‘We just wanted to tell people – we feel this, and people don’t really talk about it. We wanted this to be played to our past selves’
Ahead of the release of their debut EP ‘I Need More Time’ in November 2024, I had the opportunity to speak with Manchester’s indie-pop duo, Alex and Reuben of Remote, diving into the meaning behind their debut EP ‘I Need More Time’, and their journey to its release. Centred around their experiences as early twenty-year-olds, the Mancunian pair’s five-track EP self-consciously explores the pressures, confusion and sentimentalities experienced in life post-university. Emerging onto the music scene in 2021 with their single ‘aMeRiCa’ (2021), the lockdown-born band have been on the up ever since, creating tenderly fresh and vibrant self-produced songs that are fizzing to be played live as they embark on their journey into the world of supporting and headline gigs. Whilst the pair have built a strong foundation for themselves, with lots of exciting opportunities in store and on the horizon, I was curious to find out what Remote looked like in its earliest days, before the release of their debut EP.
Winding back the years to pre-COVID Manchester, Alex and Reuben recalled how their journey began in sixth form when Alex’s music teacher Ian would encourage students to write and perform their songs to pupils in the canteen at lunchtime – which Alex did. The pair laughed about how ‘everyone would just be chilling and eating their lunch, and then this band would come down and play so loudly’ to an audience of unsuspecting spectators who were probably more concerned with the price of their ham and cheese paninis or whether they had enough time to finish their pasta before the bell rang. However, there was clear genius to this idea, as whilst giving music students experience and exposure to a pre-made audience (whether the audience members were willing participants or not), it also led to the birth of Remote. Whilst Alex was encouraged to showcase his musical talent in the lunch hall, Reuben’s desire to make music was growing, as he recounted: ‘As it turns out, at the same time I was thinking that I really want to start doing music – like producing a bit more and writing stuff – and I was like you know I really want to get in touch with a singer’. Luckily enough, the now-duo were in the right place at the right time one lunchtime in 2020:
‘I literally walked into this canteen and Alex was singing away and I thought “He is sick!”, so I recorded Alex singing in his band just as a weird way to go “oh, now I need your number to send you the video” And then it kind of went from there.’ (Reuben).
So, the college canteen transformed from a hub of gossip and meal deals, into the student equivalent of LinkedIn for musicians, as Alex and Reuben joined forces. However, shortly after the duo formed, the land of lunchtime gigs – and any kind of gig for that matter – came under threat as the country plunged into lockdown in March of 2020. In a time of incredible uncertainty, the prospect of live performance and in-person collaboration was therefore off the cards for Alex and Reuben – but their passion and determination did not let their aspirations dwindle as they made the best out of a bad situation:
‘Through covid we carried on doing music remotely – that’s literally the essence of our name – we’d literally send logic files to each other, and I’d just produce a bit and then Reuben would produce a bit and send it back to me – it would go back and forth like ping-pong and by 2021 we put our first track out.’ (Alex).
Although working remotely had some perks as it ultimately became the band’s namesake, I appreciated how it must’ve been difficult to navigate the musical world in such a strange and isolating time and posed a question asking how they managed to work through such difficulties:
We navigated it budget consciously, and you can hear the added tools we get in our songs – for our first song, Alex has a USBC mic and that was it and I used the keyboard on my mac. For ‘America’, we recorded the drums through my phone microphone and my laptop, and I pieced them all together and fixed them. We were very much trial and error – but it worked.’ (Reuben).
When lockdown restrictions lifted, Remote had their first track ‘aMeRiCa’ (2021) under their belt and since released two singles ‘homewrecker’ (2021) and ‘Transpennie trail’ (2022) whilst they studied at different universities. After establishing their career remotely – in lockdown and at university – since graduating the duo have been able to collaborate in their shared studio, leading to the release of their first EP ‘I Need More Time’ (2024). In the early days of the creation of their debut EP, Alex and Reuben were deliberating what they should call the record, wanting the name to reflect and perfectly sum up the tone of the songs as a collective:
‘The name literally came from a conversation we both had in Reuben’s room when we were thinking about what to call this project that we wanted to do – we had no idea what we wanted to call it. And then Reuben said “I just need more time to figure it out and more time to think about it” and I thought – wait, that’ a really good name!’ (Alex).
