DEFENCES have released "More Of Us (Than There Are Of Them)" through Long Branch Records, a protest song built for shouting back, with SKINDRED frontman Benji Webbe guesting alongside the British band's own vocalist, Cherry Duesbury.
Duesbury was direct about what set the song off. "One of the tipping points for me was seeing the first wave of ICE abductions taking place and the slew of public scandals that followed," she said. "With my immediate family living in a majority-Republican state in the U.S., this hit home for me and struck terror in my heart more than previous news stories had."
The song widened out from there. "'More Of Us (Than There Are Of Them)' came from my desire to shed a light on the growing collective consciousness awakening of recent years to combat this as the next generation enters the workforce, world leaders continue to reveal their true nature and dictators and tyrants operate above the law in plain view," she explained. "I've been inspired by the growing feeling that more and more of us are asking ourselves, 'Why is this the way things are?' I wanted to write a song that expressed my feeling that we've reached a point of no return, that the public is finally turning on the rampant institutional corruption. These whispered questions talk of upheaval and, ultimately, rebellion, and this song means to stand as an anthem as those whispers turn into screams."
Webbe is an obvious fit rather than a marquee name bolted on. SKINDRED have spent their entire career refusing to separate the party from the politics, and his delivery gives the track a second front — the ragga-inflected bark cutting across Duesbury's melodies rather than doubling them.
DEFENCES have built their sound on synth-heavy melody welded to genuinely crushing riffs, with Duesbury's distinctive voice on top. Across a decade, two EPs and three albums, the band's usual territory has been introspection, self-reflection and inner strength — what they cheerfully describe as self-acceptance-core. A song aimed squarely outward is a departure, and the fury lands harder for it.
The lineup is Cherry Duesbury (vocals), William Young (keys and vocals), Calum Wilmot (guitar) and Kyle Parke (drums). The band have racked up more than 15 million streams, sold out their own headline shows across the UK and Europe, and played Download, Takedown, Turbulence and Burn It Down.