Meet the band: Binaries
Getting to know the people behind one of the top new albums of 2024
Tyneside-based Binaries are making a bid to be one of the hottest new acts of 2024. Debut album Disaster Patterns dropped last month and went straight into the Talking Northeast hall of fame for the year. You can get the digital version right now and there’s a limited edition vinyl pressing due early in the new year. On Friday, the band performs the album live for the first time at a launch party at The Globe in Newcastle (tickets available here, a bargain at £8 incl. booking fee). Before that, John, Dave and Ivy took time out to answer a few questions, so click play on the clip and read on …
1. Could you tell us a bit about how you started, and how you got here?
John and Dave grew up in the North East of England, and have known each other since they were teenagers. Bonding over a shared love of 90s guitar-driven alt-rock, they naturally began making tunes together. A growing interest in electronic production techniques led them into a broader, more experimental and intricate soundscape; they performed for several years as glitch-rock duo What We Call Progress, releasing a number of singles and EPs, gaining radio play and playing emerging artist festivals. There was a need, however, to emphasise the humanity in their music, and so alongside John’s expressive vocals they sought out a drummer to add drive and expression. Ivy joined and Binaries was born. She brought a fresh and dynamic perspective to the band’s sound with influences from progressive metal, breakcore and horrorcore.
2. Your album came out last month – how would you describe it?
Disaster Patterns is a reaction to the bleak, nugatory comfort of modern social technology that appears to be leading us through a quiet, calm decline. It covers various tropes that we associate with being permanently online - the self-serving “quitter” who returns a few days later, the narcissist publicly airing his slow breakdown, the feeling of being so entwined in habitual online behaviours that they become an inexorable part of who we are.
3. What can we expect from your gig on Friday?
It’s the first time we’ve played live together in quite a while and we’re really excited to share these songs with everyone. There will be passion, energy and plenty of weird noises that sound like John’s amp is about to explode.
4. Time for some influences: how about first music you bought, first gig you went to, first post on your bedroom wall?
Dave: First music I bought was Europe: The Final Countdown. First gig was Placebo at the Riverside. First poster was R.E.M.
John: First music bought - Do The Bartman on vinyl. First gig - Stone Roses at Whitley Bay Ice Rink. First poster - I think this was a large piece of thin, sarong-like material with the Nevermind album cover printed on it.
Ivy: The first music I brought was December Underground -AFI. My first poster was the December Underground Promo Poster. My first Gig was My Chemical Romance on the Black Parade Tour.
5. Christmas is coming all too fast – what music are you gifting this year, and what would you like to find under your tree?
We’re all gifting Disaster Patterns by Binaries on vinyl! Under our tree we’d like to get our hands on the new OP-XY by Teenage Engineering, but given it’s a bit on the pricey side I guess we'll make do with some drum sticks and a plectrum.
6. What were your musical highlights of 2024?
Some of our favourite music this year was Adrienne Lenker - Bright Future, TORRES - what an enormous room, Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood, A.G. Cook - Britpop, Charli XCX - brat, Foxing - Foxing, Mount Eerie - Night Palace, The Cure - Songs of a Lost World, Four Tet - Three, Vana - BEG, Arankai - ROME, Sophie Hunter - WAIL!
7. And what are you looking forward to in 2025?
Hoping we don’t all get incinerated in a nuclear war with Russia. Beyond that, we’re quite excited to get back into writing new songs.
8. Finally, is there anybody out there who deserves nowt more than a lump of coal in the stocking, or are we embracing the spirit of festive forgiveness this year?
There are many obvious candidates for this and I’ll leave it at that.
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