Fabulous Revolution 