Wildlife You Can't Outlast: LIFE On Adventure, Community and 'ABSTRACT / NATURAL'
Monday, 06 July 2026
Written by Rishi Shah
Photo: Luke Hallett
“It is an oxymoron, isn’t it?” responds Mez Sanders-Green when quizzed by Stereoboard on the title ‘ABSTRACT / NATURAL’. The vocalist of Hull post-punk crew LIFE admits it’s difficult to neatly articulate the nuance underneath the title of their fourth album, explaining that literally anything — from a brick to the Zoom call we’re speaking on — can be interpreted as abstract or natural. “You know nature’s abstract / It goes on and on,” he wails during Buried Giant, a brooding Sprints-esque alt-rock rager.
Having become BBC 6Music staples and regular touring buddies with Idles, this latest LP finds the Hull four-piece in their most exploratory form, recorded in familiar territory at their own hometown studio, The Moon Factory. The abstractification of the English countryside is integral to the album’s concept, stemming from scribbles and sketches in Sanders-Green’s journal. Take the life-affirming lead single The Dollywaggon, named after a mountain in the Lake District and written on an 193km walk from the UK’s west to east coast.
With the album out now and a UK tour in the diary for October, taking them to Newcastle, Lincoln, Hebden Bridge, London, Southampton, Bristol and Leeds, Sanders-Green spoke to Stereoboard about hiking holidays, nature’s pockets of community and the band’s ambitions for The Moon Factory.
What’s the feeling as you release ‘ABSTRACT / NATURAL’?
“This one’s the proudest, in terms of the journey. We felt the closest as a band on this one, we’ve done it our own way and really leaned on our community, bringing in friends and industry folk that really championed us. On our second record we’d signed to [PIAS], who were lovely and supported us, and it was great to be on that ‘ladder’, but we toured relentlessly. That can be amazing and rewarding, but also tiring. We’re not exactly the young band anymore. We’re all in our 30s, I’ve got a little boy.
“Everything feels like the full package: ‘This is who we are.’ We’ve never written for genres, but sometimes we’e been in the same ballpark as some of our friends [like] Idles. I’m not saying that we’ve never been authentic, because I think we have and we totally sound different to all our peers, but on this record we’ve really gone, ‘Let’s write for us.’’”
What prompted you to head on this coast-to-coast hike in 2023?
“I grew up with those holidays. Mum and dad didn’t have much money, but we lived in Sheffield, so we’d spend our weekends in the Peak District exploring the hills and mountains, and then our summer holidays would be folk festivals. That walk was just something that me and my partner decided to do, and even though it was absolutely gruelling, it’s one of the best holidays we’ve had. I always carry a journal and write little bits down, images of what I'd seen, and that's where the record took shape.
“When I came back home, I was trying to turn [these places] into characters, as if you were writing a Northern Yorkshire-based Western. They were little wonky lullabies, and [the band] made it all sound good. Obviously, the record’s not about hiking, but it’s about adventure and journey, and that was really hitting home. I’m a single parent, so taking my boy away when the world is [predominantly] online, and children are often isolated online these days, instead of being in the community, it’s quite nice to go and do.”
What stands out to you from that experience?
“It was done over 12 days. It started on the west coast at St Bees and [finished at] Robin Hood’s Bay, which isn't that far from Hull, so it was a walk home, almost. You’d go straight to the pub once you’d put your tent up, you’d be knackered, but then you’d reminisce on what wildlife and structures we’d seen. It’s a bit of a pilgrimage, you were meeting people, like at a festival. It was that community, and it got me thinking about the community that we are part of in Hull. Community is everywhere.”
You open the record with the lyrics “Beneath the boot / Oceans of folklore.” Have you always been someone who’s thought about your surroundings on a deeper level?
“Everything’s alive, around us or underneath us. Even on the other records, I kept a notebook by the side of my bed. [The countryside is] on your doorstep, it doesn't matter where you live, really, we’re such a small country. Immersing yourself in that is a good way of self-care or escapism. I work in the NHS as a youth practitioner, with children with lots of vulnerabilities, so it’s a great way of avoiding emotional burnout. It is a blind spot in terms of creativity, I think, because sometimes we are [obsessed with] the coolest thing — what's arty, what’s urban? But there’s all sorts out there that's a different kind of inspiration.”
Is it encouraging to discover and immerse yourself in those pockets of community that don't necessarily revolve around daily life?
“The problem is these days, as a society, there’s so many things getting in the way of the visibility of that community. Those communities exist, but sometimes they are almost invisible. I find that working with kids, as a healthcare [service], we need to be visible to them in the vulnerable areas. We don’t need to be sat in clinics, we need to be out there in the community, connecting, because that’s often all that people need.”
Is there a comfort in vocalising the infinite inspiration that nature brings, particularly given the intensity of modern life?
“It’s so fast-paced, and we all live in cities. There’s a line in Thistle’s Kiss: “Wildlife you can't outlast.” Whatever we’re doing now, there’s nature out there that will outlast it, because it’s been around forever.”
How did these experiences translate into songs in The Moon Factory?
“Our studio looks over the River Hull, we’re all [sat] facing each other, essentially. The band, they’re so musically talented. I don’t know how they translate me! I’d be flicking through bits that I’d written over years of doing these adventures. It pushed us as musicians, because we were experimenting with so many different things.”
You’ve played gigs at The Moon Factory and other artists use it to record – what can a space like that do for the scene in Hull?
“It’s a unit that we took over in lockdown. It was about, ‘We’ve created this space, how can we bring in young people and other artists from the area so that they can have a starting point in their careers?’ Our drummer, Stew Baxter, he’s really taken that full-on, he’s recorded [with] all sorts of people from the North – Serial Chiller, Aimée Fatale, Brodie Milner – and he's doing that in his other studio with Hinterland Creative as well.
“Hull is at a disadvantage; there’s only one way to get to the South, over the Humber Bridge, or lots of different trains, so it’s a way of looking after those around us, so they can then look outwards and get out there. There are bigger things in the pipeline, and we’re just happy that people want to use our space, because it makes us happy, using it ourselves.”
LIFE’s ‘ABSTRACT / NATURAL’ is out now through EMI North & Launchpad+.
LIFE Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu Oct 01 2026 – NEWCASTLE The Grove
Fri Oct 02 2026 – LINCOLN Southside
Sat Oct 03 2026 – HEBDEN BRIDGE Trades Club
Tue Oct 06 2026 – LONDON Moth Club
Wed Oct 07 2026 – SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
Thu Oct 08 2026 – BRISTOL Strange Brew
Fri Oct 09 2026 – LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
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