• How would you best describe your sound?

I’ve jokingly called it ‘electropunk emo-folk’ which sums it up pretty well. If I was seriously trying to pin it down to one subgenre, I’d probably land on alternative rock or electropunk, but I don’t like dropping the emo influence from it’s description. The vocals and lyrics are definitely emo, it’s full of power-chords and uses the sort of synths you’d hear on the radio in Blue Banana in 2014, like on Pendulum and The Prodigy. Alex Gray has been drumming for Threat Detector this year and I used to be in an emo band with him, but he plays a lot of punk so there’s that influence too. Now we’re working with our violia/violinist Gerrard Bell-Fife, it definitely brings some party folk vibes.

• What is the theme behind the EP? Has there been any particular influences that have helped in its creation?

‘Dirty Meat’ is about my experience of being transgender and Christian at the same time. It starts at a point where I wanted to reconnect with my faith after stepping away when I came out, out of fear of what people in the church would think of me. The whole thing is a conversation with myself and a conversation with God about what faith means to me and how it has changed as I have. I started writing it on a really rough, long workday that completely burned me out and from there it just kept coming. The biggest influence on ‘Dirty Meat’ is, maybe weirdly, The Prince Of Egypt. My fiancée showed me the movie for the first time last year and I was immediately obsessed with it. I wanted to bring that sort of narrative and the big, dramatic feelings into Threat Detector while keeping a gritty, alternative sound. I took inspiration from alternative concept records like Abandoned by Defeater, Trainwreck by Boys Night Out and The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance when trying to balance that, and the electronic elements come from artists like Snow Strippers, The Prodigy, Pendulum and Mareux.

• Was there anyone that helped create/produce the EP?

Will Walton was absolutely instrumental in making this work. I heard her song The Fine Line in early 2025, around the time I released the demo for ‘Cast Me Out’, and was sending it to all my friends (shout-out to my dad who is the biggest WW fan I’ve recruited). So I sent Will a message about it, pretty sure I brought up the production especially – if I didn’t, I should have. I just couldn’t believe she was doing this by herself. It’s been a real honour to work with her on this. Every time I play a show or hang out with Will I learn something new that takes Threat Detector to the next level. I’ve even called her during soundchecks before to help us fix things. There’s also some great instrumentalists on ‘Dirty Meat’. Alex Gray (drums) is my ride or die, I’ve been working with him in music for nearly ten years and he’s the most supportive, passionate person you could ask for. He just cares about it so much. Gerrard Bell-Fife (violin/viola) blows me away. I used to watch Gerrard play solo (usually at The 1 in 12 Club in Bradford) and I’ve still got a lot of his music saved on my phone. He’s really humble and so talented, ‘Dirty Meat’ would be a totally different experience without him. Getting Mallory Knell to do supporting vocals on ‘The Wet Grey Slop’ was the stuff of dreams, too. I was looking for another vocalist with a sound really different to my voice and saw her perform at The Attic a few months ago. It was one of those moments where you just know something’s perfect.

• How was the artwork created and decided on?

The album cover for ‘Dirty Meat’ is an edit of a shoot I did last year, sort of ‘Cast Me Out’ time, with Harry Phipps. We used to work together and I’m actually sure that, like Will Walton on the production side, I was 100% destined to meet him, because he was absolutely perfect for this. When a co-worker tells you they do photography, you don’t usually expect them to pull out some of the best work you’ve ever seen. I’ve done a few with him since then and had him do some really amazing photography for a live show at The Vinyl Whistle (he’ll be photographing us at the EP release gig too), but all the ‘Dirty Meat’ promotional stuff we did together was totally mad. We wanted to do a shoot of me eating raw meat, and Will mentioned that in the movie Mickey 17 they used watermelon for that. So we got a melon, and my fiancée was sort of an assistant to the shoot, just squirting tons of chocolate syrup in my mouth to make it look like the meat was bleeding. It was disgusting, and exactly what was needed.

• Do you have any gigs planned to support the release?

The release show for ‘Dirty Meat’ is on the same day as the actual release, on 14th November 2025 at The Pack Horse, Hyde Park. I can’t wait. We’re gonna have Twinsize playing, which I can’t get my head around – I did not think we would be able to swing that, they’re great and it’s an honour to have them. We’ve also got Deathlounge playing, which I’m so happy about. They brought me to York for their release show, which was actually the first Threat Detector gig outside of Leeds, and they’re the nicest guys. It’s almost painful how talented they are.

• What upcoming bands are you listening to at the moment?

Did I mention Deathlounge already? They’re great. I found their Live Demos EP through a Facebook post and listened to it loads of times before their self titled EP came out, which was a really nice listener experience. I’m pretty passionate about The Exotic Ices Project too. My old emo band Lippy played a gig with a couple of their members in their old band and they’ve definitely levelled up since then, I think they deserve a lot more attention. I’m also really big on Salem’s Lot and Crying Diana, I saw them both on a Purple Riot lineup which made for one of the best gigs of the year. I’m tempted to mention Din Of Celestial Birds too, but I don’t know if you could still call them upcoming – either way, they’re out of this world, some of the best post-rock could you find.

• Anything else you’d like to add?

‘Dirty Meat’ can feel pretty hopeless at times, and it ends of kind of an ambiguous note. The final song, ‘My Body Is Hell’, is me trying to communicate that there’s really no need for people to make me feel bad about being transgender, because gender dysphoria does that on its own. That said, ‘Dirty Meat’ tries to take this pain and get some good out of it. I can endure bad things. There is hope in the world, and in ‘Dirty Meat’, the hope comes from inside me. Forced out, because I want it so badly. I’m choosing hope and that makes it real.