Hardcore crew, Desolated, return with new album ‘Finding Peace’.

Interview by Steve Harrison

It’s been five years since the release of Desolated’ last album and the upcoming release of ‘Finding Peace’ on 30th May on label MLVLTD, sees a much anticipated return.

We caught up with guitarist Richy Unsworth to get an insight on the trials and tribulations of the albums creation and it’s serving as a continuation of their previous work, highlighting the ongoing journey of letting go of anger and frustration, and the quest for peace is a central theme in their music, shaped by the constant tests life presents.

‘I feel like the Desolated records have always had kind of strange names.’ Richy tells us, ‘But the idea is that, like with all the hostility that I have, that you've got to find peace at some point. And it's that journey, so the title is very misleading, but they all are’ he laughs.

‘It was supposed to be like a follow on from the end originally. And I always liked the name Finding Peace for it because it's like after the end, what do you do? You find peace. Yeah. But you're constantly tested, like with people, with your life, with work, with everything. You're constantly being tested. Yeah. Like, can you actually remain peaceful and not be angry all of the time?’

With only the release of ‘A New Realm Of Misery’ EP over 5 years ago Richy explains ‘That one felt very rushed. It wasn't rushed, but it felt like it got to the last six weeks before recording it. And it was just like, let's just get it done. Whereas this one's much more really fine tuned, hence why the gap is so big.’

‘You have such limited time to sort of get together. I mean I find with your creativity, it's sort of abrupt and it comes in waves.’ On working and being in a band ‘I do shift work, so it's like getting back, I'm not gonna sit there in front of a computer trying to track riffs and it just doesn't go anywhere. Whereas I think when you're younger, it's a lot easier to turn it out or it's your main focus. Unfortunately for all of us, it's obviously not the main focus because we've got to pay the bills.’

I was like moshing at the front because this band is hard. And then I was speaking to him at that show and I said, do you want to do guest vocals on the record? And he was like, oh yeah, absolutely.’ Richy Unsworth on Whispers band

‘It's everyone's just everywhere. I think if we all lived in the same place, it would be a lot easier to improve the sort of writing process and make it quicker. But it's just, it's so difficult to get everyone together. If it's not for shows, especially with Charlie being in Malevolence I mean, he's away most of the time, to be honest. He's a big writer and he contributes hugely to the writing process. So it is a big impact in the sense of, especially like when they [Malevolence] release an album, he's gone for like a year. So it is quite a big thing on the writing process. We've managed to sort it out so we can still play. We've got a couple of people that help us out, which is really good.’

There are a number of collaborations and guest spots on the album, Richy tells us

‘So D-Block was the first one that came about, that was for ‘Victim’ because we did it for the single as well. I just love that band, I just think they're so good and I was listening to them in the gym and I was like this is like the hardest thing I've ever, I think Les from the band just messaged him and he was like, yeah, I'm down. And it was really, really easy, really smooth. And then Whispers was the second one that came about. We were in Thailand and we played with them in Bangkok. And I saw, I think it was their first ever show, when we first went to Thailand in 2000.’

‘I was like moshing at the front because this band is hard. And then I was speaking to him at that show and I said, do you want to do guest vocals on the record? And he was like, oh yeah, absolutely. And I just messaged him when I got back on Instagram and he was like, yeah, yeah, leave it with me. Sent him the track and sent him the stuff. And then, yeah, he just did it and sent it back. And then Nine Bar was more because we wanted someone from London, because, I mean, for Les and Tony, the London scene is a huge part of their life. I mean, for me, I came into it a bit later, but Ruction Records and things like that, like the original sort of hardcore wave of England is a big thing for them. It was more of an honor to show respect to sort of that that scene, because like without them, none of our bands would be anywhere.’

The writing process for the album was protracted with 5 years of ‘long distance writing, squeezed in between demanding full time work, a million breakdowns in the form of WhatsApp hummed voce notes’

‘The world revolves around Toby Carvery, doesn't it?

‘Yeah that’s it’ Richy laughs, ‘I'll be writing a song and I'll go, oh, what goes here? And I'll just send it to the group and everyone's just humming beat down.’ I asked about the infamous ‘Toby Carvery sessions’. He continues ‘ The world revolves around Toby Carvery, doesn't it? So every time we wrote, it was always like, should we just, should we go and get Carvery? I never did breakfast. I was always midday madness. And in the week, there's no one there and it's so cheap!’

On the actual recording of the album Richy goes to say ‘ Charlie recorded drums at Treehouse Studios and then I tracked all of the guitar and vocals and bass at my house, which I've never done before. It was way harder than I thought it would be. I had to learn how to guitar edit on the fly. And then I sent it to Will Putney and he made it sound absolutely incredible. And I was like, wow, that's really impressive.’

‘It just worked and I definitely do it again. But I think this time, if I did it again, I'd be way more geared up for the job at hand.’ Asking about editing on the fly and using his contacts, Richy adds ‘I emailed some producers and sent them some samples and they were like, yeah, that's fine. But it's a tedious task you know? Yeah. I mean, it's just like your eyes go as your eyes go funny and it was rough. So I was getting back from work at like six in the evening and then just banging out loads of editing till about 10 and then just go to bed. Like for a week, I didn't even speak to Marianne, my wife, for like a week. I think if you do it all the time, you'd probably do it in minutes.’

Having just come off a successful European tour with Paleface Swiss and The Acacia Strain I asked what upcoming shows they had around the album release.

‘We're doing a few festivals for June and July and then we are probably going to do a headline tour. Don't know who it'll be with at the moment and then we've obviously got the release shows in Sheffield and London and they're the big focus at the moment and then I think we'll work everything out.’

‘We’re also doing Ghostfest, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Yes, it's been a while since Ghostfest, good to see that that's come back. Hopefully it'll be here and staying because I wasn't sure if it's just going to be a one-off sort of anniversary celebration or whether they're going to try and sort of keep it going.’

Desolated – Finding Peace is out 30th May 2025 on MLVLTD.

Pre order here

For more information on Desolated click here