In August, the Hull-based alternative band Strange Pink released their debut EP, Out of Focus. Last month, we asked vocalist and guitarist Sam Forrest, bassist Eddie Alan Logie, and drummer Dom Smith some questions about the band, their influences, the EP, and their future plans, and this is what they had to say:

Hey, guys. The first question I wanted to ask was simply how Strange Pink was formed and how long you have been going for.

SAM: We had our first practice in 2022. I’d moved to East Yorkshire a couple of years earlier and knew Dom from around Hull and York, and asked him if he knew any drummers. He said he played drums, so we got together and ran through a few songs. We didn’t add Eddie as a bass player until about a year later.

DOM: As I remember it, I actually recommended other drummers to Sam, as I’d come from metal bands and have a very specific style. I also have some confidence issues regarding my playing sometimes, and honestly, I remember listening to Nine Black Alps and Sewage Farm a lot over the years, so I was a little nervous, but Sam still wanted to jam, and here we are! I think we are all a little neurodiverse, and Eddie won’t mind me saying, but he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t really wanna do musically, so when I saw him across the street and asked him to be a part of this band (we’d played in Creature Honey together before), I knew something cool was going to happen. Sam’s songs are good enough to have been heard by millions over the years. All you need to do is go listen to RUNoffthestatic to get a sense of Eddie’s energy. I can hit things really hard. We’re still here, in spite of life challenges, work, whatever…for any band nowadays, I think that’s cool.

ED: Sometimes you’re walking home from work and someone asks you to be in a band. Life’s funny like that, especially in Hull. Dom sent me the practice recording for 4 songs that would be on the EP. I really liked them. There was a lot of space and room for more melodic lines, especially because it was slower. You didn’t have to just stay on the root.

What was the conceit for the project? Was there a specific vision from the get-go with common influences, or did the members come with their own influences, and the resulting sound is just the organic outcome from the three of you working in tandem?

SAM: It’s fairly organic, and I think the first EP is us figuring out our sound, as some of the songs were old songs I had lying around, and some are new that we came up with together. All of them ended up sounding very different from how I imagined. I wanted the band to be a bit more experimental than just straight-ahead rock music. So, there are a few more pedals in there, weirder song structures, and more emphasis on atmosphere than just the usual verse, chorus, verse thing.

ED: I don’t think we set out with a particular goal in mind when it comes to writing. Songs are sometimes used as a reference, but only to communicate ideas. We record our band practices so that it really helps to correlate what you feel as you play and what you hear, listening back. You find out what works and what doesn’t fairly quickly, but we try to let it happen as organically as possible.

You cite a plethora of influences for Strange Pink, with the most recurring reference point being Sonic Youth (specifically, in their Goo era). Have the influences from the conception of the project, to writing and recording, to performing, to releasing music, altered much?

SAM: The Sonic Youth influence is only really in the fact that the guitars are tuned differently from normal, and that I ripped off a couple of their riffs. We’re usually talking about other bands’ music when we’re coming up with stuff, but I think they’ve stayed fairly consistent throughout. I’ve learned about lots of music I’d never heard of thanks to Dom and Eddie, and their input has made things way more interesting.

ED: Sonic Youth is just a great band that have had amazing success in both underground noise rock and mainstream pop culture. Me and Sam are massive fans of melody, and Sonic Youth have it in spades, even through dissonance. The Beatles is another band we mention a lot at practice. I’ve referenced the end of “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel, because I really love that foghorn sound, and I tried to replicate it on the bass for “Nowhere.” Most recently, I’ve been really interested in sound design. I’ve been inspired by how synths work with ASDRs and arpeggiators in the past. I guess that’s why there is an arpeggiating bass line in the “Nowhere” chorus. In one of the newer songs we’ve been working on, there is a sound effect I call the Hans Zimmer Effect. It’s just this low rumbling atmospheric bass sound you’ve probably heard in hundreds of films, but used in the context of a band.

You pack a lot of range into the six songs on your debut EP, Out of Focus. I feel the songs are connected by an overall hazy atmosphere and jagged textures (as beautifully illustrated by the cover art), but the songs vary in tone from upbeat indie (“Pencil Chewer”), to downtrodden sombre (“Wonderland,” “Lucky Charm,” “Nowhere”), to garage-y urgency (“My Friend and You”), and to punky anger (“Boys Club”). Were the tracks written to be released as a collective piece from the get-go, or is this simply a documentation of the sum of the pieces you have constructed thus far?

SAM: It’s just a collection of songs that worked so far with no real collective vision. I think we were just figuring out what worked and what didn’t. I think the next release will be a bit more consistent in terms of feel.

