INTERVIEW: Acres

Rising UK band Acres found incredible success with their stunning debut album Lonely World, which harnessed melody and melancholy to devastatingly gorgeous effect. Following fans’ adoration for the record, Acres found themselves playing the biggest shows of their career so far and achieving things they had only previously dreamt about.

But when the world around them suddenly felt so uncertain, they had a choice to make of what they should do next. Instead of rushing out with something they didn’t fully believe, they locked themselves away and painstakingly created something that not only represented where they had been but also where they wanted to end up.

The result is Burning Throne, a crushing, cathartic, and perfectly crafted account of what it means to stare into your own oblivion and learn about who you really are from it. Not only showcasing some of the band’s heaviest material to date but also their most poignant and honest, it is a body of work that the band has injected every ounce of their soul into as well, something that they are immensely proud to have as a vital part of their story. 

Noisescape caught up with Acres’ vocalist, Ben Lumber, to learn more about the band, Burning Throne, and what the next chapter for Acres holds.

Photo by Ashlea Bea

Can you describe the band’s relationship? Are there ever times when being in a band together is challenging?

I’m lucky that I can say that we’re all tight. It’s really great to have bandmates who are on the same page. We’re almost like brothers; we’re so similar. There’s nothing which really makes us fall out – I don’t think we’ve ever fallen out, any of us. Especially on tour, we’ve never gotten into an argument and don’t jump down each other’s throats. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, and we just like to have a laugh. And whether it’s touring or writing, we’re all so open and understanding with each other. I know a lot of bands argue about things, and you hear about band politics, and there’s none of that with Acres. If someone’s got an idea, it’s either yes or no, and no one gets offended. When you've got four or five creatives in a band, you can clash. But you need to remember that we have to take each other's creative side into place and that we will all have opinions. You're all equal; no one else is above you in this band. You guys – the band – made this; the friends made this. So that's how it should stay. And that’s kind of the beauty of this band. We respect what we love and people's opinions. I think younger bands would have such an easier time if they were kind of taught that from the get-go. And I think it's only when you have experience being in a band for so long that you fully understand with maturity and experience.

Are there any bands that inspire Acres musically?

So what we like as a band is kind of spanned – there’s no real genre that we’re listening to and set to try and sort of influence the band. All of our music tastes are so different. Our guitarist, Alex, is really big on post-hardcore. I call him “the post-hardcore Godfather” because he knows any and every post-hardcore band, especially from back in the day. We recently did a tour with Being As An Ocean, and I remember the first night Alex and the Being as an Ocean drummer stayed up until about 4 am just talking about all post-hardcore bands and stuff like that. So he’s on that, and I’m the same. I love bands like Circa Survive, Stand & Fight, and stuff, but I’m also a big pop music lover as well. I love all the new artists which are coming out at the moment. People like Tate McRae and Olivia Rodrigo – I mean, they’ve got such fantastic albums. And I think it’s always healthy and good to listen to different things. Especially after a tour with so many rock bands, you often come home and don’t even want to listen to music. So to be able to enjoy pop music and something more chill is really nice for me. 

Can you tell us more about the band’s decision to create a second album after taking time off?

So, as a band, we were gaining a lot of momentum from our debut album, Lonely World, which came out in 2019. The band was in a great place, and then COVID hit. And just before COVID, our guitarist, Theo, left as well. He wrote the majority of Lonely World instrumentally – I did the vocals, and we worked closely together. So it left us in a situation where we didn’t know what the writing process would look like or what we would do. And also, we were only halfway through our touring cycle for Lonely World. So to spend all that time on an album, to get halfway through doing probably one of my favorite parts, which is playing it live, to then have it taken away sucked. And I saw a lot of bands doing great over COVID, which is cool. But for me, I don't release music for the Internet. I want to be able to play these songs live, and we didn't know when we would be able to do that. So we didn't rush to have any new music out, which explains the kind of quiet period. And yeah, there was a point where we didn’t know where we were going and just felt like, ‘What’s the point,’ you know? But we were talking and realized we’d spent so much time in this band and loved it too much to say, ‘No, that’s it.’ And as soon as that started coming in, Alex and I started talking about this new record. But as I said, our music tastes are so different that I wanted to go in a more pop, radio-friendly direction, Alex wanted to go in a heavier direction, and we could not decide. It must have taken about 10 or 15 demos before we kind of hit one for the new album and felt like, ‘This is it.’ So yeah, it took a while, but I'm super proud of what we achieved.

What do you hope listeners will take away from Burning Throne?

I said this the other day, actually; it’s nice to envision people listening to this record in a dark room with headphones on. That's how Alex put it as well. I think we're definitely one of those bands, and I think you have these kinds of albums where you kind of just close the door, close your eyes and put your headphones on to experience it – it's like a journey – the whole record is a journey. I'm such an honest writer. I write about personal experiences that I feel other people would have gone through or would have been through. If people take things away from it, I want them to know you're not alone with whatever you're going through; there are lots of people going through the same thing. And that's kind of what I would like people to take away. And I'm told people have taken that away from the music of Acres. Like, people talk to us at shows, and people have said the music – which still astounds me now – has helped them, saved their life, or changed their life and things like that. I think as long as people feel that and we can achieve that, then I'm happy. I never want people to stop feeling like that because no matter where we go or what we do, as long as that message is still coming across, we're happy.

Were there any fears or hesitations about taking the band’s music in a heavier direction? 

