We Lost The Sea 2025: "We Are Telling the Story of Our Time"
Interview With Mark Owen About Touring, Festivals, and Making "A Single Flower"
It's been a while since I talked to We Lost The Seas' Mark Owen and sent him my questions for our interview about "A Single Flower". Since time flies, as we all know, he has visited several festivals since then (also my beloved ArcTanGent, which I sadly couldn't attend this year), toured the world, and played numerous gigs with We Lost The Sea. All those experiences during these days of roaming made our conversation even deeper and more inspiring. I'm proud to share it with you today. Please enjoy the read, listen to We Lost The Sea, and join them on their concerts!
Anne: Hi Mark! It's so good to speak to you! It's so impressive how time flies. I just realised it's already four years since our last interview! How have you been holding up? What's changed since we last spoke? How are you doing?
Mark: Hello Anne! It's lovely to talk with you again. It has been a while. I went back to check, and the last interview came out on the 8th of January, 2021! The world was in chaos and locked down, and no one really knew how the world was going to look post-pandemic. I think when the world opened up again, I was hopeful that the shared experience of a pandemic would bring us all closer together. And I think for a while it did just that, but it feels like now it is more divided than ever! Aside from the world mostly ignoring and being complicit in a genocide, and the right-wing fascists rearing their ugly heads, I've been good. I've just returned from our first US tour and Post.Festival, which was awesome, and this time next week I will be in the UK for two shows at Arctangent! Which we are all really excited about!
*This interview has taken me so long to respond to that I have now gone to ATG and returned, and I can say without a doubt that Arctangent was one of the best live experiences of my life. What a festival.
Anne: Congratulations on your new album, "A Single Flower". It is massive! What was your biggest inspiration for this record? This quote from your press release, "to rise was the only rebellion left", really left me curious…
"Each song on 'A Single Flower' has a quote taken from an author or an artist
Mark: Thank you! That was a little quote I wrote, trying my best to channel my inner Cormac McCarthy. How did I do? It was a way of trying to sum up the concept of the record in a creative way, without being so overt that we just spell it out for the listener. I think the initial inspiration was just us, as a collective, trying to let go of any pressure of writing, just trying to live up to any hype, and just writing with sincerity. Of being honest and letting the music tell our own story. To paint a picture of how we all had and have been feeling.
Anne: The title, "A Single Flower," feels both fragile and defiant. Would you like to share the story behind it?
Mark: It's pretty complex, not by design, but just how it ended up. We went looking for things to write about, for narratives. We have done the stories of loss, we wrote a story about climate change and the relationship between a Mother and her son, and we were a little lost on how to tell a narrative that both allowed a listener to write their own story but also to tell ours. And that's kind of where we landed. Each song has a quote taken from an author or an artist. Each of those quotes is related to the overall concept of the song, and even the specific choice of flower. Each flower has a description on the flower artwork. So you need to almost put the puzzle together to see the full picture of what we are saying. But apart from that whole confusing jumble of words. Essentially, it is introspective. It's asking ourselves the question about why we get up every day. Albert Camus says the only real philosophical question is, "Should I kill myself?" And I guess we are asking that question of ourselves. What makes us get up in the morning? Is simply facing the day an act of defiance? What moments of absolute heartbreak will we endure for one moment of beauty? A single flower, if you will.
Anne: It's been six years since the release of "Triumph & Disaster". Was the break intentional, or would you say life just got in the way? Has your creative chemistry changed since your last album?
Mark: We had been touring a lot, lots of things had changed in our personal lives, and as people with families and full-time jobs, it just took longer. It's hard to spend a lot of time together in a room when you have so much other stuff going on. Also, our previous drummer moved to the other side of the country. Literally a six-hour flight away, so that made things complicated. I guess the other thing is that when you are writing such long, nuanced songs, it takes a long time. A 27-minute song takes a few hours to play a few times. So when you are deep into it and something is not right and you have to stop to talk about it and fix it and then play it again, a lot of time goes past quickly. We stopped for a while when we were searching for a new drummer and doing auditions, etc. Although we started writing way back in 2019 or 2020, most of the record happened in 2024 after Alasdair, our new drummer, joined the band. I think as a writing unit, we are in the best place we have ever been. Actually, as a unit, I think this is the best the band has been, felt, and gotten along. Alasdair has brought in a whole lot of energy and good vibes, and it's been infectious. Writing stopped being a sometimes hostile, stressful experience and became a really fulfilling part of the process. It felt less separate and more open and honest, and we were able to really learn to communicate better, and I think that cohesion and honesty have been a real revelation. Ha! You would think after around 19 years of doing this, we would be better at it, but we are always learning, always looking to improve, be better musicians and writers. I know all bands say it, but I really think the new album is the best piece of music we have produced, and I am really proud of it.
