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UKHC supergroup Still In Love are set to kick off 2026 in style as they prepare for their UK tour supporting Gideon. After the positive reception for their debut album ‘Recovery Language‘, we sat down with guitarist Mark Ringrose to chat about the record, how their past experiences from being in much-loved UK bands previously has helped them hit the ground running with the project, but also approach it in an organic and fresh way, plus, living clean on the road.

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Your debut album ‘Recovery Language’ has been out now for a few months. What has the reception been like?

Mark: It has been pretty overwhelming to be honest. When we started the band, we just wanted to have an outlet to write music. Some of us hadn’t been in a band for a bit so on a personal level, really missed being able to write and put our energy into something creative. It was initially meant to be a hobby, but then stuff started picking up a bit, we wrote the album and we were really happy with it. We thought we had done something quite cool and it was a sound we hadn’t really heard a lot of in the UK scene. I’ve always written because I want to listen to something I really want to hear. If other people like it cool, if not, that isn’t a problem either. The reception has been amazing. So many other bands have been in touch saying they’re spinning the album backstage before they are going on and they are on tour and listening to it in the van. I love hearing from other musicians.

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What was the initial conversation where writing and recording an album was the next step compared to the previous two EP’s.

Mark: To be honest, everything within Still In Love has been really organic. Mophead and Curtis (Guitar) joined us for part two of ‘Withdrawal Symptoms’. Some of the songs we worked on were already in play a little bit. So with that fresh energy, we ended up having lots of creative ideas come naturally. We could have easily done another EP and chosen our favourites, but we were quite happy that the quality and calibre of all the songs we had were good enough for release. It wasn’t anything strategic or tactical in any sort of sense really, it’s just we had some great songs. ‘Recovery Language’ has a fairly consistent language, both musically and lyrically that runs throughout the album and it’s a really nice counterpoint to the EP’s that we released previously. It felt right to be honest.

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Having been in bands previously, were there elements of each other’s experiences and sounds brought to the table when writing the album?

Mark: Maybe not in such a direct way. I don’t think we thought that a part needs to sound like Brutality Will Prevail or Dead Swans or anything like that. I think because what we are doing is so honest and true to who we are, I think by nature that is going to come out in the music. Curtis’ involvement in writing during that era was fairly significant as well. When I hear Curtis’ riffs, to me it sounds like Curtis. The main surprise for me was Mophead. He’d played in BWP and I was a huge fan of that band. I thought ‘Root of All Evil’ was just one of the best UK hardcore releases in a really long time. What I loved about them was that they were lifting references from Pink Floyd in a really obscure way. Those really dreamy atmospheric moments. I was just mad surprised he could play anything above 80bpm. Everything they do is so sludgy and downbeat heavy. Turns out he is one of the best drummers I’ve ever met and he loves blastbeats which is great.

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Has being in bands previously that were well known in the UK heavy scene helped the way Still In Love play, write, record and be in a band again overall?

Mark: Yes and no. There are two sides to that. I know with Throats when I started out, there was no preconception about what it could be. Purely about venting emotion. It was quite a cathartic band. That led us to some really cool places. We played squats all around Europe. Bunkers in Berlin for example. To a degree we’ve paid our dues. We’ve done two month long tours, playing to 10-15 people for £50 a night and I don’t regret any of it as it was the best time of my life. We’ve worked incredibly hard with all of our previous bands and it has sort of given us a platform to hit the ground running because we know what we do and don’t like about being in a band. If anything, it’s helped us have pretty frank and honest conversions with each other. We don’t want to be doing mindless tours, we want to be really thoughtful about what we do. If we’re going to play a show, we are going to put on the best show possible and just absolutely blow everyone away. I think a bit of experience behind us has honed our skills a little bit and put us in a good place.

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You are kicking off 2026 supporting Gideon on their debut UK headline tour. How excited are you to get out on the road?

