Photo Credits: Demi Hopkins
Born in Norwich’s outsider ecosystem and sharpened in London’s restless sprawl, Chest carry the energy of a group who never learned to colour inside the lines because no one ever handed them the colouring book in the first place. The five‑piece have carved out a sound that refuses to sit still, refuses to behave, and refuses to be anything other than exactly what they want to hear.
We always start by asking artists to introduce themselves in their own words, or in the words
of someone talking about them in a pub – so, time to introduce yourself!
CHEST: Chest is a 5 piece band formed in Norwich now located in London. We take elements from across
genres and come out with something that is very hard to put your finger on. We make the music we
want to hear which is normally high energy, introspective and diverse with pop sensibilities.
If you had to describe the emotional role each member plays in the band, how would you map
that out?
CHEST: Will is the dad of the band, Stan is the talent, Russell is the funny younger cousin, Joel is the diva, Teo is the softy with a tough exterior.
You’ve said Norwich’s “oddballs and weirdos” shaped you. What part of that city still lives
inside your sound now that you’re in London?
CHEST: Starting as a band in Norwich really trained us to make music without an audience or scene in mind
and that’s something that’s never going to change. Norwich has such a diverse set of acts musically
everyone is very much in their own lane and has their own very strong identities so for us what lives
on from that period for us is the ethos rather than sonic influence.
What’s an influence you think people would never guess?
CHEST: The band doesn’t really have any core influences collectively. We all tend to have our own little
musical obsessions that spill through to our tracks in unique ways. Our drummer has a love of Nu-
metal while our front man is going through a Celine Dion phase at the moment, all our tracks our
snapshots of our own musical palettes at the time of writing and recording.
The EP moves between panic, numbness, ego spirals, and digital claustrophobia. Did you see
these themes emerging naturally, or did you consciously lean into a specific emotional arc?
CHEST: Lyrically, the songs portray a hyperbolised version of Joel and his mental state at the time of writing.
On tracks like GOSPEL and MACHINE, we adopted a technique of looking inward, identifying
insecurities, magnifying them, and pushing them toward their destructive logical conclusions. The
songs came naturally rather than setting out to write a commentary on any given topic:
Joel, you’ve described “JULIA” as the most personal song you’ve written. What was the
moment you realised this story needed to be told publicly rather than kept private? How did
the process of creating this sound feel for you?
CHEST: It felt important to also include something raw on the EP to counterweight a lot of the other hyperbolic
character driven tracks. The song is very sensitive and personal so it force me to come to it from a
place of vulnerability and honesty with no alterations which isn’t something I always do in my
writing.
“MACHINE” and “GOSPEL” feel like dispatches from inside the algorithm. What part of
digital culture feels most suffocating to you right now?
CHEST: It’s the idea that the “Machine is always on” which is the most suffocating. Whether you’re tuned in or
not it is continuing on at a breakneck speed and in a short time everything can immediately feel
completely new. It draws you in and demands your attention and tells you the lie if you don’t you’re
going to be falling behind.
You’re celebrating the EP with shows at The Elephant’s Head and Norwich Arts Centre. What
does this EP feel like in a live room compared to the studio?
CHEST: Even more chaotic and in your face. In a live room you can sense the mania and desperation in a lot
the tracks in a really vivid tactile way. There is a whole extra dimension to the communication in the
tracks that make them feel so much larger in the room.
And finally – what’s the next chapter for Chest?
CHEST: Who knows but we’re not stopping here. We want to play in a room for as many people as we can so
wherever that takes us we will see.
NEVER REALLY HERE OUT NOW.
Words by
Marie Müller, 2026.