Superlove are the breath of fresh air that music has been yearning for. Their recently-released debut album, Colours, is a wonderful blend of confident beatdowns – the likes of which fans of Don Broco or State Champs might recognise – and the pop sensibilities of The 1975 (or perhaps even Duran Duran?).

Their specific “genre” (if you’re into that sort of thing) is hard to pin down, making them feel like a real enigma. Superlove’s singer and bassist Jacob has revealed this style was designed with their own creativity in mind.

Jacob spoke exclusively with Express.co.uk just before their album’s release last month. And, while the band are still relatively small at the moment, they have big aspirations – beginning with their music production.

Jacob, and Superlove’s guitarist/singer Jon, wrote and recorded every piece of their debut album, Colours, themselves. And I don’t mean that in the overplayed pop-star way where they sit on a remote island with millions of pounds at their disposal. No, Superlove stayed at a friend’s house and recorded the record straight out of a living room.

“We did everything,” Jacob proudly announced over the phone. “Me and Jon – and our friend Tom, who is an engineer and does some production on the side. He had his hand in a bit of co-writing here and there… [but] we did it ourselves.”

Jacob praised the band’s label, RUDE Records, for this approach; they essentially told the duo: “Here’s your budget, figure it out.”

But Superlove would not have had it any other way. “There’s no pressure doing it that way,” he laughed. “There’s no fancy equipment, we weren’t on borrowed time. It was completely our own.”

And Jacob believes the music was better off for it, as well. He mused: “It just brings out that sort of innocence or the purest form of how we do it… It’s a weird one to explain, but me and Jon are just so passionate about songwriting and production, so to feel like we had almost complete control was important.”

Jacob and Jon met back in 2018 before really launching into the project seriously. And since then, they’ve released a couple of EPs and got comfortable with their performances by playing a bunch of gigs along the way.

But their debut album, Colours, proves they have the production know-how and artistic depth to create a truly timeless record.

Colours delves into the topics you would expect from a debut pop-rock album – love, loss, relationships, disappointment, the ever-present struggle of your own identity – normal stuff. It almost has the same guttural feeling that Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour gives off.

But Colours is not something you have heard before.

While discussing Colours’ lyrics and themes, Jacob described the record in a way I never could: “Conversational”. “We’ve always wanted to write about stuff that feels really conversational, in a way?” he thought out loud. “Our lyrics are really conversational. They don’t glam things up, they’re not too mysterious or cryptic. They’re to the point. Reflective of all the things like growing up and going into your early 20s and being like: ‘Oh my god, that’s terrifying! Am I ready for that?'”

When I touched upon the mental health concept buried within the album, Jacob passionately agreed… before retreating into his shell a little again.

“You know,” he said, carefully, before swiftly moving away from the topic. “Mental health started coming up in songs like Colours [and] it was a really cool song. It sort of touched a bit on everything. And that chorus is so impactful. It’s sort of like a blend of things over the last few years – not the pandemic – but sort of going into your early 20s, adulthood.”

But, however inspiring, deep, and creative Superlove’s debut album is, it does leave them in a tough position. After releasing such a freewheeling and abstract record it does beg the question: What comes next?

“I think we are still working things out,” Jacob confessed. “I feel like we’ll forever be working things out. And that’s what makes us come up with these ideas… And I love it!

“We’ve done two EPs and a bunch of singles, but having the depth of an album to really showcase what we can do in one giant thing was kind of a bit scary. Because once it was all recorded and mastered we were sat there thinking: ‘Oh god, does it flow? Does it work? Will people get it?'”

Going forward, Superlove are striving to stay true to their nuanced sound (“We’re still going to do the poppy stuff, because it’s fun!”) but they are exploring change.

“After doing the album and seeing people react to it we’re really keen to touch more on the rockier side, and explore more of that moving forward,” Jacob revealed.

In recent weeks Superlove have been supporting Feeder on their tour and will be performing at the 2000 Trees Festival, as well.

You can listen to Superlove’s album, Colours, here.