Red Ivory

South London newcomers Red Ivory announce EP ‘Please Leave, I Need To Wake Up Now’ & share lead single “Crashing Down”.

South London four-piece Red Ivory have announced details of a new EP, 'Please Leave, I Need To Wake Up Now', to be self-released on November 28th. Along with the announcement, they have shared a first single and confirmed a show at London’s Brixton Windmill for October 5th.

The band, Eiliyah, Berry, Frida and Ivy, formed in autumn 2021 as four fourteen-year-olds in their secondary school music rooms. The tracks within this EP follow their growth, evolution, and development over three years of dramatic changes to environments, influences, and experiences.

Over the past four years they have been consistently building both their repertoire and live presence, writing all their music collaboratively so that it reflects each of their styles, influences, perspectives, and experiences. 'Please Leave, I Need To Wake Up Now' comes as a product of these four years.

With the five tracks being written between autumn 2021 and spring 2024, the EP is charged with the changes the band underwent as they wrote it - themes such as uncertainty and disappointment, exploring a complex relationship with change, and feeling powerless in the face of these forces.

They are sharing a first look at the EP with single “Crashing Down.” The track explores themes of self-destruction, written about the heightened and all-consuming anxieties that come with being under the influence. The sentiment is channelled through the track’s foreboding and tightly wound instrumentation – claustrophobic and at points almost static,  before freeway-falling into a frenzy of interlocking, distorted guitar, howling vocals, and thrashing cymbals. The addition of clarinet from bassist Berry lends a rich, sombre tone.

Despite releasing a seven-track EP, 'Façade', in spring 2023, Red Ivory’s 'Please Leave, I Need To Wake Up Now' redefines their debut, existing as a cohesive and bold body of work as opposed to the mixtape-style 2023 release. After winning the nomination for Festival Republic’s ReBalance programme,

Red Ivory began to plan the recording and release of the EP. Over a couple of weeks in summer 2024, it was recorded at Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch with the help of producer Adele Phillips, who provided both creative and technical input. Their first extended amount of time recording in a studio, the experience was new and exciting to the band. The long recording days allowed the band to bounce off each other creatively and fully inhabit an environment where they were in tune with one another’s ideas - a refreshing break from the A Level revision and exams they were undergoing at the time.

While the lyrics and themes running throughout the EP are sometimes insecure or uncertain, the music itself is unapologetically bold, mirroring certain aspects of the band and the liminal space they operated in from their inception to the recording of the EP. The title itself – 'Please Leave, I Need To Wake Up Now' – is both commanding yet apprehensive, consistent with the themes of uncertainty explored throughout the lyrics.

Overall, the EP synthesises Red Ivory’s fluctuating experiences, outlooks, and identities, both musically and personally, individually and collectively, over four years from ages fourteen to eighteen, and welcomes what is next. A statement of intent from a new band poised to make their mark.

Photo by Addy Nzerem

Live dates

October 5th – London – The Windmill

December 3rd - London - Sebright Arms