The Zangwills – “Drawing From Memory”

Bursting with urgency, colour, and the instinctive spark of a last-minute creative breakthrough, Drawing From Memory marks a decisive new moment for The Zangwills. Written just a week before the band entered the studio — and quickly promoted to the recording lineup — the track captures everything fans have come to love about the four-piece: vivid storytelling, emotional immediacy, and the kind of energetic punch that defines their electrifying live shows. As they prepare for their headline at Jacaranda Baltic this December, the band unpack the whirlwind process, the inspirations behind the single, and the creative chemistry driving their next era.

“Drawing From Memory” came together at the last minute, replacing another song you’d planned to record. How did that spontaneous process influence the energy and emotion captured in the track?

It was actually pretty exciting, it’s quite a rarity for us to take a song into the studio that isn’t fully formed or road tested, we’ve usually bashed it about a bit in rehearsals and on tour until we feel happy that it’s finished, there’s so much risk both creatively and financially in bringing unfinished ideas to the studio, and this time it paid off.I think that the period of time between the initial writing of the song and the recording was something like 2 weeks, we were essentially writing the 2nd verse at the microphone, it was so much fun and felt so fresh.It’s not often that we still feel curious about where a song will end up going during the recording sessions, and I think that curiosity compelled us to explore and play a bit more.

The song explores vivid memories, love, and desire — how do you approach translating such personal or universal experiences into lyrics and melodies that resonate with listeners?

It’s not something I have ever really pondered or toiled over too much, and maybe that's the key approach in itself. I partially subscribe to the ‘first thought, best thought’ concept that Allen Ginsberg was always on about, but not religiously. I don't really have a set process when it comes to writing lyrics really, and no two songs have been written in the same way, but I do find that the more I try to force it the harder it becomes. On occasion, the lyrics and melody seem to just fall out of you from nowhere, Drawing From Memory was absolutely one of those occasions.

You cite influences ranging from David Bowie to Florence and the Machine — how did these shape the sound of “Drawing From Memory,” and how do you balance those inspirations with your own distinctive style?

Florence & The Machine are masters of dynamic variation in their music, they seem to be able to create space amongst vast amounts of instrumentation which really allows for quiet bridge sections to be followed by these massive choruses. Things like massive intros, and pulling all instrumentation except vocals and strings in certain sections is an attempt on our part to do the same.Bowie is somewhat of a North Star for us, there’s such a wealth of inspiration to tap into there, not only regarding songwriting but in an attitude towards music and art in general. You listen to songs like Ashes To Ashes and realise that sometimes lyrics don't actually matter at all, you can convey so much without particularly saying anything at all, it’s just incredible.Within the band, we’ve all got very different influences that chip in to create our sound, and it seems to keep things exciting, keeps us on our toes and stops us from getting too comfortable writing in a particular way. I think for that reason it never feels stale.

Working with producer Mark Winterburn, who has worked with big names like 5 Seconds of Summer and The Script, how did his approach impact the final sound of the single?

Mark is the wizard behind the faders and is as much a part of The Zangwills ‘sound’ as the rest of us. We’ve been working with him since the very beginning, we often get lost in constantly trying to tweak and locate tiny imperfections in our music so having somebody to help us realise our end goal and kind of put everything in context is undeniably beneficial.Working with someone like Mark who we trust and have a great relationship with in and out of the studio, has always allowed us to feel we can freely explore ideas without fear of judgement or failure, and he is constantly helping us navigate big ambitious ideas, like huge multi instrumental arrangements. We owe a lot to Mark, and we especially credit him with our sound.

The Zangwills have a reputation for electrifying live shows. How do you translate the energy of “Drawing From Memory” into your performances, and what can fans expect when you headline Jacaranda Baltic this December?

We’d have to credit a lot of this to Mark, our producer. He always manages to preserve the rawness and energy of the performances in the studio, which this time around certainly had a different edge to them with the song being still so new to us all.It has always been important to us that our releases capture us as a live band, and almost serve as an advert for what to expect from our live shows.With it being our last show of 2025, we plan to give it all we’ve got at the Liverpool show, one huge mash of everything that has been so far in The Zangwills.We learnt a lot and really developed our live set on our UK tour this time last year, we love to keep each gig new and exciting, and can’t wait for people to experience what we’ve got prepared.