Similar to how Reuben coincidentally stumbled upon Alex’s entrancing vocals in the college canteen, the name of their debut record was naturally stumbled upon in casual conversation, accrediting to the duo’s authentic nature. This authenticity softly underpins ‘I Need More Time’, as Alex and Reuben self-consciously explore the feelingly unconquerable maze of post-graduate life, extending a comforting hand to others attempting to make sense of this limbo part of adulthood. As we discussed their new EP it was clear to see how creativity flows freely and passionately from the pair. They expressed how the songs on their self-written and self-produced EP were written in a non-chronological order, proving that their creativity drives their music candidly and without limitation; the melody of one of their songs even came to them sporadically in the kitchen. We delved into the meanings behind each track on the EP, with Alex and Reuben summarising each one:
- Track One: ‘I’ll Be Fine’ – ‘The first track on the EP is kind of about reassuring each other and giving ourselves just more time to figure our lives out, because we’re in this post-graduation period and we’re not in an institution anymore. We have to figure out what we’re doing, and if what we’re doing is the right thing. Are we on the right path? It encompasses all of these existential questions but then the realisation that it’s not really that deep and we’ll be fine. Whatever you want to do, it’s okay because it’s experience at the end of the day.’
- Track Two: ‘I Need More Time’ – ‘The title track is like piecing it all together. There’s so much to do, there’s so many people that have shaped us in this time, there’s so many people and things we want to appreciate – but so little time to do it all. It was sort of like the cherry on the top to tie it all together’.
- Track Three: ‘Souvenir’ – ‘Souvenir was written after ‘Can’t Do This Without You’ (track 5) and is sort of about the same thing. Even though we’ve left social groups and some friends, they have shaped us and the memories are like souvenirs in a way.
- Track Four: ‘Company’ – ‘Honestly, this was one that we were stuck on for a while. I (Alex) couldn’t think out the vocals for the chorus, but it all pieced together in the end.
- Track Five: ‘Can’t Do This Without You’– ‘We wrote this one ages ago – it was actually the first one we wrote and the last song on the record – and it’s about appreciating the people that you have beside you and appreciating all of the people you have around you. When you leave Uni you depart from your friendship groups and go your separate ways, so it’s really important to recognise how much these people mean to you’.
In the summer and autumn of 2024, leading up to the release of ‘I Need More Time’, Remote began to play live in supporting and headline gigs at small venues in and around Manchester, expressing that they have ‘been ready to perform for quite a while’. Escaping the difficulty of booking gig spaces in the fallout of COVID19 that was ‘like the backlog of booking driving tests in a way’, the pair concluded that they have now ‘got the bug’ for live performance. Exciting the indie Northern Quarter of Manchester, Remote’s fusion of indie and soft bedroom pop – charged by tender vocals and enchanting guitar chords – is not one to miss. As the pair further embark into the world of live gigs, I’d strongly recommend that you keep your eyes peeled for any of their upcoming performances – otherwise you’ll kick yourself when they make it big and people won’t believe you when you say that you knew them first!
Quickfire Questions:
Q: How would you sum up Remote in five words?
A: self-made, growing, jumping, relatable and cool – (they’re not wrong about the last one!).
Q: Where would be your ‘I made it!’ venue?
A: The Death Institute in Manchester, or The Royal Albert Hall.
Q: Where would you like the be in five years’ time?
A: We’d love to have a U.K tour under our belt and to have perhaps played a couple shows in Europe, like in Paris for example. It would be great if we had another EP or even an album out and we’d really like to play at some festivals too.
Follow the link below to access Remote‘s official website to stream their 2024 debut EP ‘I Need More Time’, and to give their latest single ‘What Am I To Do?’ (2025) a listen to!
Interview and words by Jemima Lake