Mark: We’re all dead excited as you can imagine. We are going to be playing some cities we haven’t played before such as Nottingham, Glasgow and Leeds. We had a great time in Manchester previously and The Dome in London more recently with Modern Life Is War, Defeater and Crime in Stereo which was amazing. We are starting to feel comfortable on that size of a stage really which is pretty cool. They are pretty decent sized venues. It is going to be a really exciting run. I’ve only heard amazing things about Gideon. We’ve got good friends in Australia in The Terminal Sleep, who have toured with them before and they had a great time with those guys. We’ve played with Grove Street before at the Underworld and they are super nice guys and we finally get to meet the Xile guys too so it’s going to be a really good one. 

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What can people expect from Still In Love for 2026?

Mark: In terms of what has been announced. We are going to be playing Outbreak in Manchester. It has had the most incredible glow up over the years. Some of our members played the festival in the early days with their old bands. Seeing the size it has grown to now and the bands that are playing is amazing. Converge might be my favourite band ever, they are the gods of heavy music and have changed the game in so many positive ways. They’ve always gone about it in the right away. There is a huge demand for us to get out to Europe, which is something we really want to do. There are a few festivals we are playing. We are going to be playing Herrie in the Netherlands. It’s leaning towards the more metal side of what we do. Our previous experience with Germany, Netherlands and Belgium were always so good to us. They have really vibrant scenes, a focus on supporting young people with getting into things like promoting. The arts council are always supportive of the scene as well. We’ve always had the best time so the more we can play in Europe the happier we’ll be.

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Is there plans for new music from Still In Love soon to be released?

Mark: We are writing. As soon as we have some stuff locked in, it’ll be out there sooner than later. We’re not really good at the build up and hype stuff, we just write and go. There are some good bits and pieces so we’ll hopefully have something to announce soon.

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Having previous experience on the road, how have you adapted to taking care of yourself on tour now?

Mark: I don’t want to speak for Nick, but I know he is very public about his sobriety. He’s been sober for about 7 years now. Talking to and knowing Nick, then and now, I do like him a lot more now. He’s just his best self. It’s not that he is a bad person at all. We all know someone where drinking isn’t the right thing for them. None of us really drink to be honest. I’ve been sober for 3 years. Mop is essentially straight edge but has never claimed to be and that has been for about 15 years. We are quite clean in that regard. None of us smoke or do anything silly. We’ve mellowed out. Some of us are married or have kids. Just trying to be healthy. We’ve got our group chat where people are posting our morning run or a picture, red faced covered in sweat running around a park somewhere and trying to motivate each other. It kind of links back to ‘Withdrawal Symptoms’ and ‘Recovery Language’ lyrically. A lot of those themes are around the unburdening of addiction and moving into a much more positive space. Even though it doesn’t sound positive musically. We are pretty straight laced, we aren’t a party band. Very much sober and looking after ourselves.

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Whether your fans have transitioned from your previous bands or if they have only just discovered you recently, what message do you have for them?

Mark: It doesn’t matter ultimately. If people have heard our old bands and they are into the new stuff, that’s fantastic. I appreciate them sticking with us and being interested in what we are doing now. That is never a bad thing. For people who are a bit younger or haven’t heard of our previous bands and getting into us, just know we want to create the most inclusive spaces where everyone can feel a part of what we are doing. I’d say we are pretty right on when it comes to inclusivity. We are always thinking about what we could be doing to help more people from different walks of life get into our scene of music and feel a part of it, feel safe and enjoy it. Ultimately, I feel this band should uplift people. Even though lyrically it can come across negative or down, musically it is aggressive. A lot of that aggression I would hope is seen in light of it being a cathartic experience where people can vent their frustrations and sing along, feel part of what we are doing. We want to play to everybody and anybody.

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Still In Love will be performing across the UK in January, supporting Gideon alongside Grove Street and Xile. Tickets are on sale now.

26 Jan – Bristol, Thekla
27 Jan – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
28 Jan – Manchester, Rebellion
29 Jan – Glasgow, Slay
30 Jan – Leeds, Key Club
31 Jan – London, The Dome