Not all songs are created equal. Some songs sound nice in the background while driving through Bristol’s temperamental traffic, in one ear, out the other. Some songs you sit with for a while, trying to work out how someone else was able to communicate your own feelings so well.
Then there’s songs by Adult Leisure. Songs that are – well, sad – but make you want to dance and sing along. Songs that stick in your head like glue, even if you’ve only heard them once.
Dancing Don’t Feel Right, for example, has been hummed, sung and whistled by both me and my partner without interruption, since it came out last year.
Now, they’ve blessed us with an entire album of such songs, The Things You Don’t Know Yet, which came out last year. I take this as an opportunity to sit down with two of their members for a chat.
Guitarist David Woolford says their debut album leans into the band’s experience of “getting older and wiser”.
“Reflection is a huge part of the album, understanding where you’ve come from and how that shapes who you are,” he says.
“When you grow up in those situations you don’t always understand but hindsight makes you view it in a different way.”
Luke Denham, on bass, adds that there is a lot of nostalgia on the album – putting into words what I failed to when listening to their shoegazey guitars, reminiscent of Kings of Leon and The Cure.
“It feels great to have it out, it’s really nice to have a body of work out,” Luke says.
“It’s always great to have a reference point for fans to go back to. I’m sure when I’m 70 or 80 I’ll look back on it and think: that was cool.”
David thinks the most amazing thing about the album is seeing other people sing along to the songs.
“All of a sudden it clicks, the stuff you’ve been working on for so long, it resonates with people.
“You don’t think like that when you’re doing it, you‘re doing it selfishly for you, then you play these shows and people talk to you about their favourite song and you go: how do you know about that?”
Luke laughs at that and says: “When I used to go out, we used to go Thekla, so playing there was pretty special.
“We’re all based in Bristol, the heritage of Bristol is trip hop, drum n bass and now post-punk. So it’s quite nice to still be part of the Bristol scene but have a different edge.”
Still, Adult Leisure are headed for big things – they are playing the New Colossus in New York later this year, and touring in Europe.
“We have itchy feet. We need to start making new music,” David says – before hinting at “five or six singles” they might release this year.
Luke adds: “I want 2026 crazy busy. I’m looking forward to 2026.”
Words: Clara Bullock