Some bands arrive with a sheen of inevitability, the sense that they’ve already built their own world long before anyone else steps inside it. Die Twice are one of those bands. Emerging from Exeter’s DIY underbelly and now embedded in Brighton’s restless creative scene, the four‑piece have spent the past few years sharpening their sound in real rooms, with real people, until it became something impossible to ignore: cinematic, volatile, and emotionally unguarded.
Their new single Wishbone is the clearest distillation yet of what makes them so compelling. It’s a track that flickers at the edges, never quite settling, built on a stop‑start pulse that feels like it’s trying to outrun its own heartbeat. Delicate pizzicato strings hover like a warning before the whole thing fractures into a towering, full‑body crescendo. Frontman Olly Bayton moves from a soft, almost disbelieving tenor into a gravel‑edged scream that feels ripped from somewhere private.
“So, the old man called me ‘Wishbone’ / he didn’t know it could make me cry” he sings, a line that lands like a bruise. Bayton describes the song as “a vulnerable man screaming at something bigger than himself… a journey through pressure, trying to find acceptance when you’ve been made to feel small” It’s the kind of emotional candour that Die Twice excel at: raw, unvarnished, and delivered without apology.
Wishbone and its predecessor Jakobo both appear on the band’s debut EP Accept Me Like A Lie, out May 27th via FAE. Written during a period of transition and forged in the heat of their increasingly magnetic live shows, the EP unfolds with a deliberate patience. Across five tracks, Die Twice build atmosphere like a slow exhale before erupting into catharsis — a refusal to pander to short attention spans in favour of something richer, more immersive. With production from Ru Lemer (Foals), mixing by Adrian Hall (Depeche Mode, Anna Calvi), and mastering by Nick Watson (Sea Girls, Warpaint), the record threads together intimacy and widescreen ambition.
Formed when Bayton and bassist Finn ‘Blue’ Lloyd met at college, later joined by drummer Jake Coles and guitarist Billy Twamley, the band quickly became a force on Exeter’s live circuit, selling out 500‑cap rooms entirely under their own steam. Their move to Brighton only accelerated things: a five‑night “Mosquito Nights” residency sold out, with support from friends including SAINT CLAIR and 1000 Rabbits, cementing their reputation as a band other artists quietly tip to each other.
Now, Die Twice are bringing that momentum to London with a three‑night residency, MASCARA PARTIES, taking over the Mascara Bar in Stoke Newington on April 24th, May 8th, and May 22nd. Special guests remain under wraps, but the band’s track record suggests these shows will be intimate, chaotic, and unmissable.
Die Twice are in no rush — but they’re also not waiting for permission. Accept Me Like A Lie feels like a defining statement from a band who are vulnerable, ambitious, and entirely themselves. If the world is finally catching up, it’s only because Die Twice have made it impossible not to.
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