National Service are friends turned bandmates. Studying at Goldsmiths University in 2009, the nucleus of the band was formed with singer Fintan Campbell and guitarist Iain Kelly. The band expanded the lineup in 2017 by adding longtime collaborator and drummer Matthew Alston – the last piece of the puzzle for their unique and signature sound. With a warm reception received already from their tracks such as ‘A Little More Time’ and single, ‘Timid Kisses’, which was BBC Radio 6 Track Of The Week and was featured as ‘Steve Lamacq’s National Anthem,’ they’re defienetly a band on the up.
“Repeater” is everything you’d expect from National Service – fuzzy, thundering and infectious. Drums cut through the mix, reverberating energy around the mix. A melting pot of chorus-soaked guitars can be found in the verses, whereas fuzzy and distorted guitars smash through the mix with force. Vocals are softly-penned but impactful, and create a vivid image when paired well well-penned lyrics.
Elaborating more about the process behind the track, National Service share:“At the start of the first lockdown back in about June 2020, we started a ‘Round Robin’ to freshen up our writing and get out of a bit of a slump. We’d been using the same writing formula for years, but we were conscious that if we didn’t mix up the writing process, we’d end up with a load of songs that were formulaic and uninspired. We took it in turns to write a fully formed part, with a verse, chorus, bridge and maybe a pre/post chorus idea too, then we’d pass it to the next person who’d write their lines on top. Repeater was the 4th Round Robin we did.
The simplicity, and forthright, unencumbered approach to writing was what really got us going, and that’s what inspired the chorus really. We just wanted to keep smashing at the four chords and write a pop-tastic melody over the top. Obviously, we roughed it up with some fuzz guitar and a killer guitar line from Iain, but essentially it’s a pop-chorus. The sound is worlds apart, but harmonically and melodically, it’s always reminded me of MGMT funnily enough. In terms of the verses, it’s just straight up hip-hop. Matt’s drums, mixed with our old bass player’s line just make me want to bop my head and two step – this had a big impact on the melody and phrasing of the vocals.
The overarching driver of everything was that the whole song hammered from start to finish with a palpable sense of cathartic release. We wrote, recorded, mixed and produced it all ourselves too, so although the process was unique, it’s a big slice of National Service through and through.”
With their music receiving airplay on KERRANG! Radio and Absolute Radio, we can only see them taking this to the top.
