Prep on Screamin' and Cruisin' Through Sadness with Blissful Melodies

The kings of lush and head-bop inducing pop tunes with an 80s sheen have just dropped their latest EP One Day in the Sun, that features a killer link up with Taiwanese pop band Sunset Rollercoaster.

What you wouldn't expect is that the British indie-pop outfit have been really into dipping their toes into sounds outside of their shiny bubble, despite this signature city pop/yacht rock blend making such prolific indie darlings for more than a decade now.

Esquire Philippines got to virtually sit down with the London-based indie-pop quartet ahead of the release of their EP as they shared their nu-metal guilty pleasures, the overratedness of virtuosity, and how they made their wildly contrasting musical backgrounds work.

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The group is made up of the genre-blending backgrounds of house DJ Guillaume Jambel, hip-hop producer Dan Radclyffe, classically trained composer Llywelyn ap Myrddin, and singer-songwriter Tom Havelock.

Personally, massive hits like "Who's Got You Singing Again?," "Cheapest Flight," and "Line by Line" were major influences on how we got into city pop and other pristine musical sub-genres even before we got into university.

"It's not really like any band I've been involved with before," Havelock reflected during the Zoom interview.

"We share this sense of what that bubble is and what fits inside it. It doesn't feel like it needs to be revolutionary. We do one album and then it's not like, that's it, that's done, let's do something completely different. It's going to be more incremental."

PREP's music is unlikely to be in anyone's guilty-pleasure lists just for how musically compelling their stuff is. You put on their tunes at a party and you, nine times out of ten, are getting people to dance.

Think of the groovy keyboard tunes from a Roland Juno 106, with tight electronic drums and Havelock's vocals that soar the stratosphere and octaves that span the entire keyboard.

Well, we grilled the guys on what they think their guilty pleasure or "embarrassing" Spotify picks are at the moment.

Llywelyn confessed a recurring obsession with nu-metal, specifically the stylings of Korn and his self-imposed cues to learn how to scream over the course of a few months.

"You basically have to have a soundproof studio or maybe do it in your car," he briefly broke the process down in detail to us. "The first few months of learning how to scream, someone would think someone was being murdered in your apartment."

The band's vocalist chimed in jokingly, saying the group was keen on working on projects that were "the furthest thing from PREP" to keep things interesting, jokingly adding that they should be looking at nu-metal for inspiration.

His own offbeat music listening habits, believe it or not, include tracks from the Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat original cast recording.

Radclyffe and Havelock had an endearing exchange on the musical that went like this:

"Is that embarrassing?" the singer asked, almost hopeful.

"It's very on trend at the moment," Dan offered.

"Oh, well then I'm just on trend, guys," Llywelyn deadpanned. "Leading the way."

The title track of PREP's latest EP

The boys had employed the help of guitar wizard Cory Wong from Vulfpeck in their smash-hit "Line by Line."

Bouncing off ideas creators with an unholy mastery of their craft could both spell inspiration and intimidation simultaneously.

"We don't get in the studio with them; we did everything remotely," Havelock joked.

"That's the key. We never have to see their fingers dancing all over the frets."

Radclyffe stressed that working with remarkably skilled artists motivates them to improve playing live and that it's okay not being like those guys.

Llywelyn bluntly chimed in jokingly, quoting their drummer Jambel, who said that they weren't even good enough to play their own stuff.

"But we all have our skills. We have a lot of attention to detail. We have that mindset."

PREP's single off the new EP with Sunset Rollercoaster

The yacht rock outfit has previously cited influences from the spheres of classic Japanese city pop, Steely Dan, and other genres that spell euphoria.

Another unlikely inspiration was the genre-hopping genius Tyler, the Creator, modern hip-hop royalty who had a sold-out two-night banger of a show in Manila last year to tour his two Grammy-nominated records Chromakopia and Don't Tap the Glass.

"There's definite overlap," Llywelyn said. "Like Flower Boy, I listened to that a lot. I stole a few things from that album. It gets filtered through the PREP machine, so it ends up sounding different, but the overlap is there."

He also shouted out psychedelic band The Stepkids who had inspired both PREP and Tyler.

"It's music drawing on a world of harmony that maybe isn't a million miles away from PREP, but it has this surreal quality where anything can happen lyrically," Havelock chimed in on the Tyler discourse.

"PREP is probably a bit straighter, but we're genuinely always looking to surprise ourselves. Always looking for an element in a song that's not exactly what you'd expect."

Another discordant sonic maestro who has been making waves in the industry is guitar savant Michael Todd "Mk.gee" Gordon, whom Radclyffe saw live in concert in London last year.

Gordon, along with his frequent collaborator Dijon, built a cult following thanks to his distinct guitar playing that involves an oddly-tuned baritone Fender Jaguar plugged straight into an old cassette tape machine instead of a conventional amp. This translates into an almost dirty tone that still culminates in beautiful music reminiscent of bands like The Police and Phil Collins.

"It's a very dirty, lo-fi sound, which I'm not sure we would ever go there," he said.

"But we certainly, even on our new EP and some of the music we're making, are definitely branching out into some more similar territory. Either of those artists would be a dream collaboration. Especially Mk.gee."

The vastly different musical worlds would usually have expected disagreements typical of high-octane creative minds. Havelock said they have an "unofficial charter" to keep the creative process democratic.

"If someone really hates something, it usually wouldn't end up happening," he explains. "But it depends how strong the positive feeling is on the other side. When we're gathering material, if someone feels enthused about something, we give it space to breathe and see what it can become. But really, we all kind of have to like it."

"Fade to Blue," a jangly new tune from the EP

The London-based quartet had played Manila a bunch of times, including solo shows organized by Karpos held at the Filinvest Tent in Alabang in 2024, and a 2019 Wanderland playing alongside acts such as Clairo.

Llywelyn recounted their earlier solo shows at 19 East in Muntinlupa City in 2018.

"What a vibe," he says. "It's got these really cool screens behind you. The audience was absolutely amazing. We love the audiences in Manila so much."

"We've been going through some ideas for artists that could potentially be people we could approach for collabs, some of whom are from the Philippines," the keyboardist teased.

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