Rising duo Two Another is back today with new music in the form of their standout new single "Someday."
It's a hopeful new track, an uplifting message meant to comfort someone struggling with their mental health. It follows another emotional track, "You're Gone," which arrived back in November and told a story of heartbreak and empowerment, reflective of singer Eliot Porter's own experience "growing up gay and feeling I've had to live a double life."
"'Someday' is about a conversation with someone you love who is struggling with depression and reassuring them that things will be OK," says the duo. "We wanted to create something that was quite bare and lo-fi for most of the song and then flip it into a more pop/epic section to signify the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The new song arrives along with news of the pair's upcoming debut album Back to Us, which they confirmed today will be out March 25 via Virgin Records.
Coinciding with today's release, Two Another chatted with Variance about their new music, the importance of discussions around mental and queer rights, and what comes next.
Check out "Someday" below, followed by our Q+A.
Why do you think it’s important for artists to open up discussions around mental health?
I think we’ve both found comfort at different times in our lives by relating to a story or an experience of an artist we like. When someone who has a platform in music is able to show vulnerability it does a lot to break down harmful trends in our society that keep people from speaking up and getting help. Even though it can sometimes be hard, we are beginning to really try and challenge ourselves to be more candid and open with lyrical content and with the way we talk about our music in general. Songs on the record like “Someday” and “Matter of Time” are about people in our lives that have been struggling with mental health problems and anxiety. We wanted these songs be relatable and maybe even reassuring for people rather than approaching it from a more introspective and potentially bleak perspective. So yes, there's so much to talk about that is still swept under the rug and naturally we think artists that that are fortunate to have a platform should use their voice.
“You’re Gone” is such a special track. Was it hard to be vulnerable about such a personal experience?
Thank you! Yes it was a bit of a rollercoaster writing that one. It started as being kind of a simple song about unrequited high school love, but as we continued to work on it, I began to pull in more personal experiences of growing up gay and going to an all-boys school and feeling undeserving and afraid to go after the relationships I wanted to be having. In the end it wasn’t too hard to be vulnerable because I was a little bit pissed off that I had let that toxic masculine environment get in the way of how I authentically wanted to live my life. This song has been a way we can shine a light on this kind of story and it's also been quite personally therapeutic as well.
Even though it seems like society is progressing around certain stigmas and issues like LGBTQ acceptance, your music reminds us of the work left to be done. As artists, do you feel like you’re doing more than simply making music?
This is something we have begun to think about a lot recently as our music has begun to reach more people and we’ve started writing from a more personal place. We are fortunate enough to grow up in a society that has at least been trying to improve the rights of queer people. When I was 20, I spent four months in a country where it was illegal to be gay, which was extremely confronting as a young person who was questioning whether it was a good idea to "come out." There is still so much to do and there are still 71 countries where it is illegal, which is so fucking crazy. Moving forward, we definitely want to continue to use music as a way [of] speaking up and drawing attention to these issues.
You’re not always together to make music. Is that a challenge for you or given the state of the world in 2022, is that just the norm now?
We were living in different cities in Europe when we started the project, so once the pandemic hit we were kind of used to being able to work remotely. Working online definitely isn’t the same though; Zoom sessions and WhatsApp can only take you so far and we’re pretty useless with tech generally! We now meet up every few months in London and lock ourselves away in a studio for a week and then go back home and work remotely on the music we made. It definitely has its pros and cons; hopefully it’s not the norm for too much longer… we would write and finish a lot more music if we got to see each other more!
What are your hopes or goals for the rest of the year?
Definitely playing live shows and performing songs from the album. We haven’t played for audiences in nearly three years, so it’s something we’re really excited to do when it finally happens. Every time we organise a tour is seems to get postponed, so fingers crossed! We’re also excited to see the reaction to our debut album. It’s been a long time coming so we’re looking forward to sharing it with the world and getting it off our hard drives.