“I started gigging at around 11,” Oliver Pinder say when I ask him to introduce himself.

By Graeme Smith

Feature photo by Apertunes

Really, the man doesn’t need an introduction. We’ve been featuring his music on our blog for over a year now. I even caught him live for the first time recently, playing with band in tow at The Fulford Arms in support of Youth Sector.

“I’m Oliver, just a fairly normal lad from Wakefield who works a 9–5 and writes songs about real life, especially the chaos of your 20s,” he says.

It’s a persona that’s very much reflected on stage where he engages with the audience and brings plenty of emotion to his performances.

“When my dad passed away when I was twelve, songwriting became my outlet, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Themes of family and connection run through a lot of his music, and his new EP too late to tell you is a case in point. The collection includes recent singles love of my life, lonely together, and haunted, all of which have featured on our pages before.

Together, along with three other new tracks, we get a real sense of the artist and what drives him.

“The [EP] concept really started when my grandma passed away a couple of years ago,” explains Pinder. “She was my rock. After her stroke, she became a different person almost instantly, and I struggled massively with not being able to communicate with her properly – not being able to say what I should’ve said while she was still fully herself. That cracked the whole theme open.”

It’s lonely together that gets things started, melancholically swinging through its tale of modern isolation. Never ever broods on separation, giving the record some early fire. Dog outside slows things down for a piano-driven ballad, closing the collection’s first half.

Love of my life sits poignantly at the heart of the EP, made all the more poignant by Pinder’s story of his grandmother. Millionaire injects some fuzzy rock edge, perfectly setting up the EP’s moody climax, haunted.

When Pinder released his last EP, Potential, I Guess?, he did it solo, with no band. Reflecting on that previous work, I asked him how the new record feels in comparison.

“They’re completely different records in my eyes,” he says. “…the band came along and everything changed. Listening back to those songs now versus how we play them live, I think if we re-recorded that EP today, it would sound much closer to this one. Too late to tell you really captures the growth of the live show and how we’ve brought that energy into the studio.”

Speaking of the recording process, too late to tell you was made specifically for vinyl. “I really wanted to make this EP with two of my favourite producers and humans: James Kenosha and Mickey Dale,” Pinder explains. “They work in completely different ways, so the idea of them each taking a side of the record felt exciting.”

You do get that sense when listening through and it works. “People keep telling me the track list is “wrong” because haunted – arguably the biggest track sonically – is last,” says Pinder, “but that’s exactly the point. I wanted the EP to end in the same confusion I felt around losing my grandma – that sense of interruption, like something has been cut short. Ending it on hope would’ve felt too tidy.”

Regardless of whether the EP ends on hope or not, the future is looking bright for Pinder. He and his band are currently on a ten-day run of shows including a stop at Vinyl Whistle in Leeds this weekend, 22 November 2025, and a special show in Annan, Scotland at Kate’s Kitchen.

“My godmother, Catherine, founded an incredible charity called Kate’s Kitchen – a space offering hot meals and support to people who need it,” Pinder says of the date. “Her work was genuinely life-changing for the community. She passed away suddenly this year from vCJD, which is incredibly rare. She was one of the kindest influences in my life, and I feel lucky to have grown up around her.

“Stopping at Kate’s Kitchen felt like the right way to honour her. We’re donating 20% of the profits to both Kate’s Kitchen and the Music Venue Trust.”

After that, 2026 is already shaping up to be a busy year for Pinder. I expect big things for him from there.

Too late to tell you is out 21 November 2025. You can pre-order it or pre-save it here.