Photo Credit: Marsdale Visuals

Following the release of their new single ‘You Will Reappear’, we sat down with Dec and Zak from Leeds band Safeguard to chat about the new track, what has changed since coming back from their hiatus and the current state of the Leeds music scene.

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What has the reception been like for your latest single ‘You Will Reappear’ ?

Zak: It’s been good. The concern that we had, especially after we released ‘Sweet Pea’, was that are we going to be a flash in the pan. By the time it came to releasing this song, people still do care and have responded really well to it, we’re really happy and thankful for that.

Dec: Big time. After we released ‘Sweet Pea’, we’ve figured out our sound and where we are as a band. That had a big hand in how we approached this song. I think without ‘Sweet Pea’, this one probably wouldn’t exist. It’s a really nice continuation and a nice surprise that people still like us.

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When you reformed and released ‘Sweet Pea’ as your first single back, what’s the feeling like seeing the track received so positively?

Zak: TikTok man. We started writing ‘Sweet Pea’ before we went on hiatus back in 2018. When we picked back up towards the end of 2024, the version of ‘Sweet Pea’ we had was really different to the one that we released. We spent three to four months ripping it apart and putting it together again to make sure it was as good as it could be. We really like the song and thought it was the best song we had ever written, but we didn’t think for one second it would get the response it did. One thing that did shock us was how quickly it blew up and then it snowballed from there really. Thank you TikTok!

Dec: It’s a crazy world.

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Since coming back from your hiatus, has anything changed within the band in particular?

Dec: It’s hard to say really. When we got together, we never had a goal in mind. When we first started, we were very pop-punk, which we still are to an extent but at that time it was really popping off in the late 2010’s. As we’ve got older and matured as people, we still do have those influences but a lot more emo and hardcore influences have taken over. It’s a nice mixture. Where we are now is much different to 5-6 years ago.

Zak: Definitely. With our first EP, you can really hear the Neck Deep influence, to even the quality of the mixing and mastering, we wanted it to be very reminisant to Neck Deep’s first two EP’s, a slightly unpolished grungey sound. The sophomore EP, you can hear Knuckle Puck in it a lot and then in the newer stuff you can hear a lot of Arm’s Length and the newer wave of emo bands that are coming out. We are in essence still a pop-punk band, but we draw a lot from emo and hardcore. I am hardcore through and through, it is my favourite genre and I try to bring as much of that as I can as long as it works. The writing process is a lot more collaborative. We are really trying to write together more and all being involved. Every track now is very representative of what Safeguard is and what Safeguard wants to be. 

Dec: The fact we had four to five years to work on ‘Sweet Pea’ with so many changes made us realise we have more to give. Songs can evolve. Our first EP was written in a month, it was so quick. Looking back, I am still happy with the songs because it was where we were during that time but it has been a big learning curve. We can write a song now and then look at changing parts and do better.

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You are supporting Beauty School’s show at the Brudenell as part of their UK tour. How excited are you for that show, especially with it being a hometown performance for both bands?

Dec: Absolutely buzzing, man. Beauty School are a great band, I am quite close with a few of the guys. They are a band we admire. When we got the offer to play the show, I was stoked.

Zak: It’s the fucking Brudenell. It’s one of the last bucket list venues for me. Hidden Youth are on the line-up too, we had them support us on our reunion show at Oporto. I am a big fan of those guys as a collective and their other projects too. Slam Dunk has done an absolute wonder putting the show on, the line-up is class.

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How do you view the Leeds music scene today? Has anything changed over the years?

Zak: It’s good. You’ve got a lot of bands that are coming out of the woodwork. Student Slasher Film and Daisy Graves are to name a few. The Leeds scene is really strong and it’s not just in emo or pop-punk. Leeds hardcore and metalcore has taken off and it’s putting us on the map as a city and as a scene.

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What can we expect from Safeguard for the rest of 2026?

Dec: We’ve got some plans. What I can say is we are writing. We are working towards a bigger release. 

Zak: One step at a time.

Dec: We’ve got plenty of shows so stay tuned as we’ve got more to come.

Zak: We do have stuff booked, it will be worth the wait. We’re really excited for the rest of this year.