There’s a sense of friction running through ‘Take More’, the latest single from The Actions. Their comeback track feels restless, mixing punk and electronics seamlessly. This is a sound the band have long occupied but never quite attacked with this much directness.
Where their earlier work felt more cinematic, the haze that once surrounded their sound has lifted. In its place sits something tougher and more attitude-led.
“Take More is a stand-alone single which reveals a new face for the band,” they explained. It certainly feels like a turning point. Built around brooding tension, the track carries the energy of a duo no longer interested in holding back.
That shift didn’t happen overnight. The band spent a long stretch in the studio after the release of their 2021 album Flourish, a record that arrived in a very different cultural atmosphere. “It came out in a really cathartic time after the pandemic,” they recalled. “It was supposed to be a slow return to reality, but instead it feels like everything is slowly falling apart.”
That sense of unease is clear in the band’s evolving sound. “There are problems on global and personal levels for everyone,” they said. “We’ve come back from that period carrying more anger. We didn’t feel there was time for abstraction and transcendence anymore.”
Instead, the band felt compelled to communicate more forcefully. “We had the urge to speak in a stronger and more direct way, both musically and lyrically. Take More is the first time we’ve really addressed this tension.”
The track itself has been brewing for far longer than its urgent energy suggests.
“Take More was something we’d been holding for years,” they revealed. “It started with the hook and the beginning of the lyrics that we’d been repeating for ages. Eventually we found the right way to shape it.
“There’s no one-way procedure for us to make music,” they explained. “We’re both producers with different backgrounds. Sometimes it starts with an idea, sometimes a riff, there’s no particular method.
“We felt the urge to unleash some kind of energy we’d been trapping for years because of that cinematic world we were expressing on the previous album.”
If ‘Take More’ is any indication, that energy is only just beginning to surface. The band confirm that a new album is due later this year, and if this single is the opening statement, it may be their most uncompromising release yet.
//Words: Rosie Burgess//