We Are The Ocean open up about the departure of singer Dan Brown

The Essex band also discuss the making of their new album 'Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow'

We Are The Ocean have opened up about the departure of their vocalist Dan Brown, who announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the group as a singer and would focus on becoming a band manager on a full-time basis.

The band release their third album ‘Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow’ on September 17. The LP is their first record as a quartet and they have told NME that the parting was “very difficult”.

Asked how the change came about, singer Liam Cromby said: “The majority of the songs were written as the four of us and Dan’s bits would be added on at the end. As he was managing the band while we were recording the album, he was away a lot and it was mainly just the four of us.”

Advertisement

He continued: “We laid down the tracks instrumentally before he arrived, so him not being there didn’t change the sound of the album at all. We wrote and recorded as a four-piece, so it’s not a fundamental change.”

Bassist Jack Spence added that the band realised that Brown’s presence on their recorded output was shrinking with each album and felt that this was a situation they had to address.

He added: “There were no underlying problems, but because he was managing the band, he was away a lot and not always in the studio. So Liam and me would be writing parts for him and they wouldn’t suit his voice and we’d have to rework things.”

He continued: “Given he wasn’t around for the writing, me and Liam found we’d be writing less and less for him and that opened our eyes a bit. We realised he wasn’t on the album very much, he’d been on the last album a lot less than the first album and we knew we had to do something.”

Spence also described Brown’s departure as a “tumultuous time for the band”, adding: “It wasn’t easy, it was a tumultuous time for the band. We’re glad to have got the album together, because we need to reassess what we do after this. It was a very difficult moment.”

Cromby also gave some more detail about how the band feel ‘Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow’ compared to their previous efforts, saying of this: “Album number one was such a learning curve and with album number two, we were still really trying to find our sound. With this one, we feel like we have our place, we feel a lot more confident, we feel like we’ve really nailed it this time. We’re proud of our other albums, but this is what we want to sound like.”

Advertisement

Spence also revealed that the band began work on the record as soon as their second album ‘Go Now And Live’ was complete.

He said of this: “We started pretty much straight away as soon as we finished the second album. The lead-up to this album has been over six months and the recording took five weeks. We demoed a lot for this one, things got redone six or seven times. We made sure we left no stone unturned.”

We Are The Ocean will tour the UK in support of ‘Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow’ later this month.

The band will play 11 shows, kicking off at Exeter Cavern Club on September 18 and touring until October 2, when they headline Birmingham’s HMV Institute.

We Are The Ocean will play:

Exeter Cavern Club (September 18)
London Camden Barfly (19)
Leeds Cockpit (20)
Manchester Deaf Institute (22)
Glasgow King Tuts Wah Wah Hut (23)
Carlisle Brickyard (25)
O2 Academy Sheffield (26)
Wrexham Central Station (27)
Belfast Queens University (29)
Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach (October 1)
Birmingham HMV Institute (2)

To check the availability of We Are The Ocean tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/TICKETS now, or call 0871 230 1094.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/?bctid=904844228001

You May Also Like

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement

More Stories