Peaness and The Cycle Of Worry
An album for any artist is always a snapshot in time. A glimpse into the lives of the people who made it, and of the world around them too. Written and recorded pre-pandemic and finally seeing the light of day back in May, Peaness have released their much-anticipated debut album ‘World Full Of Worry’. Here we’ll dive into each of the album’s eleven songs, with a concluding Q&A from drummer Rach.
From left to right: Carleia “Balla” Balbenta, Jessica Branney and Rachel Williams.
The Peas in a Pod that are Peaness of Chester consist of Carleia “Balla” Balbenta on guitar and vocals, bassist and vocalist Jessica Branney and Rachel Williams on drums. The trio released their four-track ‘No Fun’ EP in 2015, which was collected on CD and vinyl in 2017 along with their ‘Are You Sure?’ EP released that year.
In 2019, Peaness put out ‘Breakfast’, a standalone single in criticism of Brexit. Since then, the band have been promoting the singles from their debut album. This includes live sessions on BBC 6 Music and Radio X, leading up to the release of ‘World Full Of Worry’ on their Totally Snick Records label in May 2022.
‘Take A Trip along with me, across the water to the sea…’
Waves wash over acoustic guitar as the band harmonise the introduction to their album. Footsteps crunch over the beach soundtracked by gentle synth. ‘Catch the train that splits the mountain…’ If you thought this cleansing greeting was representative of Peaness’ sound…
…you’d be entirely wrong. ‘Kaizen’ is the first song Moths and Giraffes heard from Peaness, released prior to the pandemic, and originally backed with non-album single ‘Breakfast’. Jess Branney is on lead vocals throughout, with backing vocals by Balla whose guitar riffs help to break this song down and build it back up again.
I defy you not to have the chorus melody and lyric stay with you after hearing this song. Our favourite lyric comes after the first verse: ‘Man-made mass un-making, ignore the floor beneath you breaking.’
Peaness describe the Japanese term ‘Kaizen’ as ‘change for the good’. In the music video by Twin Moon, highly recognisable items of Japanese culture can be seen throughout, sprinkled in between a performance from the trio. The overall takeaway from the video is how much fun Peaness have as a band, a trend you’ll see in all of their accompanying visuals.
‘How I’m Feeling’ sees a sharing of lead vocals between Balla and Jess, a song about feeling determined to leave an unfulfilling job, or concept in your life that needs shaking up. Rachel Williams takes the regular beat of How I’m Feeling and injects hi-hat and toms into her groove, while adding backing vocals when performing the track live.
‘I’ve got the guts to take the leap, you’ve gotta trust that I can, they don’t know victory or defeat.’
Further on, the sound of Balla’s guitar melody is playfully doubled with keyboard. More recently, to bolster their live sound and replicate these parts, Nikki of Nikki & The Waves has been playing keyboards with the trio on stage, as seen during their slot at Doune The Rabbit Hole Festival in Stirlingshire.
The video filmed, directed and edited by Marieke Macklon follows the adventures of a newly formed Secret Bug Club, where Branney recruits the members of Peaness and beyond to go in search of a rare species of insect. The behind-the-scenes video shows the painstaking lengths the team went through to get their recruitment poster affixed to the telegraph pole.
‘I'm a stumbling paradox, I give my mirror cheap pep talks.’
A bass riff from Jess brings in ‘Girl Just Relax’, a song about the paralysing effect anxiety can have on a person’s existence. Amongst guitar feedback and the core trio performance, it’s those organ slides and bursts that give extra bite to Girl Just Relax, a timeless sound whipping the band into action.
Peaness’ vocal layers in the final chorus are superb, their initially sparser words in the earlier chorus sections making more arrangement sense. As the instruments fade out, the trio continue to sing, ‘Comparison will kill you, measure your progress like a maniac.’ Anybody suffering with debilitating anxiety could relate to the lyrics in this song.
For those oblivious to the meaning of ‘irl’, Peaness have written a handy explanation:
“irl is an online chat acronym for ‘in real life’ - our song irl is about your online persona not aligning with what's actually happening in your day-to-day life.”
Similar to ‘Girl Just Relax’, ‘irl’ mirrors the struggles many in their teens and twenties go through. The lyrics centre around online validation to counterbalance feelings of negativity and inadequacy instead of addressing them directly.
