Known for their blend of sounds from contemporary R&B, electronica, and 70s to 80s inspired synth-pop, London-based four-piece PREP have shared their brand new EP ‘Back To You’. The title track and lead single “Back To You” perfectly encapsulates PREP’s signature sound – funky grooves, a great melodic guitar line, and smooth vocals.
“The mood of this EP runs from some of the most intimate music we’ve made (‘Speaking Silence’) to some of the most energetic (‘The Kid’) – which maybe makes sense given we started putting it together shut away in our studio in London, and finished it out on tour in the US,” explains lead vocalist Tom Havelock. “That PREP mix of groove and melancholy is there all the way through – being inside your own head, in a city with 10 million other heads, trying to make connections while also trying to make space for yourself, and dealing with what happens when neither one quite works out.”
About the single “Back To You”, Tom shares, “We had most of the song down before we headed off to the US on tour, but we couldn’t quite nail the chorus. So we decided to take it with us on the road, and managed to find a great studio we could use in Brooklyn. I’m not sure how much of New York you can hear on the record, but there’s definitely an energy to it that came from knowing we’d been given the keys to this amazing place for 24 hours, and we had to finish the song before we let ourselves out.”
The EP follows PREP’s delightful rendition of Harry Styles’ hit single “As It Was”. Taking a vastly different direction from the original upbeat track, the band’s loungey version of the hit song pulls listeners into the PREP universe, which wouldn’t be complete without a saxophone solo. The band will kick off their Asia tour in November this year, with additional dates in more cities to be announced.
Want to read more about PREP? No problem, here you can find our interview with the band about their critically acclaimed, self-titled debut album from 2020.
Photo Credit: Meg Meyer