Tridence – By Your Own Design (2024)
‘By Your Own Design’ is the new arena-ready single from the Irish band Tridence who are building toward the release of their sophomore album. The single unleashes such a big sound with polished production that we would never have guessed the recording took place in their bedrooms. At just over two and a half minutes, ‘By Your Own Design’ is a trim, hard-hitting number that builds on the foundation laid down in their debut album, Euphoric Youth. Backwards recorded guitars fade in gently until the whole band kicks off with an acoustic guitar-driven rhythm, a beautiful melody, and philosophical lyrics all reminiscent of U2’s War-era material.
But when the chorus kicks in, all thoughts of U2 vanish as power chords churn up the grit and the lyrics turn confrontational: “Now your feeling inside/ is by your own design, by your own design/ Now you’re left in the dirt/ alone with those that you’ve hurt.” A lead guitar break hits early and hard when the song is only about a minute and twenty seconds in; then it’s back to the chorus and a no-nonsense finish. The song’s brevity is so effective. Rather than feeling satisfied when it ends, you’re still hungry for more and want to play it again.
Tridence was formed in 2019 by two cousins (Bailey McLoughlin on lead vocal/guitar and Ben McLoughlin on rhythm guitar) and their friend (PJ Moore-Coates on bass). The band was still in its formative stage when COVID-19 hit, so they spent the pandemic writing and refining ideas, not releasing a single until 2022 with Euphoric Youth coming out in 2023. You can tell the band has been taking notes as Euphoric Youth is a compelling first album, but the production leaves many songs sounding like they were recorded in a closet (as opposed to the bedroom).
A few bars into ‘By Your Own Design’ is enough to show they’ve learned how to make themselves sound bigger than they are. They’ve also taken their penchant for balancing songs using a dichotomy of clean and dirty guitar sounds and clarified it so that both approaches feel full and equal. With this as a foretaste, we are very curious indeed to hear the rest of the album.
For more from Tridence, check out their X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Spotify.
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