The intro hits you on the nose, with percussion throughout and one of Rachel’s most exciting performances on ‘World Full Of Worry’. Jess Branney’s bass sound is resilient, a real mainstay in the Peaness sound. A perfect choice for a single, Peaness have the ability to take a relatable but uneasy subject and turn it into a cause for celebration.
Marieke Macklon returns to direct the video for ‘irl’, a battle of the bands pitting emos, pop stars and even The Peatles against each other. In the end, the three judges are unanimous in their decision of best performance. Perhaps Peaness should organise a live battle of the bands for each act to get a rematch.
‘Life doesn't look too pretty, I'm killing nothing but time…’
The keyboard elements on this album are most obvious in ‘Doing Fine’, the synth sounds of which are a homage to the band’s love of video games (did you catch the PlayStation and N64 consoles in the ‘Kaizen’ video?) Peaness put real thought into their harmonies here. Listen to trio escalating their parts during the second verse and chorus, especially as they overlap the word ‘Fine’ like a classic 1960’s vocal group.
‘World Full Of Worry’ was produced by Russ Hayes, whose connection with the band goes back to their ‘No Fun’ EP and has remained consistent since. Peaness recorded their album at Orange Sound in Penmaenmawr, North Wales, the vibrant walls of which can be seen in their ‘Summer Song’ video, released in 2015.
‘Worry’ is the track that gives this album its title. Even through its content of a relationship break-up, Peaness have created a catchy vehicle for these heartfelt lyrics. The vocals are split between Jess and Balla, with the latter’s softer delivery suiting the more inward side of the song: ‘Don’t say that. Why’d you leave? This isn’t happening. Did you ever love me?’
Peaness layer this verse with the louder chorus in the song’s conclusion, with Rach performing vocal harmonies in the band’s live set-up. Worry has much light and shade, with my favourite melody appearing during a brief breakdown, ‘So heavy crawling through this…’ Balla’s guitar sound here sets the mood aided by Rachel’s softer playing, adding to the song’s feeling of claustrophobia. The subject of ‘Worry’ is truly that of a lived experience, the emotion of which aches not only through the band’s lyricism, but in their performances too.
‘Systematically inclined to choose what's been before, accept there's nothing more. Automatically denied, and I'm Left To Fall Behind.’
‘Left To Fall Behind’ is rooted in the pressure of age, and having not achieved conventional societal milestones such as getting married, buying a house or having children by a certain time (in this economy!?) Sung by Balla, the entire first verse features her playing and singing unaccompanied, with Rachel adding light rhythmic accompaniment in the second verse before Jess’ bass brings the band in fully. The synthesizer behind the last chorus is paired with Balla’s guitar tone, complimenting both instruments well.
In terms of the band’s tracklisting construction, Left To Fall Behind sits perfectly on this record, following the rockier ‘Worry’, allowing the listener to settle down before…
…the punkier ‘What’s The Use?’ A song about motivation and the process of acquiring it, Jess takes the lead vocal here, with Balla providing the harmony. An aspect of the trio’s songwriting that stands out is their ability to put variety in a song. What’s The Use? is a good example of this with its faster verses, softer choruses and joint bass and guitar riff that separates the two.
Released in October 2021, the band’s music video for What’s The Use? is compiled by Jess Branney, giving a glimpse into life on the road with Peaness. Expect live footage, a sampling of cuisine and axe throwing.
“Hurts ‘Til It Doesn’t” is the only song on World Full Of Worry that began its recording process outside of Orange Sound. This song is inspired by the band’s love of The Beatles, particularly Rachel’s drum performance - the introduction is unique in that the song opens with drums only. It’s fun to hear the double-tap of tambourine in the verses, an underrated production decision that often creates more sonic joy in a track.
Listen closely for Balla’s guitar layering, playing cleaner, acoustic sounding instruments off with her more regular tone that can be heard across this album. As well as bass guitar, Jess also plays an Omnichord, a 1980’s electronic instrument that bears closer resemblance to a child’s toy, but breathes extra life across this absolute dream of a song.
‘We drifted away, the pain we receive won't be as bad as if we left ourselves to wither alone.’
