The heat doesn’t tend to stick around long
but the atmosphere finds a way of lingering. It’s an intensity you can hear in the music of two-piece noise-punk project Scrounge
quite literally in the case of ‘This Summer’s Been Lethal’ and ‘HIT’
the first singles from their debut mini-album
Sugar
Daddy.

'HIT' is out now
as per this link here: https://orcd.co/scrounge_hit

Recorded at a friend’s near-airless studio on the hottest day of 2021
both tracks consist of a dense slalom of machine-gun percussion
disintegrating drum machines and corkscrewing guitar
topped off by singer and guitarist Lucy Alexander’s snarled vocal. Taut
frustrated
but not without melody or tenderness
it sets the tone for much of Sugar
Daddy
which is a concise
gently shattered snapshot of the duo's career thus far
as partner in rhyme drummer Luke Cartledge explains:

'"This mini-album is a document of our early years as a band
quite literally scrounging ourselves together on instruments...We're learning how to play in real time and trying to create something cathartic and exhilarating
both for ourselves and as a way of engaging with the communities around us that we love and are the reason we've got this far with this project. More than anything
it's a love letter to the South London DIY scene – a love letter to our mates."

Since meeting at Goldsmiths University in the middle of the last decade
Scrounge – Lucy and Luke - have been trying to express how it feels to be a young person living and working in a fast-changing metropolis
balancing the constant pressure cooker of making rent and staying healthy with a desire to make art and properly engage with the communities that actually make London what it is. That latter engagement has been a massive part of their daily lives throughout their time as a band
through South Londoner Lucy's work as a primary school teacher
her time running community workshops at the Deptford Albany
and as an active member of East London LGBTQ+-inclusive women’s football team
Whippets FC; Luke
though originally from a small town in the North West
stuck around the capital after university
and through grassroots political organising (mutual aid
migrant solidarity activism
trade union activity and more) and work at a local foodbank
has found a real home in the city.

The duo’s shared social and creative perspectives first found public expression in a previous musical project
with Luke joining the backing band for Lucy’s folk-influenced solo vehicle
Lucy Cait
as a guitarist. Soon
they started putting on free-entry shows at community venues in Deptford and Lewisham along with collaborator Amanda Tooke as grassroots collective Fame Throwa Records
booking their friends and scene-mates like Italia 90
Talk Show
Talmont
Don’t Worry
Lou Terry
Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something
Great Dad
Ailsa Tully
Hussy and many more.

After graduating from university
the two decided to work on a new project
treating the inevitable upheaval of leaving full-time education as an opportunity to begin with a clean slate. Luke had messed around on drums before
but never particularly seriously and never as part of a band; Lucy had previously been fairly sparing with her use of effects pedals or signal-splitting to expand upon her guitar sound. Perhaps naively
they overlooked this inexperience and decided to work with it
eventually boiling down their ideas into a brand of sharp
concise art-punk that introduced elements of folk
techno and industrial music into a more familiar cocktail of noise-rock and riot grrl influences.

A period of hard work followed
as Scrounge sought to establish themselves on the wider live circuit as well as their local scene
playing regularly at venues like The Windmill
Sister Midnight Records and the much-missed DIY Space For London. They also continued to book their own shows at places like the Bird’s Nest in Deptford and the Fox and Firkin in Lewisham; sometimes it’s best to do it yourself. This culminated in their debut singles
‘Etch’ and ‘Crimson’
and their debut EP
Ideal
released via Fierce Panda (who discovered them supporting fellow Goldsmiths graduates Another Sky) in 2019.

Then 2020 happened
which needs no elaboration here
other than to note that Scrounge spent the enforced pause writing new material
appearing on fundraiser compilations (including DIY SOS
an emergency fundraiser for beloved South London institution Sister Midnight
which hopes to reopen soon as co-operatively owned venue and community centre in Lewisham) and playing remote shows – including
in early 2021
the digital-only SXSW. Once the world reopened
this was followed by several packed sets at the IRL SXSW 2022 in Austin
Texas
as well as extensive touring across the UK and appearances at festivals like Mutations
Raw Power
Rockaway Beach and the Alternative Escape.

Sugar
Daddy is a living
breathing document of all that experience as a band so far. The title and artwork comes from a realisation Lucy and Luke had that as a DIY band
with full-time jobs
radical politics
and a lack of access to the kinds of resources that are often just beneath the surface of apparently organic creative projects
they couldn’t be relying on any mysterious benefactor to make this thing work. It’s sometimes easy to forget that ‘DIY’ has a material meaning. In a society stratified by class
frothing with bigotry
and radiating with naked hostility at the idea of ordinary people expressing their creative and intellectual ambitions
sometimes you have to be your own sugar daddy.