Gotts Street Park + Frankie Jobling

On The Inside, the debut album from Gotts Street Park, is more than an album – it’s an invitation. “We want listeners to feel like they’re stepping into a room with us, peering into our process,” say the acclaimed Leeds trio, describing a genre-hopping odyssey that acts as a collective diary of everything their relationship  encompasses, both as collaborators and close friends. “When we listen back, we can hear the mood we were in on different days and in different seasons of our lives,” they explain – which is why each hazy analogue synth melody, each pentatonic bass fill, each dusty guitar melody emerging from a seventies Fender amp seems tell a story. A story of three companions who’ve been honing their creative chemistry for a decade, and who want their music to communicate, on record, exactly how it feels when they’re in the studio writing it. “Our music isn’t super messed-with or over-produced. A lot of the time, we haven’t done much to change the music from how it was created.” On The Inside’s title represents that rawness, they add – “how the music is what it is. It’s a window into our world.” 

That world has been rapidly expanding since the group was formed in Leeds by Josh Crocker (bass, production), Tom Henry (keys) and Joe Harris (guitar). What began as an outlet for their shared love for sixties Motown, soon became a jewel in the Yorkshire scene’s creative crown, with millions of Spotify streams to their name and some of hip-hop and pop’s most exciting emerging voices requesting collaborations: Celeste, Kali Uchis, Yellow Days and Rachel Chinouriri are just a few of the acts the band have individually written/ produced for. “Things have definitely evolved,” say the trio, and they can say that again: in 2021, they dropped Diego, a cinematic four-track EP inspired by The Godfather and the works of Japanese auteur Yasujirō Ozu. After building legions of fans with velvety singles like Everything feat. Devon-born singer Rosie Lowe and Favourite Kind of Girl feat. Swedish talent Flikka, it was a cinematic curve-ball that underlined their impossible-to-pin-down energy. 

The release bolstered their reputation as analogue-inspired visionaries carving something new from something old, with Loud and Quiet, BBC 6 Music, Clash and The Line of Best Fit among the outlets singing their praises. Now, that acclaim is set to grow with the release of On The Inside, which finds the band at their most confident and assured. “I think you can hear how we’re quicker than ever at taking a song from a jam to a finished piece of music. There’s an extra intuition that’s developed there, after all these years together,” they explain. Though their way of writing has remained the same – “we begin with a jam, which we record and listen back, looking for the parts that are worth pursuing and what to completely flip on its head,” they explain – On The Inside pushes their sound into thrilling new territories. 

As is now expected from Gotts Street Park, adorning the album are a number of guest vocalists who elevate the tracks to new heights of soulful euphoria. Opener Summer Breeze sees the band reunite with Rosie Lowe on a refreshing float of keyboard melodies. Jazz-folker Olive Jones hops on a Frank Ocean- meets-Amy Winehouse-esque beat for the romantic Tell Me Why. Elsewhere, there are two collaborations with rising star Pip Millett (Got To Be Good and the sun-splashed Fool For Love) as well as a remarkable rap-soul reckoning with Peng Black Girls hitmaker Enny on Mountains. “We love getting guest vocalists involved to explore the creative chemistry and how it can take the music to new places,” the band reveal. ‘What they sing can inform what we do instrumentally, pushing us in directions we wouldn’t have gone alone’ 

As well as an invitation in, On The Inside is a declaration that Gotts Street Park are ready to start stepping out. It used to be that the band limited live shows, in part out of hesitancy to play certain songs without the guest vocalists who star on them. Then came a show after the Covid-19 lockdown at Brixton’s Across The Tracks. “We expected the tent to be empty. Instead, it was full of people who knew all the words,” laugh the band, who describe a huge buzz that day from connecting with fans – some of whom met them after the show to describe how “our music had been a soundtrack in their lives, and in some cases had helped them through difficult times… which was really uplifting to us. There was a time when we thought it was a side of this band we weren’t going to push – that we all just enjoyed recording in the studio. But now we’re definitely upping the focus in terms of playing live.” 

When Gotts Street Park do hit a stage near you, expect the twelve tracks comprising their debut album to sound as they do on record: mesmerising, moving and marvellously inventive. On The Inside, after all, demands to be shared: it’s another milestone in the evolution of one of UK music’s most spell- binding collectives, and one of the most soothing of the year. Accept the invitation and step into their world.