Manchester band The Empty Page (Kel – vox/bass, Giz – guitar, Steve – drums) has never shied away from difficult subjects. Writing on themes as diverse as climate-destroying billionaires, panic attacks, bed rot, nightclub nostalgia, victim blaming, and house cats.

New single ‘Death On Our Side’ is no different, lamenting the woes of a generation of people with no pension plan other than to die before they need to rely on one.

Following ‘When We Gonna Run?’, released in November 2025, just 18 months after the band’s second album, Imploding, the new single continues to seamlessly meld punk and shoegaze. It’s gritty and Mancunian, and at the same time a fragile commentary on the realities of life in modern Britain.

In fields where strange static crackles / you and I climb the pylons

Small lives are plundered / and underfunded

But we got death on our side

This is the second in a series of single releases recorded at Nave Studios, a former church in deepest Leeds, with producer Matt Peel (Eagulls/Dream Wife/Bodega). “We’ve long been fans of Matt’s work, so it was great to work together finally. The studio is so cool, and Matt’s references from Radiohead to Smashing Pumpkins align perfectly with the songs we’ve been writing”, says Kel.