In the Flicker of Duality: Introducing The Youth Play

Photo credit: Pedro Soler

There are so many love letters waiting to be written about a band like The Youth Play, so much to unpack, and even more worth sitting with. The curiosity they spark stems not just from the music itself, but from the intentionality that runs through it. Their sound builds its own internal logic, never coming off as a hand-me-down from alternative predecessors. It raises enough intrigue for close listening, not necessarily because it’s so complex that you need a few listens to “get” it, but through contrast and duality: thunderous songs that lash out into chaos, only to make space for something disarmingly tender. There’s a quiet philosophy at play, underlining that intensity means little without a heart behind it. 

Fronted by Diego Bracho, with Finley Bruce on drums, Alex Hanrahan on bass, and Harrison Ballard behind the guitar, the band managed to craft a sound that marries the grittiness of post‑punk with drifting shoegaze textures, all while injecting a much-needed sense of intention into genres that too often lean on reverence over asking how these sounds might still carry meaning when filtered through one’s own hands. The London based outfit The Youth Play became a four-piece in early 2021, after meeting during school at the height of COVID, a band formed not in basements or practice spaces, but through the distance of a pixelated screen before they’d ever stood in a room together. 

“We were in similar classes and Diego got us all together.” Harrison says. “We bonded a lot through My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and The Smashing Pumpkins.” Fin adds. Their common taste and back-and-forth music recommendations bloomed into a solid friendship. Fin seems to be the one being handed the aux a lot, as everyone references him when it comes to their music taste at some point. It’s no surprise. His dad was in a band when he was younger, and he grew up in a household that deeply values music and the people behind it. He always knew he wanted to play drums, as if it was a cosmic calling. “We’ve had a small tour in April and we drove around the UK quite a bit. Fin were playing a lot of MJ Lenderman, I’ve gotten really into it and when we came back I’ve written some songs that turned out to be too country-ish.” Diego says. Him being drawn to country music seems to be a no-brainer, as he is the emotional anchor of the band, someone who describes himself as “very nostalgic” and “intense”. He’s drawn to bleeding-heart tendencies and elegantly devastated lyrics that offer a kind of emotional maximalism that speaks to anyone who’s ever felt a little too much. 

The symbiotic energy the four bring on stage, is nurtured in the studio, where their mutual understanding simmers into something almost telepathic. “I love it when we’re all in the studio together, locked in,” Fin says, and you can hear the grin behind it. Diego chimes saying that hearing a song come alive in real time, with real drums and a better guitar playing that you can imagine in your head is something close to magic. Whatever someone brings to the table, be it a riff, a lyric, or just a half-baked spark, they break it down and rebuild it through The Youth Play filter. It’s less about a combat of ideas and more about alchemy. « It would make no sense to bring in a song and tell everyone that that’s it. That’d be a shame."

Songs like “A Fair Life” and “Maybe This Was All For Us” reveal layered guitars and pulsing rhythms that swell into anthems, not through formulaic build-ups, but through moments of intentional release built into melancholic refrains that are veiled in sneaking distortion. The instruments do a great job of communicating the head space and the psyche of the band. They sound angry, concerned, distant and caring, sometimes all at once, sometimes in rotation. « We all learnt to play our instruments better. Back in the day playing a weird chord progression or even a solo was out ouf my league. We’ve gotten better at our craft.» Diego says. According to Fin, it's the years of playing together that have shaped where they are now, not just musically, but as friends too. 

The shared history, lugging gear after shows, going from one venue to another under the grey sunsets of UK has forged something deeper between them. "Except for Diego, we’re all stereotypical English people in terms of feelings." Harrison admits. Asked what that actually means, he nails it with a perfectly English answer: Being nonchalant. "Diego is the one bringing emotionality into the band and he is slowly ripping it from us too." he continues. “I love the feeling of life’s fleetingness,” Diego affirms. “I have deep chats about it with my friends and family. That sentimentality is something I’ve always wanted to incorporate into our music. I really appreciate the fact that the boys make an effort to adjust to my level of intensity, I know it can be a lot.”

Emotionality, and the precise semantics through which they channel it, play a crucial role for the band. Their upcoming EP, someday, forever, exemplifies this perfectly. The deliberate lowercase typography, paired with two words that feel at once intertwined and diametrically opposed in certainty and warmth, encapsulates a tension and duality, a liminal space between a mere possibility and permanence."I remember liking some songs, even before listening to them just because of their titles. It’s the easiest way to convey something as quickly. Someday, forever feels like an incomplete sentence, like there are words missing on either side of the comma." says Diego. When prompted, they scroll through their phones, searching for song titles that hit them in the same way. A few standouts emerge: Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors by Editors, 24 Hours by Joy Division, Terrible Love by The National, titles that feel like short stories in themselves.

What The Youth Play are doing isn't about genre, guitar-music, post-punk or whatever hollow taxonomy we use to define things for our confort. It’s four kids in a room trying to make sense of the world the only way they know how, with distortion, restraint and a few beautiful lines about how nothing lasts. There is a shared feeling, a shared channel, something ancient that rattles around in a modern body. You hear it in the way a chorus falls apart just as it swells, or how a song title hangs in the air like an unfinished sentence: "someday, forever." Their music dwells in the restless space between shadow and light, presence and nostalgia, warmth and distance. Duality isn’t a contradiction here, but the pulse that fractures the dark to extend a hand to whoever is listening. 

"someday, forever" EP out 15th of August.

Tour Dates:

9th of August - Boomtown, Hampshire, UK

29th of August - Mascara Bar - London, UK (EP release party)

Get tickets here