The Orielles Talk New Album, Growing Influences, And Independent Venue Week

Toby Furlong

I’m a writer hailing from the distant land of Norfolk. With a deep love for vinyl, currently standing at over 100 in my collection. When it comes to picking a favourite artist, it will always be the sounds of Trish Keenan and Broadcast.

In the buildup to their new album ‘Only You Left,’ we sat down with The Orielles to discuss influences, evolution and Independent Venue Week

Overlooking the bar of Norwich Arts Centre, surrounded by gig posters of yesteryear, we sat down with the Halifax trio of Esmé Hand-Halford (vocals and bass), Sidonie Hand-Halford (drums) and Henry Wade (guitar and vocals) who form The Orielles. The trio are eager to discuss their evolving sound, expanding influences and the continued impact of independent venue week. Their new album ‘Only You Left’ is out on 13 March 2026 via Heavenly Recordings.

Hello! Starting out with my own memories here, I can remember seeing you guys across town at The Waterfront pushing six years ago now and being amazed by the jangly post-punk sound you were performing on stage. Then, fast forward to 2022’s ‘Tableau,’ which was filled with improvisation and soundscapes. I’m wondering where the changing sound originated from?

Henry: I don’t think people realise the length of time between albums and taking into account how young we were when we started. You start in your teenage years and the changes you go through in life change you so much.

Esmé: ‘Tableau‘ was the first album that we made as adults in a way. In our teenage years we bashed out a lot of music before that, so that project was almost like a fresh start. Even this new album feels like it picks little pieces from the earlier records as well, so it’s almost like looking forward but remembering to look backwards as well.

My very own Orielles moment of realisation, where I realised you guys were on a different wavelength to anybody else, was actually hearing ‘Stones‘ the track at the very end of ‘Tableau‘, the wonderful poetry soundscape piece. As you progressed, did you feel you had more freedom to make these kind of pieces?

Henry: If anything, we started making albums instead of individual songs. On the first record you’re making songs for a live set, enough for an album. It’s a collection of individual songs. When you write albums you’re doing it all at once. We looked for a big dynamic range, lots of energy as it’s fundemental to making a complete piece of art.

Sidonie: We share so much music with each other, that natural growth is inevitable in a way, it leads you into the soundscapes vibe. It’s representative of what inspires us and then gives us the confidence to experiment.

You touched on it slightly there, but I’m always curious, what did you listen to while recording this new project? On your turntables, or just playing to each other?

Esme: I think there’s been a noticeable shift towards kind of heavier genres, that we haven’t tapped into before, especially in the experimental world. Especially with black metal, death metal, even just industrial and noise music.

I hear a lot of those influences on the new song ‘Three Halves’.

Esme: In the experimental zone you have to be open to falling down a rabbit hole and seeing where it takes you.

Sidonie: We’ve been revisiting bands that we first listened to when we started the band like Sonic Youth and The Velvet Underground. They’ve always been constant influences and it’s enjoyable to revisit those forever favourites.

Henry: We’ve been listening to a lot of Grouper lately, long drone and unintelligible lyrics.

Does ‘Only You Left’ feel like an album that could’ve only been made by friends first and a band secondly?

Esme: We’ve always felt that’s the distinction between us and maybe some other bands; for us it has always felt like a natural process. People say “that sounds like The Orielles,” but we don’t know what that means all the time.

Henry: People have always had odd perceptions about the music we make, and maybe that’s from limited listening.

From ‘Silver Dollar Moment’ all the way to the newest singles, you can definitely track this experimental journey in your sound.

Esme: We always wanted to do that back then, because we were excited to try things out. But now when it comes to experimentation, we can take our time and see what works.

The occasion for today is Independent Venue Week, has this always been something important to the group?

Sidonie: Even now, we were looking around at the gig posters, it was a throwback to what got us into music, the DIY spots. We love the community and the culture.

From listening to the singles that have released over the last few months, I get a real sense of improvisational elements, very free-form. Do these songs feel easier to play on stage, maybe less restricted?

Henry: It might seem improvised if you haven’t seen us play before, but it’s all written for the live stage.

Esme: I’d definitely like to be more open to it in future, having the scope to do it live is another goal for us. It’s tough. We actually did a live show about two years ago that was fully improvised, 45 minutes before we didn’t know what we were playing, it was nerve wracking. It felt like a disaster but we had people come up to us and say that was their favourite gig of ours.

2026 and beyond, is there anything you would like to tick off The Orielles bucket list?

Sidonie: We’ve spoken about going to Europe again, we feel like we’ve only scratched the surface in that territory. We always like doing European festivals, with that community feel.

Esme: With the industry the way it is now, it’s not easy to be sure of what you can achieve in the future. I think sometimes you have to see how the album is going to be received at first and decide what to do afterwards.