The aptly titled ‘Sad Song’ is a break-up piece, full of sustained harmony and underlined by Balla’s crunchy guitar playing. Predominantly written by Jess Branney, this song is interestingly structured as the verses and choruses continue without pause, as if the lyric was written in a stream of consciousness. Rach, her drum patterns ever-changing, can be heard shuffling in the verse, but playing straighter for a chorus, the sparse use of tambourine again adding rhythmic fuel to this song.
The vocalists truly sing beautifully in Sad Song. Even though the subject matter reflects its title, there is comfort in their choice of melody and timbre in their vocal delivery. With this song concluding Peaness’ debut full-length record, ‘World Full Of Worry’ ends on a sombre tone, the last line of the album being, ‘I’ve had enough, and I’ve given up.’
But the band are doing anything except that. After a brief break at the end of 2021, the band returned to performing in April at Cambridge’s Sound + Vision Festival. With Rachel surviving a bout of illness requiring hospitalisation, Peaness continue to play festivals in August, with another round of British dates in September and October.
Continue reading for our Q&A with Rachel Williams. We ask about the band’s writing process, the ‘Kaizen’ and ‘irl’ music videos, plus the band’s hopes for the future. All this and more below!
1. Your debut album 'World Full Of Worry' has been a long time coming! What was the timescale of the album's recording? Was it started before the pandemic?
It has been ages hasn't it?! We recorded a lot of it way before the pandemic back in 2018-19. We planned to release it in 2020 but for obvious reasons had to delay it. We're very much a live band so we didn't think we'd do the album justice without being able to tour it as well. We did some of it in bits, and recorded 'Worry' in 2020 just before the pandemic hit. I think. It's all a blur now tbh!!
2. What is the oldest song on the record? Which song was written most recently?
Kaizen is the oldest. We've been playing that live for yeaaaaars. Worry was the most recent- we had the album nearly what it was finished but we weren't 100% happy with it. So we changed the lyrics and melody to irl and took out another song that didn't make it to the album and put in Worry instead.
3. What was the name of the song you took off the record? What was the reason for removing it?
It was called 'All That I Can'. We took it off cause it was too cheesy hahaha. It sounded too positive with happy sounding chords and had a weird half time feel in the verse. We liked it initially then with a bit of space away from it realised we sounded like we were trying to turn into a ska band or something.
4. Is there a typical way Peaness writes a song? Does someone come in with an idea the band completes, or is writing done entirely as a group?
It varies. Some songs have started off with an acoustic guitar - like the bare bones of a track then someone will bring it to the rehearsal room and we'll add to it and adapt it as a band. Some songs we'll write all together at practice and end up writing all the lyrics together, or singing nonsense lines to each other and turning it into a riff or a melody. There isn't really a set way we'll go about it, but we'll always go through the song section by section and think of it structurally and how it's going to fit into the next section.
5. The record was produced by Russ Hayes who you've worked with on your previous music, what's his approach like in the studio?
Russ is amazing. He's a jazz trained pianist and has such a fascinating and finely tuned ear for arrangements and harmony. He gets Balla in the vocal booth for hours turning her into a one woman choir. He's got a few one liners he comes out with including 'don't bore us, get to the chorus', and 'more is more' hahaha. He helped us get past the idea that the songs in the studio need to sound like an exact replica of what we do live - that the recordings are the songs in and of themselves and live will have its differences everytime we play it. He's helped us all become better musicians and will always tell us in a gentle but direct way if he thinks we can do better or if something needs adapting or changing in a song. He's an integral part of the musical community in the North West and we couldn't have made the 'sad bangers' what they are now without him.
Unfortunately, Russ has recently been taken ill in hospital with a brain aneurysm and a stroke. He has a fundraiser in support of him and his pregnant wife for while they're unable to work. If you would like to and are able to donate, here's a link.
6. When was the moment you thought you'd like to use the Japanese term 'Kaizen' in a song? Where did that idea come from?
I'm pretty sure it came off the back of a conversation we were having about the state of the world. It was written years ago and lo and behold it's still relevant! It's Japanese for 'change for the good'. We all love Japanese culture and wanted to reference it in a song. So the two ideas merged!
7. The music video for 'Kaizen' featured a whole lot of familiar Japanese items! If you could've taken one item home from the video, what would it have been?
They're all ours anyway hahaha. Told you we love it.