Anne: Your albums always live from your clear concepts and story arcs. You are true masters of telling stories with your music without the need for any words. Would you like to share a bit about your own personal narrative behind the album, or would you rather let the listeners create their own story in their heads as they hear the music?
Mark: This album is almost intentionally ambiguous on first inspection. It is not an easy record to initially get. We didn't want to be so black and white and wanted to avoid essentially drawing a big diagram and doing a spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation that told the listener what to think. We wanted to invoke something in the listener. We, of course, had something to say, but wanted to nudge someone into that understanding rather than body slam them into it, if that makes sense. For me personally, the album is the most personal thing I've written. It's almost a lament. To me, it feels very much cathartic. It expresses a lot of anger, frustration, and sadness that I have with the world around me and with the world inside me. It is a painted picture of the very core of who I am, of my personal beliefs. It's a big, tiresome sigh at the things I see going on around me, and it's an album that tells of my hope that we, as a human collective, can be better and the frustration that we aren't.
Anne: The track "Everything Here Is Black and Blinding" left a strong impression on me. Its name alone hits hard, and the song itself is so mystical, deep, and feels extremely thoughtful. I love the percussion in the beginning and the underlying feeling of tension and vastness. And then the "ravy part" sets in and multiplies the excitement. Laced with those harmonious guitar elements. Not to forget the fading out piano in the end! Can you tell me a bit about what inspired that one?
Mark: That song was definitely led by Matt Harvey, who plays guitar and does all our art. It is his protest song. He was inspired by Frida Kahlo and the way she lived her life, and how her art was beautiful but often a statement on fascism and her government. It's essentially about art being a form of protest, and this song is the protest.
Anne: "Bloom (Murmurations at First Light)" sounds almost hopeful. Was that intentional, or is it just me reading too much into it?
Mark: No, that is 100 per cent correct. It's very intentional. That is our "Single Flower" moment. The ray of light through the clouds. We didn't want the entire album to be doom and gloom. We actually are angry, melancholic men, who at our very core want to be hopeful. We love the beauty in things, in people, in the world, and that song is our way of trying to express that sentiment. I guess it's our way of attempting to venerate music and our ability to create and express ourselves in such a beautiful way.
Anne: There's always been this emotional build in your music, but this album feels even more… suspenseful? It's almost like a thriller, and I can't wait to hear it live on stage. Was there a conscious shift in tone, or did the songs come out like that just naturally?
Mark: With one album in the bank after "Departure Songs", we actually felt a little more off the hook. "Triumph & Disaster" musically and tonally was an intentional shift away from "Departure Songs"; we didn't want to attempt to write it again. I actually had a very hard time writing for T&D, and Matt Harvey really took the lead on that one. It didn't feel like a natural, organic process for me, and the riffs weren't what would normally come out of me. With the new album, I felt like I could really allow myself to just let go and write what comes naturally to me. I didn't feel any burden of expectation, and as I've said already in this interview, it really just came out how I/we are/were feeling. I guess if it's more suspenseful, it's because we are writing in a very, for the want of a better term, suspenseful point in history, aren't we? It seems like this record is our best guess that things aren't going to get better, even though we wished they would, and maybe the tone reflects that. I do have to say, they are probably my favourite songs to play live, they feel monstrous, they feel big and exciting, and I feel like if someone really wants to 'get it' then seeing them live will hopefully do that.
Anne: Back when we last talked, you said "Triumph & Disaster" was your way of dealing with the collective anxiety of our time. Would you say "A Single Flower" is coming from a similar place, or are we hearing something more introspective this time?
Mark: It is both. We are products of the world we live in. We write what we know, what we see, what we feel. And collectively, if you put all our hopes and dreams, all of our fears and worries into a big pot and stir with a big musical stick, you get the new album.
Anne: You once said that "Departure Songs" was about heroism and loss. What themes are pulsing at the heart of "A Single Flower"? Has the current state of the world, with all its tension, hate, and the rise of destructive, almost despotic leaders, made its way into the emotional core of "A Single Flower"? It really feels like the album pushes back against that darkness in a quiet, powerful way.
Mark: I guess without going over things I have already said, the short answer is yes. That is probably where a lot of the sadness and rage come from. It seems to me that it's like the dying embers of a fire, and we are trying to blow on the coals and have it burst into life again. What that fire represents differs slightly for each member, but I guess the message is the same: That we, as a society, can do better. I think music is the perfect example of humanity's ability to create beauty, and not just destroy. It is also a very intentional acknowledgment that the world is sitting by and watching a Genocide happen in real time. We are literally live-streaming the destruction of a people. fuck anyone who is complicit or who sits on the fence. There is no fence.
Anne: Looking back at "Departure Songs" and "Triumph & Disaster", and now with "A Single Flower". Do you feel like you have changed as storytellers? Or is it more that the world changed around you, and you're just responding to it?
"I just write how I am feeling"
Mark: Telling a story is still at the core of what we do, but for the first time, we aren't telling a story that we already know the ending of. We are telling the story of now—of our time. I think that takes a different approach; it naturally makes you tell it differently. If we know that the Prince and Princess end up together, we can tell the story in a certain way. If we aren't sure if the Princess is going to die from a disease that exists again because some lunatic is in office and is anti-immunisation, then we need to tell that story a different way. If that makes sense.
Anne: With songs like "Bloom (Murmurations at First Light)", there's this push and pull between destruction and beauty. Are you secretly optimists hiding in doom?
Mark: I feel like that is almost exactly what it is. Graham Greene does say that destruction is a form of creation, ha! I remember a conversation one night in the studio with our bass player, Kieran, after many, many wines. And he was saying that there was a point in the writing process where he felt like it was too dark, too depressing, and that he was happy that it (the album) now has moments of beauty and optimism. I said to him, "I just write how I am feeling, I am sad, I am angry, I do not have hope", and his response was, "I don't want to be sad anymore". So yes, I think it's there. I think as creatives you want to strive to do things that are meaningful, to tell stories that help fuel someone's fire, and even when you are highlighting the awful things, the hateful things, the sad things, you are still really talking about them in a negative light, and I think hope is all we have sometimes.
Anne: You've toured a lot since the last record dropped. Would you say those live shows influenced how you approached the writing or recording this time around?
Mark: We used to approach writing with the intention of being able to play between the six of us, everything we wrote live, and I think essentially we can still do that. But instead of putting ourselves in a box and saying "Well, we don't have sub drops or rave drums already, so we can't do it", we just wrote and knew that we could and would figure it out later. We wanted to avoid creating any boundaries for ourselves, and we just let the process be what it was. I think playing live so much, playing bigger venues, with bigger sound systems has allowed us to work out what translates lives better and we were able to know, without having to hear it first, some things that would work really well live, that maybe in the room didn't sound quite right, keeping in mind we write in a room with carpet on the walls and nothing has microphones on it and it can be very difficult to hear all the nuances. We did spend a lot of time in a recording studio demoing once we had songs written, and then very meticulously went through and tried to selflessly edit ourselves with the 'good' of the song at the forefront.
Anne: In our last chat, you mentioned how important the visual aspect of an album is to you, especially how "Triumph & Disaster" told a story just through artwork and music. How did you approach the visuals for "A Single Flower"? Was there a similar process or something new this time around?
Mark: We could, and you probably should do a whole interview on this process. Matt, who does all the visuals, and I really didn't start the process until after the album was all done. Matt needs to take his music hat off and put his art stuff on. So over many, many email/chat/message threads, we really delved into the concept and how it all related and what the art could be. Matt really does an amazing job, and I think it is one of the core parts of our creative output. The two are synonymous for us. Yes, they can both exist independently, I think, because of the quality, but it is specifically designed to be presented as one piece of work. The album isn't just the music. It's the art, the concept, the words, the layout, and hopefully, people take the time to view it as one piece of art, not just a collection of songs, but one big package.
Anne: I noticed post-music has evolved a lot lately. How do you guys feel about its current state? What's it like being in the centre of something that's evolving so fast?
"We will not accept intolerance or hate"
Mark: I will try, and keep this brief, haha. I think "post-rock" as a term is outdated. I think it's lost its usefulness to describe the current state of what falls into it. I fail to see how bands like Pray For Sound or Hubris can be slammed into the same category as bands like Glacier and Bruit or Coastlands. It seems a big dull blanket has been thrown over it all, and I think that actually diminishes the amazing work that so many bands are doing. What I will say and what I always want to say loudly and clearly is that the best thing about Post-Rock is the Post-Rock community, the fans, the sense of togetherness. A group of people who are moved by music, who are open and honest enough to let themselves be swept up in song. And the Post-Rock community is such a loving, accepting community. There is so much love, so much hope, so much desire to stand together. So wherever we stand in that, if we are at the forefront, which I don't think we are smashing any boundaries, I would much rather be known as a band who are willing to stand up for the good of the people it represents. To strive to stand for acceptance, love, and patience. To accept people for who they are, for where they stand, with a caveat, though, is at least a caveat for me; we will not accept intolerance or hate. There is no place for that anywhere, and I will not accept that in the Post-Rock scene. And if We Lost The Sea can be a point in the sea of Post-Rock bands, I'd rather be a point of love than of being groundbreaking. If that makes any kind of sense.
Anne: You're hitting the US with Hubris and then playing ArcTanGent in the UK this year. (Man, I remember; I begged you to play ATG in our last interview. Now I'm so sad I can't be there this year.) What are you most looking forward to on this tour run? Any cities you've missed?
Mark: Again, sorry, I've taken so long that I have done both those tours now, haha. The US was a blast, Post Festival feels like home away from home, much like Dunk and ATG were life-affirming. What a beautifully inclusive festival.
Anne: When you're not on stage or in the studio, where do you go to recharge? Do you have your own version of a "quiet place"?
"We want to write a film score!"
Mark: I don't have a lot of time to recharge, per se. But I do read A LOT of books, and I try to lose myself in playing music at home as often as I can. I also have a dog, Mikey, who gets lots of pats and cuddles, much to his dismay sometimes.
Anne: Looking ahead, after "A Single Flower" and your upcoming tour, what's next for We Lost The Sea? Any dreams, projects in your notebook, or directions you're excited to explore?
Mark: There are lots of really cool things in the works. It never stops. We have China next month, then an Australian tour. We will be back in the UK and EU next year and possibly China again. With one or two really special shows planned. And then of course we always want to write more music. If anyone out there wants us to write the score to your film, get in touch. That is 100 per cent a goal of ours!
Anne: If you could freeze this moment in time, standing here with this new brilliant record out and a tour ahead, what would you want to remember most about this chapter in the band's story?
Mark: For me, it is the knowledge that whatever the special thing at the core of this band, the thing driving it, the thing that won't let me stop, that never lets me switch off, is still there and burning brighter than ever.
Anne: Finally, what's keeping you inspired these days—music, art, late-night kebabs, sunshine, football?
Mark: I am always inspired by beauty, books, art, music, and the possibilities those things hold, the power within them, and the power those things have to change us.
Anne: What a beautiful way to close this conversation! Thanks so much for taking the time, Mark. It's always a pleasure talking with you. Wishing you and the band all the very best for the album and your ongoing tour! Talk soon!
Mark: Thanks so much for your thoughtful questions and your patience in waiting for my response. I think your platform is an important one; it feels very open and honest and really allows all the artists you interview to be utterly human.
Anne: Thanks for your words. This means the world!
Photos in this interview: A collection of images from the two sets of We Lost The Sea at Post.Festival 2025. Images are from both the Day 1 set, which included Departure Songs in its entirety, and a headlining Day 3 set that closed out the Hifi Annex stage. July 24+26 2025 HI_FI Indy & CSBINDER
