Brighton alt‑rock duo Wrex talk genre‑hopping freedom, rawer DIY recording, and the high‑energy live ethos powering their new record.

Interview By Stanley West

York Calling: How would you describe yourselves as a band? How would you describe your new music?

Mae: We’ve always gone with alternative or alt rock, but we’ve had stuff like electro-punk and nu-punk come up.

YC: How do you feel about being labelled in general? Do you like the niche or prefer being more free?

M: I feel like we’ve got a lot of niches.

Chris: Yeah, I don’t really worry about it. I think we’ve never really worried about it as a band. We have a love for writing songs and see how it turns out. On the new record there’s a mainly piano based song next to a more typical synth, Wrex song next to an almost Alexis On Fire hardcore song. We write songs that we enjoy making the sound of and as music fans we like a lot of different stuff.

M: I think because of that we don’t really fit into anything specifically, but that’s great because it means we get to share line ups with so many different bands.

YC: How do you feel about the tour? Have you been touring a lot?

M: This year [2025] we’ve done 54 shows; we’re doing five for independent venue week. But we’ve only ever done four in a row before, so this will be our most in a row without a break.

C: In the greatest hits festival in Brighton, we did five shows in two days. I’m excited for it [the tour] because it celebrates something great and the venues, we’re going to some of our favourite venues that I really enjoy.

M: There’s only two on there that we haven’t been to before, the York date is one of them. This’ll be our first time at the Fulford Arms.

YC: What would you tell people to expect from one of your shows?

M: Intensity, I think.

C: Kind of non-stop. I like to think that, not in an arrogant way, we bring headliner energy to all of our shows.

M: Lots of kicks and jokes.

YC: Your studio work is very well produced, is that a pain or have you managed?

C: I do it all myself, it’s what I do for my job and sound, and audio has always been my special interest. I’d be lying if I said it was easy, it definitely takes its toll doing it all myself in terms of mixing it, producing it, and writing it. It can be hard in that final 30-40% of it. But I’m always quite proud of what I’ve made as a producer, outside of being an artist. It’s always really fun, I think. I think that’s partly why I don’t worry about genre, because I have to worry about so many other things.

We just write songs in this room [in their house], do drums at a studio down the road called Brighton Electric which did Royal Blood’s first record and Architechs did a bunch there. So many great records have been done in that room and I’m very privileged to get to use it. It’s my home from home. I can hear how much better I’ve gotten as a mixer when I hear our first few tracks compared to now. Not to say that we wouldn’t work with anybody else, but we are quite DIY.

The band has formed as the records have gone on. When we play live, it’s mostly the same guys from the studio. It used to be that I played everything. It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about doing it all myself.

YC: Would you say Brighton as a scene is good for DIY music?

M: It’s very supportive and there’s so much going on all the time.

C: It’s a great scene. There’s two big music colleges here so the level of traffic coming through is quite a lot. You get quite an eclectic mix of musicians.

M: You get healthy competition.

C: There are a lot of really good bands around here. You’ll be rehearsing and hear someone next door to you and think “they sound mint.” It’s cool to be around.

We wrote the songs, put them out and then had songs on Kerrang and BBC before we’d ever done a gig, so there was a huge amount of pressure to be good.

On the tours we’ve done this year, we’ve found ourselves in live scenarios where things go wrong and I think we’ve got a lot better as a unit and as a band. There was one time I rehearsed five nights a week.

I think in music collaboration is stronger than competition. It’s really cool to work together, like our drummer couldn’t make a gig last minute and someone else jumped in and said he could do it. There’s a community of people around, in Brighton it’s really strong and that’s really cool.

YC: On the new album is there a song from each of you that you’re most proud of?

M: I don’t really know mine.

C: For me there’s sections of music within songs.

M: That wasn’t the question!

C: There’s a song called The Noose and I’m really proud of that, because it’s just fun.

