Dutch indie alt-rock band After Eight have released their debut EP, The Reach, a five-song collection exploring vulnerability, longing, love, and the experiences that can leave us changed. Written over two years and recorded at Raiko Records with Stijn Donders, the EP moves between energetic, Paramore-esque alt-rock and more intimate indie moments, showcasing a developing sound and sonic depth.
After Eight first came together in early 2023, when guitarist Jelle van der Sar was preparing to leave his childhood home. To mark the occasion, he and vocalist and guitarist Sonja Wilhart organised a garage concert, performing a set made up largely of covers alongside two original songs. The response to those original tracks gave the pair a reason to consider whether the one-off performance could become something more.
Drummer Joram van Noort joined in March 2023, reconnecting with Sonja after the two had played music together as teenagers. With the lineup beginning to take shape, the band soon decided to leave covers behind and concentrate entirely on original material.
The next step was finding a bassist who could help expand the band’s sound in a live setting. That search led them to Sako Milikian. When After Eight later began looking for another guitarist, Sako recommended his former bandmate Tim Grootscholten. Tim came aboard as lead guitarist, completing the five-piece lineup that has gone on to develop the band’s current sound.
After Eight now consists of Sonja Wilhart on vocals and guitar, Jelle van der Sar on rhythm guitar, Joram van Noort on drums and backing vocals, Sako Milikian on bass, and Tim Grootscholten on lead guitar. Drawing on their different musical backgrounds, the five musicians have developed a sound that balances the immediacy of alternative rock with more atmospheric and vulnerable songwriting.
Their influences stretch across indie rock, alternative rock and folk rock, with touches of experimental rock, shoegaze and post punk. Radiohead, Mother Mother, Nothing But Thieves, Deftones, Arctic Monkeys, Geese, Royal Blood, Big Thief and Black Country, New Road are among the artists that have helped shape their musical perspective, alongside ideas and sounds found well beyond the traditional boundaries of rock and folk.
Songwriting often begins with Sonja, whether through a lyric, an idea or a particular feeling. From there, the rest of the band develops the material collectively, allowing arrangements to evolve naturally during rehearsals and sessions. Songs can take unexpected turns, with bridges changing direction or arrangements creating moments that challenge what came before. It is this collaborative process that gives After Eight’s music its shifting character, moving from loud and intense passages into something much more intimate.
“The Reach is about the experiences that make us human,” says the band. “The pain of running away, the complexity of loving, the choices we make, and the feeling of longing for something while being afraid of it at the same time. The things that touch you most are also the things most capable of breaking you. The Reach finds beauty in that vulnerability. It’s loud where it needs to be, but fragile where it has to be.”
The EP begins with ‘Dress And A Veil’, a song centred on the collapse of an imagined future. Its narrator has pictured a life with a partner, only to realise that the future they had constructed in their mind will not come to pass. The song captures the anger and grief that accompany the process of letting go.
‘Blinded’ takes a different perspective on connection, exploring the comfort of being close to someone kind and dependable while recognising that a warm relationship is not necessarily the right one. The song sits within that complicated space between affection and the knowledge that something is missing.
On ‘All By Myself (So Quiet)’, After Eight turn their attention to the conflicting desires for connection and solitude. The song explores the need for warmth and companionship alongside the fear that can come with intimacy, finding its tension in the space between wanting someone nearby and feeling secure alone.
‘Running Just To Hide’ focuses on escapism, reflecting the instinct to keep moving when confronting difficult emotions or circumstances feels impossible. Rather than offering an easy resolution, the track captures the impulse itself, the desire to run from whatever might be waiting when you stop.
The EP closes with ‘The Medicine You Take’, which explores the difficult act of putting another person’s wellbeing ahead of your own desires. It also touches on the uncertainty that can accompany declarations of love, questioning whether those expressions are genuine and confronting the fear that everything could eventually return to the way it was before.
Across its five tracks, The Reach represents two years of writing, recording and experimentation for After Eight. What began with a spontaneous garage concert has developed into a five-piece band with a carefully considered approach to alternative rock, combining heavier passages with quieter, more exposed songwriting.
Listen to the new EP below:
