London crew False Reality are one of the most exciting prospects in UK hardcore. As they unleash their debut album FADED INTENTIONS, they tell us about the importance of community, getting the nod from Speed, and ’80s metal tour bus sing-alongs…
Essex native Rachel Rigby had been heavily involved in the hardcore scene for years, putting on shows and festivals, when she realised that she still had an unfulfilled ambition: to be on the stage herself. Making the most of connections forged through her role in the community, she reached out to musician friends and her dream took shape in the form of False Reality. From their inception in 2023, they swiftly ensured maximum impact, with last year bringing the ferocious Path Of Self Destruct EP and touring both at home and on the continent.
London, the city the band call home, looms large in their DNA. Guitarist Dave Connolly is a Big Smoke stalwart with a CV that takes in the likes of 50 Caliber, Bun Dem Out and Ironed Out, the latter alongside False Reality drummer Louis Dale. Collectively, the band – completed by bassist Joe Cornwell – cite capital-dwellers Knuckledust, TRC and Ninebar as formative influences, along with crews from elsewhere in the UK like recently-reunited heroes Stampin’ Ground and Your Demise. But however effective their absorption of Brit beatdown tradition might be, the False Reality sound encompasses plenty more besides.
“If you like ’90s grunge music, you’ve got REALITY SLIPS and MIRROR on the album,” explains Rachel of the range the band command on debut album FADED INTENTIONS. “If you like Hatebreed or Madball, there’s some New York hardcore-style riffs throughout the whole album – that’s a huge influence of ours. If you like metal, there’s metal riffs in there, there’s some post-punk stuff in there. There’s naggy punk influences in there, too, like Black Flag.”
Dave and Louis speak animatedly about their love for the sounds that came out of ’80s California, the latter asserting that, “A lot of our influence comes from the Bay Area thrash scene, as much as it does New York hardcore.” And with an eclectic tour bus playlist that takes in ballads, new wave and the Rocky IV soundtrack, Joe emphasises that coming up with memorable music is key.
“We started to write really catchy riffs, stuff that can be sung back by a crowd. Not just the vocals have the hook. It can be that guitar, that instrumental section, that grabs people’s attention. There was a video of us playing at Burn It Down Festival and the person was singing along to the riff while he was filming. That’s how it’s supposed to be!”
“It’s all written to connect to the crowd,” emphasises Louis of the album. “We are so looking forward to playing these songs live.”
As FADED INTENTIONS hits the streets, this fantastic four talk K! through 10 reasons you’ll want to make False Reality’s acquaintance…
Discovering the London hardcore scene at a young age was a formative experience for the members of False Reality
Rachel Rigby (vocals): “When I was literally a toddler I was loving ZZ Top! As I grew older, heavier gigs started happening in Colchester, and through YouTube I found TRC and started going to a lot of London hardcore shows from a young age. When I was 19, I started putting them on myself, and that was so fun.”
Dave Connolly (guitar): “The first hardcore band I ever saw was Strife, opening for Sepultura at Brixton Academy in ’96, which was Sepultura’s last-ever show with Max Cavalera. I was very young – 13 or 14 – and that was a gateway for me. I started checking out all the bands on Victory Records at the time, and all the bands on their ‘thanks’ lists, and eventually someone said, ‘You do know there’s a scene going on in London, don’t ya?’ And then that was that – it just ruined my life!”
False Reality only formed in 2023, but they’ve certainly hit the ground running, racking up a ton of shows already
Rachel: “It feels like we’ve been a band for a lot longer than we actually have! And I think that ties into how long we’ve known each other – Dave and I have known each other for 14 years now. So when we really knuckled down to do the album, it was just full steam ahead.”
Louis Dale (drums): “Going through our list of all the gigs we’ve done, it is crazy when you look and see what’s happened already. We’ve gone through a lot in those two years – in a good way! We’ve learnt so much from all the shows we’ve played, and we’ve written this album based on those learning experiences. On a musical side, it’s built for how it’s gonna come through in a live environment. I think that’s where we thrive, really.”
There are several album tunes that draw from ’90s grunge and post-hardcore to give an extra flavour to their sound
Rachel: “When we’re driving in the tour bus, Alice In Chains will come on and we’ll all be loving it. That’s a part of our personality that we want to use in our music. It’s the same with Deftones. We’ve got so many influences from different veins of alternative music, not just hardcore, that there’s a little bit of something for everyone in our songs.”
Joe Cornwell (bass): “When I was living in Liverpool I was producing electronic music and doing a lot of DJ residencies, supporting some quite cool leftfield, ambient housey acts. I used the moniker GhostChant, from the Poison The Well song – that was a little nod to hardcore. There’s a couple of the riffs I wrote on this album where there’s a little subtle ambience there, and I think there’s always going to be some element of that aesthetic to False Reality.”
FADED INTENTIONS is stacked with riffs and solos that channel the evil spirit of the speedy end of classic ’80s metal
Dave: “We love Slayer, Sepultura, especially the Beneath The Remains and Arise eras… When we were talking about what sounds we were going for and ’80s thrash came up, I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s my time to shine! Get some solos in, some divebombs, just throw everything at it!’”
Rachel: “The amount of times we’ve been driving back home late at night from a show, and then Louis puts on ’80s hair or thrash metal, and we’re all just singing along to it, having the best time… It was always gonna come through in our music!”
Louis: “It’s usually anything ’80s, isn’t it? We like ballads as well, any new wave, post-punk, all of it.”
Rachel drew from real-life experiences when penning the album’s words
Rachel: “Most of the lyrics are about lifting the mask, showing the true reality of someone’s intentions. So a lot of themes are of betrayal, watching someone turn into someone that they weren’t before, and also having a lot of love for a friend who is going through a rough time and is losing grip of their own reality. It’s about wanting to help someone but not quite knowing how. All the songs are basically things that we’ve experienced throughout our lives, or things we’ve witnessed other people experiencing in theirs. We wanted something that fit in with our name and it ended up meshing really well.”
The frustrations of other people’s expectations and prejudices fuel Rachel’s fire
Rachel: “COST OF SPITE is about trying to appease other people, and trying to live quietly and tread on eggshells, rather than living to your actual true potential, and finally just thinking, ‘Do you know what? I’ve had enough of this, I need to be myself.’ I’d rather ruffle some feathers doing what I need to do than go through life not being true to myself. We’ve also got a song, EVERY GAZE, that’s about having your hard work pulled back due to your gender, your sexuality, your skin colour…”
2024 EP Path Of Self Destruct featured a guest spot from the Aussie bruisers’ singer Jem Siow
Rachel: “We played with Speed, I think it was our third or fourth show that we’d ever played, at the New Cross Inn in London. While we were there we got to know the guys and we became good friends with them. So when it came to decide what feature should we have on Opposites React, I could just hear Jem’s voice on that song, and thankfully he said yes to it! And we were really amazed, because they’ve got such a hectic schedule, and he got it back to us so quick. They’ve got their morals in the right place and their message has always been exactly what hardcore is: about fighting injustice, and friendship and loyalty. It was the best collab that we could have asked for.”
On FADED INTENTIONS and beyond, False Reality constantly want to outdo themselves
Joe: “I think there’s always gonna be a battle for self-improvement, individually and collectively. There’s no point trying to undersell yourself. We’re of a good age now where we’ve played in enough bands, and learnt enough about our craft – so let’s write something that’s heavier, catchier, take all those favourite bits and make it more extreme, make it thrashier, let’s see if Louis can play any faster than that! Trying to be more ambitious is always important.”
Hardcore unity is a guiding principle
Rachel: “The hardcore community is such a small space. Everyone knows everyone, everyone meets everyone at some point. We’re all doing it for the same reasons, we’re all here to shout the same message, we’re all here because of the passion and the love for it. We’ve all grown up in it, and we love seeing new people come in and experience it for the first time. We all remember our first show and that feeling that it gave us, just the dream and the love of that moment and that memory, and the beauty of hardcore. One of the best things about going out and playing live is getting to meet people, and having that interaction.”
False Reality can’t wait for you to hear their all-killer, no-filler new album
Louis: “Nothing’s written to be an album track. But that makes choosing singles difficult!”
Rachel: “Like Louis said, everything that we’ve written for this new album is intended to be played live and with high energy: lots of two-steps, lots of guitar solos, lots of sing-along bits. We love it, it’s our baby and there’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into the new album, quite literally!”
FADED INTENTIONS is out now via Hassle. This interview originally appeared in the winter 2025 issue of Kerrang!.
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