M: That’s not my favourite because it’s hard to sing. My favourite’s Consume. It’s fast, got spoken word, got big choruses.

C: It’s got a bit of a pop punk motif in it, which is a nice throw to past projects for me. I like Consume too; it’s got a bit of a classic rock-esque riff, almost Iron Maiden-esque in a way.

M: There’s just so much going on, in a good way.

C: Yeah, I leant on a lot of old inspirations and tried not to overproduce it, letting it be a bit raw. It feels a bit more live as a record than some of our past records.

YC: When you’re writing and producing, you were just saying you didn’t want to overproduce this album, how do you decide when to draw the line between making it sound “perfect” and making it sound real?

C: I think on this record it came from the way that we captured it rather than deciding not to edit and things like that. A lot of the guitars were fuller takes or sections rather than punching in on every bit. It’s not like a conscious decision, although we did say we wanted it to feel a little like I was taking inspiration from Chuck from Sum-41. It’s a bit of a rawer album compared to the debut. There was one song that was a late addition to the album, and I just sang the vocals in here, on the microphone with the speakers up.

Obviously as a studio engineer you do not do that, bleed everywhere, but I’d been reading about Brian Eno producing Bono and when you record a vocalist live they have the crowd to feed off of and all this energy from the people and the vibe, and yet when you go to a studio you go “hey, put these headphones on and go and stand in this cupboard” and it’s the most opposite experience to a live environment. So, there was one song I did just like that.

M: That take had all the emotion.

C: Yeah, there was just something about that, it was literally the first take. I guess we stuck with our gut instinct on a lot of things when there’s that temptation to redo something or explore stuff, there was a really good balance of when we knew when we could do better versus, we can but that’s really cool.

The Noose opens with a very straight, shouted punk vocal. When we were producing it and re-recorded parts, I started singing it more “vocal” and “look at me” but it was better to sing it straight. In terms of not over-producing, you just have to trust your gut. There’ll be people out there who listen to our records and go “I don’t like the way that’s produced” because there’s so many producers these days and everyone’s got access to it and I think it’s mint, it’s wicked. But there’s a really good thing of Finneas talking about this with Billie Eilish and you just have to find what you like and kind of stick your flag in the ground.

For me, on this record, I like that we’re a little bit punkier and we’ve got a little bit of that live energy because we’d done a load of gigs and knew what our band sounded like now.

When we started, in a way the only way we could get energy into the early stuff was to be a bit scrappy. I remember the first guitar takes of Halfway and Wider Eyes I would try to do them as full takes and not over-edit them and let them be a little bit loose in the click track because the drums were so perfect.

I’m waffling, but I think you just have to figure out what’s right for you. I trust everyone around us in the band, not just Mae but the wider team. I trust their input on if we’re over-doing it or under-doing it.

M: I think before we put a lot of pressure on redoing the vocal takes, regardless of the fact some of them could’ve been all right. For me, the pressure of “you must be on full health on this day” almost got to me, but if it’s “we’re just doing demoes today” I’ll just smash them out.

C: We haven’t changed our ethos, I think, in terms of the way we really make the records. We have a bit, but it’s always fun, it’s never stressful and that’s one of the cool things about doing it in our own space, ourselves.

M: We’re just not redoing something for the sake of redoing it, if it already sounds…

C: If it sounds good and leaning into the emotion and the rawness a little bit more, where we might’ve tuned things super perfectly before. We haven’t a) had to because I think we’ve got better as musicians and b) wanted to as much on this record.

M: It’s definitely more representative of the live shows.

C: Yeah, I think this record sounds like us, that’s one of the things that’s cool about doing it yourself, I guess. Or might not be, I’ve never actually seen my own band [laughs]. I might be getting it totally wrong.

YC: Would you say there are some bands or artists that have really strongly influenced you? Maybe particularly for the new record?

C: We both went and saw Sum-41 at Wembley.

M: They’re definitely more a soft spot for you than for me. It was amazing but they’re definitely more your thing.

