Formed in the Somerset town of Bridgwater, Bridges initially met as teenagers before re-connecting after completing university. With only a pair of EPs to their name, the band have already toured extensively, including high-profile festival slots at Glastonbury and 2000 Trees. At the end of 2020, the band pressed both their EPs into a single vinyl, Until Now, a full stop on their early recordings as they began work on new music. Having recently shared their well-received single, Go Long, the band are currently building towards the October release of their new EP, Empty Galleries, and are today premiering the accompanying video for the second track from it, Up.

Discussing the inspiration behind Up, Bridges have suggested the track is a celebration of living in the here and now, “it’s important to just let loose, enjoy the moment and not worry about how things will work out. It’s a song about experimenting, that feeling at the end of a night out, and mainly trying to not place so much pressure on ourselves”. That feeling is evident in the lyrics, that go from descriptive reflections on late-night revelry to the self-admonishment of the chorus lyric, “stop trying to work it all out”.

Musically, the track begins on a twangy guitar-line, that slowly becomes engulfed in a wall of feedback, instantly bringing to mind 100 Broken Windows-era Idlewild. From there we’re treated to a master class in indie-rock, Ethan Proctor’s voice, shifting from the gentle introspection of the verses to the soaring arena-worthy chorus, where he’s joined by the perfect melodic counterpoint of Chess Williams’ luxurious backing vocals. Up fees like music for dramatic wintry landscapes, the drums crashing like avalanches rolling down striking alpine vistas (all rather soothing in our current UK-wide heatwave). Read on for the band’s thoughts on the video, and then check it out below.

“We went around on the idea a little while for this video – our initial plan turned out to be a lot more complicated, involving slo mo and reversing falling objects. The drone shots came out toppling strong, very grateful to our friend Sam Thompson for all his help creating the video. We wanted to create a feeling of spacing out, floating away – but also being lost to the world.”

Empty Galleries is out in October via Genepool Records. For more information on Bridges visit https://www.bridgesofficial.com.