A Sneak Peek Into Noisy Universe of UK Post-Punk Gang DITZ ‣ CVLTARTES

UK post-punk / noise rock gang Ditz are coming to Control on April 7, 2025, with their highly anticipated second album, “Never Exhale,” which was released on January, 2025.

“Never Exhale” is the sound of a band that hasn’t stopped for a breath. Ditz have toured relentlessly since the release of their first album “The Great Regression” and even before that, travelling at least 100 days a year since COVID.

The songs that form their newest offering were written across Europe, often on off days and in borrowed rehearsal rooms just to break up the long drives. We’ve chatted with the band on guilty pleasures, creative decisions, and the sound design process.

Hi, and thank you for your time! I’m sure fans would be interested in knowing more about your backstory. How did you start the band?

Boring story really, we all met at university and wanted to play music.

For newcomers to your music, if you had to pick one track that shows people who you are as an artist, which one would it be?

Maybe ‘Taxi Man’ off our new album.

The album themes reveal themselves more on further listens. The opening gambit ‘Taxi Man’ is an exploration into what it would be like to weigh up your impact of the world. The eponymous taxi man could be seen as a St Peter type figure, or like Charon, ferrying the dead into the underworld.

It could be said that the band treat recording and release of music as an afterthought. Often playing songs live years before their release, tweaking them as they go. The songs on the final record may change before they are ever heard as part of the album.

Is there a specific philosophy or worldview underlying your music?

I think it’s better not to have a specific philosophy displayed across as discography. I think art should be used to explore as wide a variety of possible.

How do you think your sound has evolved over the years? Did you always have in mind to sound the way you sound today?

I think we’ve got better at playing as we’ve gotten older. The songwriting has a lot more focus than it did when we were younger.

“Never Exhale” was largely recorded at Holy Mountain studios in London during a freezing cold January. The process was fraught with obstacles.

The original plan, to go and record in Rhode Island, was abandoned when Ditz were offered a support tour with Idles, although the album was still mixed by the originally intended engineer, Seth Manchester (Model / Actriz, Lingua Ignota, Big Brave). The result is an album hardened by the pressure of its own making. Laboured but not loved.

Take me through your sound design process. Does the conception come first or do the songs evolve naturally – do you have a clear idea of what it will be before you start to make it?

It really depends. But usually someone will have something before we go into write.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you?

I don’t think it exists. I think the best ideas catch you off guard.

What supports this ideal state of mind and what are distractions?

Phones, ban phones now.

In how much, do you feel, are creative decisions shaped by cultural differences – and in how much, vice versa, is the perception of sound influenced by cultural differences?

I wouldn’t be able to tell you why but I can tell you that it’s true. We see it whenever we play a new country for the first time. The audiences are totally different all over. Not just the demographic but the way they enjoy music.