C: The shared one would be Papa Roach.

M: He’s my number one vocalist.

C: Sum-41 have great songs under it all.

M: And their performance was good as well.

C: Yeah, great show. We love most things that are high energy like Prodigy. I saw Oliver Tree and I thought it was amazing; it was one of the best shows I’ve seen in so long.

We’re influenced by the era we grew up in. I would go home and watch Kerrang TV every day. I would finish school about 5 past 3, get home at 4 o’clock and Kerrang would be on until 6 when Malcolm in the Middle started. I learnt music that way through osmosis by watching those bands. Most ‘90s Kerrang stuff we’re influenced by.

I love Sum-41’s song writing. I’m 100% a big fan of them and Derek’s career as a producer as well and his struggles which he’s been quite open about, addiction and things.

YC: A lot of channels like Kerrang and MTV and music journalism in general is kind of stopping. Would you see this as a problem for music and music fans?

C: I absolutely think so.

M: It’s just relinquished everything to like Spotify streaming algorithms. From an accessibility point of view, it’s great that there are so many options, but it’s not really helping artists or community.

C: Spotify, like, can’t be trusted. They’re not doing anything about AI ‘artists’ and things like that.

M: Even BBC Introducing didn’t do anything.

C: BBC Introducing’s artist of the week the other week was an AI ‘artist’ and it’s mad, although I’m grateful for the help the BBC have given us over the years.

Music journalism will always be important because…

M: There’s real people behind it.

C: Yeah, journalists are seeking out the truth, right? They’re the people telling a story. Spotify is a company that’s there to push artists, that’s its job. Whereas a journalist – with integrity – is gonna push stuff they believe in and they’re tastemakers. The journalists that I’ve met shape people’s taste for better or for worse and without that it becomes a bit of a monopoly for whoever has the most money.

It’s sad to see how these things are affecting independent journalists. I’ve seen a bit of a resurgence in independent zines and fanzines and stuff which is really cool, but [journalism] is hugely important. I hope people continue to be so excited by music that they want to share it no matter what and I think there’s something in human nature that… we will find a new format, whatever that format is. Whether that’s like Anthony Fantano and a YouTube channel he’s, as his tagline says, the busiest music journalist out there and I think he’s great, I think he’s important.

I’m waffling again [laughs]!

YC: Is there one song from the new album that you think sums it up?

M: I’m gonna go with Consume again, that’s my personal preference. But I think that’s got a bit of everything. It’s got the punky aspect; it’s got the metal-esque riff. Still got the chorus and it’s got a cute little breakdown in. I think it’s got a piece of every other part of the record.

C: Yeah, I would say so. Consume has the happiness and sadness and melancholy, all of that.

M: I feel like that’s fairly representative.

C: Yeah, I would say so. And Paranoia as well. We haven’t really talked about it, but Paranoia was kind of a turning point in the record and then that influenced the way Consume turned out in a really cool way. We effectively had these drums recorded that were quite Mastadon-esque and like quite pokey in terms of like dotted 8^th notes and things. We’d recorded it, but I just kinda found something that I felt suited better and re-edited and looped it – which goes completely back on what I said earlier [laughs]. I completely changed our drummer’s part, so when he came for the music video he was like “wait this isn’t what I played!” and I said “sorry, bro.”

But if there was gonna be a title track, Consume was the one I was leaning into being it.

M: It’s the first single, isn’t it? So, everyone’s first taste.

YC: Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?

C: Come to a show, come, and say hey…

M: Please buy tickets in advance! It means none of us are panicking that no one’s gonna be there.

C: You have no idea… and if you join our mailing list, we’re gonna do a livestream of the record months before it’s gonna be anywhere else. We’re gonna have a listening party with everyone who’s made this possible, which is the people who care about our music and like it.

M: It’s on our website: www.wearewrex.com.

Wrex plays at The Fulford Arms, York on Wednesday 28 January 2026. Tickets are available here.