Two ex-punks are showing their roots on a new album set for release next month.
Bonfire & Pine is the second album from folk/Americana duo HOPE IN HIGH WATER. But it's a long way from the pair's noisier past, in sound if not in spirit.
Josh Chandler Morris previously served for a decade as frontman of Milton Keynes' Bomber Music-signed hardcore ska-punks ANTI VIGILANTE, while Carly Slade played bass in Hackney trio TRASHCAT. Since 2014, though, they've ploughed a different furrow: Morris picked up an acoustic guitar and Slade a banjo, and working on their close harmonies, the pair relocated to a caravan in the woods.
"Although I loved the high energy of punk music, the older I got the more I was drawn to the stripped back sincerity of folk and country music," admits Morris. "The attitude wasn't that dissimilar, both punk and country prioritise authenticity. I just came to be drawn artists like Justin Townes Earle who seem to be able to make an incredible connection with an audience by being one man and a guitar."
Releasing their debut album Never Settle in 2017, the pair have become one of the hardest working acts on the folk and Americana circuit, something that Bonfire & Pine, which sees them expanding on the format into a greater array of styles, looks set to build on.
Set for release on 8 November, Bonfire & Pine is available to pre-order here.
Hope In High Water play The Crauford Arms, Milton Keynes on 8 November - tickets
Hope In High Water on Facebook