debdepan: Lovers & Others

(Silent Kid Records)

DL | CD | Stream

Out 28th November 2025

PRE-SAVE HERE

Margate’s very own genre-blurring duo debdepan dig deep into the complexities of love, identity, and friendship through their new EP, Lovers & Others. Ian Corbridge gets immersed in these dark waves of pop for Louder Than War to see what lurks beneath the surface.

Since forming debdepan back in March 2022 after a long period of friendship dating back to secondary school, it feels like it’s been a slow burner for the ‘spiritual sisters’ of Chelsea Tolhurst and Grace Bontoft as they have gradually fashioned their early love for listening to “sad music together on the train” into a genre-defying alternative fusion of dark pop, dance and grunge. But now as they release their second EP, Lovers & Others, it is becoming very clear that the early impression they made through Pie Factory Music’s Emerging Artists programme is now starting to crystalise into something very exciting indeed.

From these humble beginnings, there seems little doubt that debdepan’s reputation has continued to grow and their dark pop credentials have evolved both from their live performances and their recorded output up to this point. And having released their debut EP Omen in July 2023, the band have continued to expand their repertoire which they road-tested recently on a support slot for Pete Doherty. Now the release of their EP, Lovers & Others, suggests that their unique approach to fusing dark pop, grunge, and dance influences is about to shift into a completely new gear.

The Girl opens with a pulsing beat and fractured rhythms with the vocals creating a hostile vibe as a story of failed romantic advances unfolds. And as it morphs into a hypnotic dance-driven beat overlaid with strong grunge-laden guitar riffs, this hard-hitting song is imbued with a real sense of confrontational overload which is illuminated through lines like “that game that you play so well, it’s a shame you can’t get the girl.” Oh No follows on in a similar vein with unapologetically dismissive lyrics. But this song starts with a much quieter ambiance infused with techno leanings before it explodes with grunge-fuelled tension, distorted guitars, deeply entrenched grooves and huge atmospheric vocals which reach new un-chartered sonic horizons.

Initially inspired by a break up, Habit is a song which blends the band’s dark pop, grunge, and dance influences in one sonic melting pot. It’s a sound that was fashioned through a collaboration with Portuguese electronic artist/DJ Phaser who pushed the self-described “untrained musicians” into fresh sonic territory, aided by Mike Collins overseeing the recording in Ramsgate and James Minas carrying out production duties at London’s Strongroom Studios. Lyrically, the track explores emotional inadequacy and the exhausting games we play for affection, centred very much around the line ‘If being more enigmatic makes you happy, that is tragic’. As the band explain “This song is about feeling like you’re not good enough for someone and having to play it cool to win their affection. We wanted it to feel quite repetitive to signify how my thoughts kept circling.”

Blue immediately hits a starker, more melancholic furrow centred primarily around the darkly shaded bass groove and the atmospheric vocals. The uplifting feel of the song contrasts with the strong sense of sadness running through the narrative focused on relationships that crash through life like waves amidst an ever-changing landscape of love. Ghost builds even further on the band’s penchant for sonic contrasts as its brighter and more positive opening quickly takes a dramatic twist to deep dive back into hard hitting fragmented rhythms overlaid with ethereal and haunting vocal patterns conveying a sense of emotional insecurity. As the band explain, “This song had to feel like a journey. It needed a big fat pop chorus to juxtapose the dark and miserable verses.”

Lovers & Others is a dramatic and emotionally charged statement of intent which clearly signposts a new direction for debdepan, with dark groove-laden waves of grunge-infused noise subsumed into hard-hitting pulsing rhythms creating an overwhelming sense of conflict and tension. With narratives focused on introspective vulnerability balanced with a dynamic wall of sound which absorbs every shifting emotion, this collection of songs signals a seismic shift towards huge dance-driven arrangements as debdepan become a new force to be reckoned with.

debdepan have an EP launch show at Where Else? in Margate on 27th November with tickets available from here.

You can pre-save the EP here.

You can find debdepan on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Bandcamp.

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All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile here.