London collective This Is The Deep have shared their gliding new single ‘Never Easy’, offering another glimpse into the expansive, surreal world of their forthcoming debut album, Everything (Dick Herman, The Whale, and The End of the Beginning), due for release via 5dB Records.
Balancing the emotional candour of Carole King’s Tapestry era with the melancholic string arrangements of Elbow, ‘Never Easy’ finds the collective exploring the fragile territory of relationships through a sound that is at once playful, wistful and quietly devastating. Bubbling fuzz and swelling wah-wah guitar tones lend the track the warmth of a lost Hot Chocolate deep cut, while the band’s instinct for unexpected arrangements brings a distinctly experimental edge to its melodic appeal. Beneath its inviting surface, however, lies a deeper sense of emotional exhaustion, as two people struggle to find their way through a relationship that has seemingly run its course.
Featuring dual vocals from Hannah Tilson, the band’s vocalist and trombonist, and Ranny Macdonald, the song unfolds with an intimate, conversational quality. Their interplay captures the weary back-and-forth of two people caught in an increasingly familiar cycle, unable to find resolution or even articulate what has gone wrong. As the band explain, “Never Easy is a song about a relationship between two people that isn’t working. It’s a story where both sides feel like they’re going round in circles and are so exhausted they’re losing the thread of what exactly they even mean. In the context of our concept album this is a dream vienette, a flashback to our protagonist’s past”
The single offers a window into the wider narrative of Everything (Dick Herman, The Whale, and The End of the Beginning), a debut that moves beyond the conventions of the concept album to construct a strange, mythic fable about perception, desire, consumption and escape. Self-produced by the band, with additional production from SHOLTO and Patrick Fitzroy, known for his work with Katy J Pearson and Sorry, the record brings together instinctive indie songwriting and cinematic art-rock, creating a richly imagined world where surrealism and social satire meet.
At the heart of the album is Dick Herman, an employee of the fictional social media corporation Telepix who falls asleep at his desk and dreams of the sea. Guided into the depths by a mysterious sun-god figure, he encounters a succession of shifting realities, from jealous fantasies and melancholy slow dances to distorted reflections in which certainty proves increasingly elusive. Further into this dreamscape lurks a vast whale, driven by an insatiable appetite that eventually turns inward, consuming itself in an act of self-destruction. Through this fantastical journey, This Is The Deep explore the spiritual emptiness of a world shaped by endless consumption and carefully curated realities.
Musically, the album moves between orchestral folk, chamber-pop, psychedelic pop and adventurous art-rock, drawing on the expansive arrangements of the Beach Boys’ Smile era, the chamber intensity of Black Country, New Road, the theatrical decadence of Roxy Music and the experimental pop instincts of The Beatles. These varied touchstones inform a sound that feels simultaneously intricate and immediate, balancing ambitious arrangements with melodic warmth, offbeat humour and a willingness to follow an idea into unfamiliar territory.
Founded by visual artist and musician Ranny Macdonald, This Is The Deep occupy a space where music, art and theatre intersect. Bringing together musicians from across the UK, Brazil and Japan, the collective combine the craft of classic pop songwriting with the exploratory spirit of London’s contemporary art-folk underground. Their work is as concerned with world-building as it is with songwriting, drawing on painted sets, animation, theatrical storytelling and surreal visual design to create an interconnected artistic universe.
That approach extends to the stage, where the band’s performances transform the world of Everything into an immersive spectacle. Inspired by the imaginative landscapes of Terry Gilliam, Studio Ghibli and The Mighty Boosh, their live shows incorporate inflatable whale costumes, elaborate belly-of-the-beast stage designs, dancers and rafts, blurring the boundaries between concert, theatre and performance art.
With ‘Never Easy’, This Is The Deep offer a more intimate entry point into this ambitious universe. Its story of a relationship unravelling may be rooted in recognisable emotional territory, but the band’s idiosyncratic arrangements and dreamlike perspective lend it a distinctive sense of unreality. As the collective prepare to unveil their debut album through 5dB Records, the single suggests a project equally interested in the small, painful details of human connection and the strange, expansive worlds that can grow around them.
