Dude Trips – You Are The Reason I Hate Leaving EP

This is Dude Trips fourth EP release, the band from Fraserburgh in the far North East of Scotland have also ventured into the world of full lengths back in 2019 with ‘Through Love and Death’, which along with the title for this EP gives us a clue as to the kind of music and lyrics to expect, yes Emo still does have a place in the indie world.

So not having the pleasure of hearing Dude Trips before, I took the step of listening to this one cold (not going back and visiting their previous releases), a clear mind and no preconceptions.

I’ll get this out of the way from the off, having the knowledge that this was a Scottish emo band, hitting play on track one ‘Leaving’ the first line and the acoustic moody feeling, gave me the Biffy Clyro thought, yet by the second line and the feeling of utter disrepair that this beautifully sung acoustic intro leaves you in, that thought quickly faded.

‘Evergreen’ blows in like a tornado next, a much more pop punk sounding track that beyond this has a world of emotion running through its veins, a song that sounds and feels personal, a break up song with substance.

Throughout this EP you can feel the pain that has been felt in the process of writing these songs, the life experience that fills every corner, ‘1964’ has its family trials and tragedies embroiled within a thoughtful vocal and powerful soundscape, ‘Polola’ a looking back at falling in love and the memories that are left with you, a rock sound backs this up without smothering the lyric. Then ‘Stay’  hits the ears, a moment of simple rock punk/emo normality, this brings you to the end of the journey and ‘Gentle’ caresses the mind, with a ridiculously heart rendering story of death and how it effects the people left behind, the fact its about your best friend and companion the dog, this song was personal to them and had myself in bits too, just happens I lost my best friend and companion 2 weeks earlier, the song also sums up Dude Trips in a nut shell, all life is worthy of giving tribute to, lyrically they smash it and leave you exhausted.

Whats not lost on you within this EP, is the power of friendship and speaking out about mental health.  To this end, The band will also be releasing a t-shirt designed by their friend Ben at Vacant Soul Design with 20% of every sale going to Y Suffer In Silence.

Be open to being human when listening to this EP, songs that give as well as feel!  Definitely not your ordinary Emo.

Released on August 6th via Venn Records

Find the band on thier FACEBOOK page.