8. The video for 'irl' sees various versions of the band competing against each other, what was everyone's favourite? Was the winner justified or was it a fix with the judges?
I personally enjoyed being a 'Pea-tle' hehhhh. Ringo Starr is one of my favourite drummers and the Beatles are one of our collective favourite bands. I was watching videos of 'Ringo mop-top' on YouTube before filming that part hahaha. I think Balla channelled being an emo extremely well. She said at the time she was just being a mirror of her 14 year old self which was great to see. Jess also channelled the pop star look surprisingly easily and well! Took a while to come down from our personas after each scene hahaha. Marieke and Naomi who shot the video with us were both great and kept the energy up for us all day, encouraging us to work the camera haha!! The winners were ourselves with the animal masks on, which was a kind of last minute decision on the day cause they were just hanging about in the studio and Jess saw her golden opportunity of becoming a frog. So I'd say for our spontaneous creative prowess on that front - they're justified winners!
9. The keyboard layers in 'Doing Fine' are a great addition to that track, who laid those down? Was that a studio decision or was it set in stone before that?
Thank you! :) That was the musical wizard that is Russ Hayes! We wrote the song initially without keys and much more stripped back version of it - just guitar, bass, drums and two part harmonies on it. I wasn't too keen on it at this point, but we added all the multilayered harmonies on it in the studio and all the keys effects and it started coming into its own. I really like the effect at the end of the song where it sounds like someone's died in a video game. Thought it was a really fun sound and it's pretty different from anything we'd done up until that point.
10. 'Sad Song' doesn't sugar-coat the end of the album, what's the source of the sound effect at the very end?
The sound effect is a recording on Jess' phone of the sea in Penmaenmawr, where we recorded the album. We went for a walk there after we'd finished one of the days as we knew we wanted the sound of the sea at some point during the album. We thought that we might have it scattered across the album to break up different parts, but in the end decided to put it at the start and finish to signify a cycle, or a circle back round to where we started - to symbolise repeating old patterns/going round in circles with the same problems which tend to arise again and again in life.
11. During lockdown, you put together a podcast called 'Happeaness', could fans expect more episodes in 2022?
We keep saying we're going to do this and then end up having too much on and don't haha! We at least intend on doing it. I think it would be really nice to do one and chat about the album release and all the mad stuff that's happened around that. Hopefully yes!
12. Your 2019 single 'Breakfast' was written in criticism of Brexit, what are the biggest issues musicians face now as a result of Britain leaving the EU?
Oh god. There's just so much. Brexit has made it near on impossible for a band our size to tour Europe in a cost effective way. We need things called 'carnets' to bring our instruments into European countries, then we need to declare any merch we bring per different country and pay tax on it in each individual country we go to. Whereas before we could just hop in a van, sell merch, cross border to border and have a nice time and actually make enough money to cover the cost of fuel?! Ah yeah, the cost of fuel has gone up exponentially as well, which isn't great for a touring band lol. *sigh* 2019 was nice, wasn't it?
13. The album is called 'World Full Of Worry', what are you all most worried about in 2022?
The world being on fire.
14. I loved seeing the vintage Peaness photos in the run-up to the album's release. What were your expectations of the band when you formed? What would you still like to achieve?
Thank you! We loved going back through our old group chats and photos and finding them all. When we first formed, we just wanted to write together for fun, cause we all had the same music tastes and just wanted a creative outlet with friends. When we first started gigging, we wanted to get to a point where we can release music and do shows and people actually listen to it and turn up to the shows. Which we did!
I think now, we would like to get to a point where we make enough money as a band that we have it as a source of income- as we're still not taking money personally from the band but we're in a very fortunate position as it stands that the band pays for itself. It's definitely not all about money for us of course (otherwise I think we would have disbanded years ago haha!) but it would be great to be able to have the time and space to dedicate to the band like a full time job rather than having to juggle everything else too. That aside - we'd also like to headline Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, do a collab with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and achieve world peace through the means of song. Or just be able to continue writing, recording and performing music til we're old :)
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Purchase a copy of ‘World Full Of Worry’ on Peaness’ Bandcamp page, plus t-shirts and other Totally Snick items!
For more information about Peaness, including upcoming tour dates, visit their official website.
Follow Peaness on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter @peanessband.
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