W: Andy Harris I: Derek Bremner

Brighton five-piece HIGHDRIVE have officially returned with their second single, "Something I Said," a high-octane follow-up to last year’s debut, "Cherry." Produced by Guy Page (drummer for indie-starlets Coach Party), the track is a dissonant burst of alt-rock energy that captures the relentless, suffocating inner chatter of self-scrutiny. Surging with sheets of wailing guitar and a pressurized wall of noise, the song locks the listener into a spiralling headspace of rumination and social-anxiety-fuelled tension.

The track serves as a raw, honest window into the mind of vocalist Lucas Leitch. “The lyrics dive straight into my self-made psychosis,” Leitch explains. “It taps into my paranoia of saying the wrong thing. I can be overly self-conscious, feeling stuck in my own head and overthinking every word.” Interestingly, the song predates the band itself; Leitch penned it while in a previous project, realizing deep down that the track’s intensity was the musical blueprint for what would eventually become the foundation of HIGHDRIVE.

Forming in 2024, the quintet bonded over a shared appreciation for the heavy textures of Deftones, the feedback-drenched melodies of The Jesus and Mary Chain, and the ethereal drive of DIIV. These disparate influences have allowed the Brighton upstarts to carve out a unique sonic lane, helping them become a fixture of the South Coast live scene well before they even hit the "release" button on their music.

With a third track already on the horizon, the momentum behind HIGHDRIVE is becoming impossible to ignore. Fans looking to catch their volatile live energy in person can find them at the 2000 Trees Festival in Cheltenham on July 9th. It is a defining moment for a band that has turned personal paranoia into a powerful, distorted anthem for the overthinkers.