ED: Documentation is very apt. The collectiveness is from it being a snapshot in time, but it’s also a collage of past experiences that form to create something new.

With changing musical stylings comes variation in the vocal delivery. Most notably, “Boys Club,” stands out through the integration of harsher, screaming backing vocals. But even then, I find different moods are conveyed through Sam’s delivery. From my listening, “Boys Club” is more directly angsty, whereas “My Friend and You” seems to have more understated sardonic derision, “Nowhere” is vulnerably unguarded, “Pencil Chewer” is a mixture of regret and indignation, and so on. For Sam, was there a challenge in acting out these varying emotions to fit each song?

SAM: The only real challenge was trying to sing them in tune. I didn’t feel like I was “acting”; just trying to make the vocals match the delivery of the instruments. It’s fun to do different levels of intensity on the same record.

Despite the differences in topics per song, I feel the EP is also tied together by a malaise of uncertainty, dissatisfaction, and yearning. Is that a fair assessment of the lyrics?

SAM: Yeah, most of my music is me complaining about something, whether it’s complaining about myself or the world. All good music is based on emotion, and something about negative or melancholy music feels more natural to play. I can’t imagine us playing lots of happy, upbeat songs.

ED: It’s just words and music, but it’s the simplification of both to create something beyond either. I like music that tends to stride those in-between emotions you can’t describe.

I was interested in your release pattern. In May, you released your debut single, “Pencil Chewer,” and then its follow-up, “Boys Club,” in July. Only a month later, you released the EP. For most artists, the conventional wisdom in the streaming era seems to be to build momentum with singles for at least a year before releasing a larger body of work. Why did you decide to release your EP so soon?

SAM: Life is short, and so we wanted to get the music out there as fast as possible. Plus, it clears a space for releasing new stuff.

ED: The drip-feed mentality of releasing music often drains the sincerity out of it. We didn’t set out to go against the grain, though. We just released it with what felt right.

How long was the process of writing, recording, and releasing the EP? Was it challenging or relatively easy?

SAM: It took a couple of years, which sounds like a long time, but it’s logistically hard for us to do things faster, mostly for boring life-based reasons. The actual process of creating the music felt really simple, fast and natural. The recording process was also really easy, thanks to Nick Russell, the guy who recorded it.

ED: Yeah, we are really happy with all of the wonderful feedback we’ve received, as I know it took a while. Casey Stead at Forever Underdogs believed in us, too, after only a few shows. So, we are so fortunate that people have gotten behind us. The reality is, we love playing, but can only do it sporadically, so it’s an honour to have people get behind us, from recording, up until now. On record, I think – like everything we do – there’s a lot of anxious energy, and a little raw chaos…I think that seeps in there. I’m quite proud to say the EP is a mostly live performance. The drums and bass were tracked live, and I did a few overdubs for the bass. There is a sloppiness left in there, which is refreshing. The mistakes you leave in end up feeling like a fingerprint.

Now that the EP has been out for two months, how have you found the reception?

SAM: I’ve heard nice things from people who never usually say much about my music, which is cool. We also got a couple of radio plays, which I wasn’t expecting.

DOM: I’ve said it before in other places, but this is the band I always wanted to be in, but never thought I could be, just because of the overall talent, musicianship and creativity that Sam and Eddie have as musicians. I come from a world of smashy-smashy-loud-loud grindcore, doom and metal in my previous band. While we got to tour Europe and Asia, and that was a dream come true (as a person with Cerebral Palsy, I was frequently told that sort of thing wasn’t possible for me), I always felt like my style was niche enough already and that all happened by some fluke. When the pandemic hit and the other band ended, I was very much ready to stop playing. Then, I got an email from Sam. I’m really proud to be in this band, and I’m proud to be a part of the songs. I grew up on grunge, alt-rock and shoegaze, so this has a little bit of everything I like

ED: Before Strange Pink, I reached a point where I nearly quit making music altogether. I didn’t even feel like making it for myself. The fact we got to record in a nice studio and release some songs to a good reception is good enough for me.

What are your future plans?

SAM: We’re hopefully recording another six-track EP in January and then a few more sporadic shows, probably.

DOM: We have some remixes from our friends in bdrmm and Officers coming out before the end of the year!

Finally, is there anything you would like to add that I failed to cover?

SAM: Not for me, cheers!

DOM: Thank you for your interest and thoughtful questions – much appreciated!

ED: Thank you for your time.

Strange Pink’s latest EP, Out of Focus, is out now. You can keep up with the band through their website.

You can catch them live at:

December 2^nd – Hull – Polar Bear Music Club

January 17^th, 2026 – Hull – DiveHu5/Black Market Coffee

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.