“If anything, we chose to put this track out there first because it acts as a bridge,” the frontman says. “It’s a bit of a link between our old and new stuff. The majority of the new record is actually quite different. We just didn’t want to throw people completely off straight away, like just get into the brand new stuff and sort of leave them spinning. This track is a bit of a slow-burner but it’s an easy step into the new sound. The reaction has been amazing so far, we’ve not heard one single bad comment, so I’m pretty sure it was the right decision.”
As far as the rest of ‘Requiem’ is concerned, Wright warns fans to get their senses ready for a “big,” booming sound from the lads – orchestras, choirs and all.
“It still sounds like The Getaway Plan, I guess, but it’s much, much, much bigger!” the singer explains. “It’s just way more dramatic, there is a massive orchestral element to the record, and we even have a couple of choirs that came in and sang on the songs. Being in other projects while the band was on hiatus has had a lot to do with that. It’s funny because the sound we’ve got now was not influenced what we were listening to, or the bands that we were in while The Getaway Plan broke up, it almost worked the opposite way.”
For Wright, it was his lo-fi project Young Heretics, also featuring Kitty Hart, which served as a contrast that reminded the singer just how much he missed The Getaway Plan. While he enjoyed being part of the “twisted pop” duo collaboration, Wright says he realised he was also beginning to miss the raw energy of his old band – and it seems he wasn’t the only one.
“I was doing Young Heretics with a friend of mine and I’m really proud of the record we made but we didn’t really push it enough to see any kind of real success from it. We didn’t really go heavy on the touring and it was all intentional – we just wanted it to be a chilled out project and I really just wanted to get the focus off myself for a change. It was very different as far as the energy of the band was concerned – there was a completely different vibe and sound about it. That suited me for a while, but it was always a big part of the reason why The Getaway Plan got back together. We all had other projects but none of them were doing big things, except for maybe Clint [Owen Ellis, guitar] being in The Amity Affliction, but it wasn’t the same pressure for him as it was with The Getaway Plan.
For me, Young Heretics was nice for a while because it was way more relaxed, low-key and less stress, but afterwards it just wasn’t the same, I needed to feel that energy again, which is exactly what happened when the four of us got back into that room together.”
After all, it’s not like it was any particularly crazy drama that lead to the band’s demise in the first place, as Wright insists. When the band announced they were calling it quits this time last year, it was simple a case of too much, too young, the singer states.
“It was nothing huge, honestly, there was no massive fall-out or scandal behind the breakup! At the time, we just weren’t feeling it anymore. We’ve realised what now what the problem was and it’s just the fact that we weren’t ready for what was coming our way! We were just way too young and totally unprepared for the kind of success that was at our door. The whole lifestyle that came with it, it was pretty crazy! We were all really young, we were only 17 years old so we never even had a chance to develop as adults. We were always doing the touring cycle and we were spending about 10 months of a year away from home and out on the road. There was just no way for us to live any kind of normal life, and that’s exactly what we needed to do for a little while – just be normal people. We’ve all matured so much from that.”
Wright adds that the band has also come to the realisation that The Getaway Plan is what the lads want to be doing for the rest of their lives from this moment onwards. It’s a massive call, as the singer agrees, but it’s something that became obvious to all four during the year-long absence from their fans and each other.
“This is definitely a permanent comeback,” Wright promises. “We’ve decided that this band is worth abandoning and sacrificing pretty much everything else in our lives for, just to make sure it works this time! We’ve been spending a lot of time together and we’ve realised what we’ve lost. We have the confidence to make this work now and we know that we want to be doing this for the rest of our lives.”
