“Grief is such a weird thing… There’s no right way to do it”: As Everything Unfolds on loss, uncertainty and leaning into fictional worlds

Did you ask to be set free? This is what As Everything Unfolds are asking on their new album, and it probably has hundreds of thoughts racing through your mind as you try to answer it. As a band that love big questions and world-building, that’s exactly what they want you to do: think deeply.

“I like that somebody might look at it and go, ‘What the fuck does that mean?’” says vocalist Charlie Rolfe. “What is free? Is it freedom from your current situation? Is it freedom from social media? Freedom from society, from your own thoughts? There’s so much openness.”

Marking their third album, DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE? is essentially about what we find in the in between, what we learn when we sit with uncertainty. The band – completed by guitarist Adam Kerr, bassist George Hunt and Jon Cassidy on keys – also leaned into film universes that ask what it means to be human, with Blade Runner being a significant one, for inspiration.

Charlie’s thirst for knowledge and digging into the whys and hows of things means she often finds herself watching “four-hour-long videos” about videogames or characters; fuck the TikTok-ification of media, she wants layers and nuance.

“People are like, ‘Why are you so obsessed with these fictional universes?’ Because they always have a bigger meaning than just, ‘Pew, pew!’” she laughs. “I think the best freedom you can give yourself is knowledge. Knowledge is such an underrated currency in our modern world… There is so much good knowledge out there that people don’t seek.”

The realism in this record often comes attached to a story. WHAT YOU WANTED tackles the topic of alcoholism, and is tethered to its place in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Charlie is also a big fan of the Dune franchise, and its messaging about false idols leaks into IDOLS.

This album also marks their first since the passing of drummer Jamie Gowers in 2024. By working through grief and going to therapy, a prominent theme that Charlie wanted to spotlight is that it’s okay to be unsure about things, feel conflicted, and have the courage to openly admit it. FIND ANOTHER WAY explores just that.

“It’s very much about fated paths,” she says. “Are things drawn out for us or can they change? When I was writing the track, I watched Donnie Darko for the first time. On the surface it’s a teen horror flick, but it’s actually a story about tangent universes. Destined paths have been a big thing for me, and battling with that concept. I still don’t really know where I sit on it, and that’s okay. That’s such a big thing I’m an advocate for: it’s okay to not know. Before Jamie passed, I [believed] things were supposed to happen when they’re supposed to happen, and now I don’t feel that way.”

The grief of Jamie’s passing felt like an electric shock. As Everything Unfolds lost a bandmate and a friend, and for Charlie, she lost her partner too. Grief looks completely different for everyone, and she didn’t find it helpful to sit still. The surviving members banded together and found comfort through music. It was challenging, and some days really fucking sucked, but there was a shared sense among them that this is what they needed to do.

“We took some time to go away and think about it, we even discussed it with [Jamie’s] parents. This wasn’t a decision that we made lightly,” Charlie shares. “There was an element of, ‘If we let those demos just sit and waste, what’s been the point in all this?’ We felt like if we get through this and we feel bad at the end of it, we can say that we tried.

“I think my knowledge seeking and curiosity is what sent me [this] way,” she continues. “I didn’t find any help in sitting in my own grief.” All the while, she also leaned on friends who had also experienced loss. “Sam Kubrick from Shields was a great [help], because they lost their guitarist, George [Christie]. I could bounce things off them and go, ‘I don’t know how I feel about this,’ or, ‘Where were you at this point?’”

Due to the parasocial toxicity that breeds on social media, Charlie found herself feeling scared about how people would form opinions or make assumptions about As Everything Unfolds’ decision to continue. But behind the scenes, she was taking time off her job as a music teacher, and was in therapy “pretty much every single day”.

“I was actually really terrified about how people would perceive me and my grief, because he passed away in August and then we were on tour in November,” she recalls. “I remember saying to my therapist, ‘I’m so scared that people are going to judge me.’ She was like, ‘What difference does it make? Whether people are saying those things or not, does that change how you’re grieving?’

“Grief is such a weird thing. Don’t ever tell somebody in grief how they should behave. Some people go straight back to work; some people take a year or five years off. There is no right way to do it.”

Now on the other side of the album’s conception, there’s a sense of reward among As Everything Unfolds. Ultimately it was the right decision, and one that is still personal to them. Charlie is optimistic about making more music, which is also partly due to new creative methods she tried during the sticky parts of its creation. It was the teachings of producer Rick Rubin she looked to, and his book, The Creative Act.

“It [explored] things like subconscious writing, I used a lot of that,” she explains. “I would drive and play a demo and I would sing along like the song already exists. If you sing with confidence and conviction, you’ll be surprised what comes out.” The chorus of GASOLINE arrived while she was making a cheese toastie, and other ideas came to her while doing simple chores around the home. “I was saving so much time because I was hoovering and writing songs at the same time! [Rick Rubin] sees the world in a different way. I think those people are very important in humanity.”

Before even more new music arrives, though, the DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE? cycle is going to be a huge one. Not only are the band also playing at Download Festival and 2000trees over the summer, they’re also touring with Future Palace at the end of the year, for which they’ve booked their very first (and well-earned) tour bus for.

DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE? Might have your mind bending with questions, but also, there is an overarching message that it carries – one that wasn’t even intentional when the band were putting it together.

“Don’t let the world shit on you and tell you that now this bad thing has happened to you, you can’t do anything,” Charlie declares. “There’s that image the world wants to put onto the grieving person who has to never leave the house for two years and never go to a social event. That is a reality for some people, but if you want to do the opposite, that’s also okay. As much as this was Jamie’s thing, it was also our thing as well. It was a group thing.”

With a gentle smile, she says, “Take life as it is, take it by the horns. You only have one.”

DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE? is out now via Century Media. Catch As Everything Unfolds live at Download Festival in June, and 2000trees in July.

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