No, you know, and that’s the beauty of this band. I love that we can do a song like something from our first record, like “Lullaby”, pretty much like Coldplay, just with heavier drums. And then we can release a song like “Nothing” with Garrett from Silent Planet, which is the heaviest song we've ever done. And the fans don't really bat an eyelid; they think it’s sick. And it's cool for new fans to hear the heavier stuff and then discover the lighter stuff and vice versa. So, initially, there was kind of hesitation for me when we were first talking about the album. Like I said, I wanted it to be more radio-friendly. And I actually said, like, ‘I don't want to scream on this record – I'm just pure singing. I'm done with the screaming, and I want to be more radio-friendly.’ And Alex was like, ‘No, absolutely not. I want riffs; I want breakdowns.’ I think we found that happy medium, though, and I am glad we went the way we have. It's a cool thing to be able to fall in and out of those kinds of different songs and emotions. Especially live, like there are people that like the band and say the music means so much to them. So still being able to make that kind of more emotional side is something we always want to keep doing.

“Nothing” is the band’s first song with a feature. Did you enjoy collaborating? Is that something you think Acres will do more of in the future?

Yeah, maybe. So we talked with Silent Planet in 2018, and both bands hit it off from the get-go. It felt like we'd been friends for years, and we had only known each other for four or five days; it was crazy. And we've always kind of spoken about having features. We spoke about it for Lonely World, and it never happened – so many names were going around in the hat. And for me personally, if somebody is going to be on my art, then I want it to be somebody that means something to us as a band, not just someone who's doing well or someone you can pay to have. Yeah, you can get on these feature sites now where you can pay these dudes like four grand to be on your song, but why don't you just get a friend in a cool band, you know? I wanted it to be a friend, someone special. If they can be on this record that I've written and spent so much time working on, then it's got to be special. So yeah, I think Garrett was probably the first person me and Alex said should be on it. He was stoked to do it, which is great. It was sick.

You’ve mentioned your favorite part is performing, so I’m curious, what’s been your favorite and least favorite performance so far?

I think my favorite was in 2019, we got offered to open a festival in Germany for Wacken, and I think we were, like, the second band on. And I remember we were in a 10,000-cut tent, and I remember peering through the curtain like 10 minutes before we were about to play, and there was no one there. And I was just like, ‘Whatever, I'm still stoked to be here.’ And literally 2 minutes before we played, I looked out the curtain again, and the tent was full, and yeah, we played to probably around 9-10,000 people at, like, 11 a.m. And I knew I would definitely never forget it because we drove all the way through the night from Portsmouth. So we pretty much had a night drive, got there, played, and had to drive back [laughs]. But yeah, it was great fun. 

I don't think I have a memory of the worst show I've ever done, but I've definitely had shows where I've come off bummed. Something I've been prone to recently is losing my voice mid-tour, especially if there's not a day off. We did a tour just before COVID, and I think we got two and a half weeks in, and my voice just totally went, and I had to leave the tour for about four days because I couldn’t even speak. But I rejoined on the last couple of shows. So that's probably, like, my worst moments and just that fear of losing my voice. I'm ten years into my music career, but I've only now started looking after my voice on the road and being protective over it.

Was losing your voice part of why you initially didn’t want any screaming on Burning Throne?

Yeah, absolutely. Before I joined Acres, I was in a pop-rock band, kinda like You Me At Six, and I'd never really screamed in my life. This band approached me who was screaming and said, ‘We kind of want to have singing on our music. Would you be interested?’ And then, within two weeks, I had to do a month-long tour with them singing one of my songs which had singing vocals, and the rest of the set was screaming. And again, I lost my voice the whole tour. It's definitely been a learning process. The main thing you can do is just look after it and be conscious. Being younger, I would go out and drink beers every night, like, you're on tour, you know what I mean? But now, with the age I'm at, you absolutely can't do it; you have to go to bed early. Like, ‘Oh, you just finished playing? Time to go to bed.’ [laughs] I’ve recently started talking to Melissa Cross, and she was like, ‘Yo, you just need to shut up; don’t say anything. During the day, don’t speak.’ So I would go from waking up to showtime without saying a word, and it’s crazy how much it helped. Like, it sucks to do it and be in the van with everyone talking and having fun, but it helps so much it’s insane. Melissa is so clever, and I’ve been very grateful for that advice.

Photo by Ashlea Bea

And finally, can you tell us about any upcoming plans or goals for Acres in the future?

So, we were supposed to be headlining a tour that would’ve just finished, but that got canceled because my wife is having a baby due at any minute. So we had to cancel in case something happened. Our rescheduled headline run is set for October, and we have a few festivals over here, which is exciting. We are touring in May with Dayseeker, which I'm super excited about because I've been a Dayseeker fan even before this all came through. So everyone’s super happy to be touring with them and another UK band, Love is Noise. The venues are cool, and a lot of the shows have already sold out, so that’s sick. But we also have a lot of things going on in the background which have only just started coming to fruition, and I'm super excited to see them come to life. So it's going to be a great year. And we’re also looking at our plans for '24, which is cool because it's something we've never been able to do. The upcoming tour is in the UK, but for '24, I'm kind of like, the US is where I want to be. I really like America; it’s always been so intriguing to me. I’ve only visited New York and LA, so I’m dying to tour there with Acres because I’d love to see more of it. I'd like to record a record out there as well at some point. There's a producer called Dan Braunstein, and right now, he’s the guy I would love to be able to record with. So that's the goal I'm aiming for, and I'm hoping it will happen.

My whole focus is on writing new music and getting straight back out there to be able to tour America. We started writing again – we've just finished a new demo – which again is a first for our band. We've never just released an album and been like, ‘Let's get back writing.’ It’s definitely exploring the heavier side of music, which is cool, and I feel like we're evolving. We did it with Lonely World, and I think we've achieved that with Burning Throne – evolving into a sound which is new and fresh, but it's still Acres. And I think we are now achieving that with the new stuff we're doing. So I’m excited already for what’s to come.

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