As December Falls‘ Ande Hunter and Bethany Curtis guide us through the creation of the band’s latest release, ‘Everything’s On Fire, But I’m Fine’, out on August 08 via ADF Records.

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This might be a shock to hear, but your favourite band is struggling now more than you realise.

Even though we are more connected than ever before, and everything is much more visible and vulnerable than it has ever been, there is still an underlying sense that if you’re making music, touring the world and gaining traction, then you’re getting by just fine. Although that may have been the truth in the past, when art was held to the standard it deserved, times have changed, and it’s much harder to simply keep things afloat.

For As December Falls, when they formed a decade ago, the aim was to reach the very top, to live like their idols who had come before. But as time has passed, the realities of what it means to live out your dream have sunk in.

And you know what? They’re making the most of it.

“When we started this band as kids in college, the end game was to be rock stars,” guitarist Ande Hunter smiles, humoured by the innocence of his past self. “You would see the decadence of the 80s and 90s in the music business as something you look up to and say, ‘Wow, that’s stardom’. Then you get more and more into it, and you start to realise that it’s all fake. I think that one or two bands that we have played with or are friends with are okay, and everyone else right now is fucked. We are all struggling, and no one talks about it. You have to put on this presentation and pretend everything is going great. That’s what led to this album and the honesty of what is actually going on.”

It’s pretty clear where within all of this the quartet stand with a record titled ‘Everything’s On Fire, But I’m Fine’, but it’s much more than just a damning statement on the post-COVID environment of alternative music. It’s their most varied, volatile, and vibrant statement, an ode to letting loose and not allowing the building pressure to keep you down. Being honest in every aspect of who they are, both within the band and in their everyday lives, they are making music that is more fun, freeing, and fantastically brash than anything that they have committed to tape previously.

“It’s not a case of having a ‘We don’t give a fuck’ attitude because we really do give a fuck,” vocalist Bethany Curtis remarks. “It’s more a case of this is us. This is our true selves coming out. We’re a very honest band, and I think that’s what people like. They resonate with the brutality of that because we are telling them it exactly how it is.”

To find out more about this journey, Rock Sound stepped inside of the flames with Bethany and Ande and discovered what it means to come to terms with how things actually work and use it to your advantage.

THE SOUND

Bethany would be the first to admit that up until now, she put limitations on what she thought As December Falls could be. Coming up through the ranks of the UK pop-punk underground, it’s easy to feel as though you’re stuck with the sound that inspired you in the first place. But when all bets are off, and nothing is certain, it’s a bit easier to let loose and do whatever feels right. That’s why ‘Everything’s On Fire, But I’m Fine’ covers so many different bases over its 14-song runtime. Because As December Falls is whatever the band want it to be, and the liberation that comes with that realisation is boundless.

“This album feels like my most authentic self within our music,” Bethany comments. “A few years ago, I don’t think I would have felt like we could have done something like this because I would have thought, ‘That’s not As December Falls’. Whereas now I feel like, ‘Fuck it’. We’re not keeping ourselves in our own boxes. If we hear something we like, we are putting it in. And I feel like we are taking more influences from things we like this time around.”

Take ‘Ready Set Go’, a pulsating modern rock epic that has more in common with Dimension and Sub Focus than blink-182 and State Champs. Written in the aftermath of watching Season Two of Arcane and letting their nightly sessions on League Of Legends guide the way, they set out to pen a song that could soundtrack Jinx making their way through the Zaun undercity. The result is fast, furious and dripping in frantically danceable production, an experiment that can be felt pulsating through the grittiness of ‘Fall Apart’, too. On the other hand, there’s ‘For The Plot’, a cue from the book of The All-American Rejects, written with their friend Holly in mind, creating a soundscape that would embody her chaotic energy and lust for life. Such exhilaration has also rubbed off on the smiles that accompany the sunshine of ‘Grim Reaper’ and ‘I Can’t Relate’ too, despite their subject matter still being particularly serious. By focusing more on the characteristics that define who they are outside of band life and not just adhering to the previously prescribed positions within it, they have enhanced their lives within it. 

“We’ve all been doing this for a long time, and we’ve been getting better at doing more,” Ande remarks. “I’m not just the lead guitarist, Timmy [Francis] is not just the bassist, Bethany isn’t just the vocalist. And there’s a sense of security in that. Of not being scared to show ourselves.”

Much of this confidence to spread their wings further than ever before also comes from producer Alex Copp. After approaching the band back in 2022 via Instagram DM, asking if there was anything he could work on to gain more experience behind the desk, he has become more of a fifth member than an associate. Now, even being a part of the band’s road team as a tech and managing his workspace, M2 Studios, alongside Ande, which has the recording schedule for this very record forever etched upon its walls, it’s a testament to what allowing the right people into your world can conjure. It has also allowed the band to experiment at a lightning pace, making testing the waters significantly faster than if they were taking it all on alone.

“He gave us the freedom to trial and error a lot more stuff because of him having the space he does now,” Ande nods. “Something we would do on our own at home would take 20x as long as if we did it with Alex. We could get ideas down and know if they weren’t working in just five minutes and be able to move on. Whereas on our own, we would have worked on that idea on our own for three weeks. We just knew he was the dude the moment we met him.”

THE LYRICS

Admitting to themselves how difficult things have become, especially as a project working independently with no manager or label to guide them, has allowed As December Falls to make every part of their music their own. That’s even more true when it comes to shifting perceptions through their lyrics, revealing what life is really like behind the curtain. For Bethany, this comes in showing people that, despite often being put on a pedestal as a woman in a scene so male-dominated, she doesn’t always have the answers and that the way she is viewed on stage isn’t always the be-all and end-all of who she really is. She’s working all of this out at the same rate as everyone else, and that’s really important to keep highlighted.

“Sometimes it feels like it’s seen as ‘Beth is a little bubblegum fairy’. And yeah, I am, but I am also a badass bitch who knows who they are”, she comments. “I feel like with this album, I feel more confident and happier to be showing this other side of me. I feel that with our fans getting to know me better and being so honest, they understand that this is who I really am. In the past, I would feel like I couldn’t do or say something or even wear certain clothes because it’s not the version of me that they knew.”

Such a shift hasn’t happened overnight, though. It’s a trust and an understanding that has developed over time, spearheaded by the band livestreaming themselves as much as possible. Whether it’s video game walk-throughs or Q&As between paying their VAT bills, showing off what life is really like for artists in 2025 has made it much easier to express feelings that may come as a surprise otherwise. Take the stark one-two punch of ‘Bathroom Floor’ and ‘Angry Cry’, songs that don’t sugar coat any sort of frustrations or heartbreaks that have occurred alongside their pursuit of stardom. The same can be said for ‘Therapy’, a chaotic mesh of emotions which, since its release back in January, Bethany has seen people connecting with more than songs that have been out for years. In allowing the bad to flow as freely as the good, to laugh in the face of the ever-approaching void rather than wallowing in its presence, and to know that there is more to this than that school-age dream of headlining Download Festival, the band have never felt closer to the people that support them. And at the end of the day, that’s what is going to stand the test of time.

“I was talking to someone recently about Oasis,” Ande remarks. “[When they started] they were singing songs from a very particular point in their lives, where they were struggling musicians and still very much working class. The thing is that you lose resonance with those words, as they are no longer true now because they are not living that life anymore. But with us, the words do all ring true. It’s there in the music, but also there because we talk about it and are so open in everything we do.”

Authenticity has never been more important than it is now. Fans will see through you like clingfilm if you’re cosplaying in any sort of way. So, to share everything that you are, warts and all, you’re already on the right side of your own history.

“No one roots for the hero at the end of the story without the struggle that has taken place before,” he continues. “And everything we have done has been a result of our own efforts, albeit by accident, through trial and error. It’s difficult to know if you’ve made the right decision, but at least everybody knows that it’s real.”

THE TITLE

Though there is plenty of storytelling and revelation taking place within the songs found on ‘Everything’s On Fire, But I’m Fine’, the most prominent example can be found in the title that umbrellas it. The story of As December Falls as a whole, to be exact. It’s a collection of words that struck Bethany long before they even started writing what would become the title track and ones that came from considering their previous output up until this point. A way of defining how the last decade has played out, it allowed a sense of empowerment and ownership over their journey so far. Of letting all those around them know, as much as themselves, how everything has really played out. 

“I think when I was coming up with it, I’m very aware of how much I like a story,” she smiles. “I feel like with all of our albums so far, we’ve told that. We started with the self-titled album because we wanted to come out and say, ‘This is who we are.’ The second album was ‘Happier’, which was written during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was just us trying our best. Then, ‘Join The Club’, we wanted everyone to rally behind us and be a part of the As December Falls family. This album is us saying that we have arrived at the fucking table, but everything is definitely on fire around us, but it’s okay because we are here at least.”

When you lay out their albums in such a way, you see just how much they have overcome. The odds have been against them at many a turn, but Bethany and Ande have always come out the other ending fighting. Where many of their peers could, and have, thrown in the towel, to be this far in and still waving the flag is a victory in itself.

“I really wanted to allow our fan base to be following and experiencing our story along with us,” she adds. “Because we are doing some of the coolest shit we have ever done in our careers, and I am grateful for every opportunity that we are getting. Us even just doing any of this is crazy, and I am so flipping proud of us, but it’s hard, and we never want to shy away from that.”

THE FUTURE

The truth of the matter is that there is no clear indication of where things are headed in the next few years. With funding in the arts continuing to be depleted, independent venues having to fight for their lives in every corner of the UK, and the possibility of touring overseas economically looking cloudier by the day, it doesn’t instil an awful lot of hope for bands like As December Falls in planning for the future. However, coming to terms with that allows them to appreciate what they have in the present even more. And though they are enjoying chart success, main stage festival bookings, and watching their fan base grow larger before their eyes, they know that when they look back on their time with the band, it will be a distant memory, and the numbers won’t be what they will focus on. It’s the connections that will always stand out. And no matter the size of the flames around them, they will never be destroyed. 

“When I’m old and grey, I’m not going to remember the sleepless nights and the times when we thought we might go bankrupt,” Ande concludes. “I’m going to remember the fans that got engaged on stage and got married two years later with us being a part of their story. It’s going to be the messages from fans saying how much songs have changed their lives in their darkest moments. It’s going to be the sense of community of when we played the main stage at Slam Dunk. 

“That’s the stuff that fuels us, and it’s what is going to keep us going, no matter what.”