Ever since they first broke through, Bristol-based brotherly duo Foreign Affairs have always looked to add a fresher and more impactful edge to the modern blues-rock sound. And with their eagerly-awaited debut album ‘Brothers’ set to land on the 26th September, the pair have now delivered their swaggering new single ‘Walk Away’.
So with the new offering out and about, we sat down with them to find out more about their origins and what we can expect on this new LP.
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Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you got started in music?
We’re brothers Adam & Lawrence Purnell, born in Bristol and we started writing music together over Skype whilst Adam was studying the classical guitar at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels and Lawrence was back in the UK. Adam’s halls of residence overlooked the European parliament in Brussels and there would often be the BBC’s Foreign Affairs correspondents reporting live, hence ‘Foreign Affairs’. Lawrence isn’t a trained or studied musician, he is a self-taught musician & songwriter – We feel like the two blend really well to make organic, instinctive music but with structure.
Who are your biggest musical influences and how have they shaped your sound?
We were both incredibly lucky that our parents surrounded us with so many contrasting music genres growing up, our earliest concert memories included James Taylor at the Colston Hall, followed by the classical guitarist John Williams at the international guitar festival, Bath. Our Dad continued to introduce us to amazing artists and songwriters including Rodney Crowell, Ron Sexsmith, Duke Special to name a few. Witnessing these pros up close has had a massive impact on our musical direction, the intricate guitar lines and instrumentals always have shades of my classical background and the clever storytelling of Rodney Crowell is something that Lawrence has taken huge inspiration from.
Was there a specific moment or experience that made you decide to pursue music seriously?
Yes! It was April of 2017 and we were asked to support Nashville singer songwriter Frankie Ballard on his U.K tour. At that point we had never been on the national touring circuit and it was a real eye opener to life on the road. The response from audiences was amazing and it just gave us both the belief that we could do it and be the headliner one day.
Can you walk us through your typical songwriting process?
A common process for us is that I will send Lawrence a voice note of a guitar hook, it’s often rough, way too complex and sometimes too classical. He will then start to shape a melody around the idea and fire a voice note back. If we think it’s got potential we’ll then get together and start to build the soundscape at Lawrence’s home studio and we’re off to the races.
How do you find inspiration for your music and lyrics?
Generally, it’s the universal experiences that we all go through – Love, loss and all of the struggles and beauty that come with those things. Occasionally I’ll try and push the envelope and write something character based with a completely different narrative and perspective, but for the most part – It’s just an honest account of life from my perspective – Hopefully this is why it resonates with people.
What themes or messages do you hope listeners take away from your music?
With ‘Walk Away’ we just hope that it makes them feel confident, unbeatable and maybe can be a source of energy if they need it, that’s how it feels to us. It feels like the perfect song to put on to get you through the final stretch of a long race.
What challenges have you faced as an emerging artist in the music industry?
We’ve faced several challenges to get to this point in our career, obviously being an independent artist there is the financial burden of funding the entire project from touring to releasing and everything in between. We’re lucky that between the two of us we can share these roles and along with our manager of 5 years, we’ve managed to knock some hefty doors down.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your musical journey so far?
It has to be the touring schedule that we have achieved, we have been lucky enough to play shows throughout the UK and Europe. In February 2024 we went out on our first headline European tour playing shows in France, Holland, Belgium & Germany. The tour was a huge success with 4 sell outs and to have shared that experience with your brother was amazing.
How do you stay true to yourself and your artistry in a constantly evolving industry?
A couple of years ago we wrote a document titled ‘What is Foreign Affairs’. In the doc we put down everything that me and Lawrence stand for as people, our interests, our quirks, why we write music, the music we do and what it means to us. At the top of that document, we wrote that we come from a tightknit family unit and it’s that unit that keeps us on track and true to ourselves. We write our songs about real subjects, emotions and experiences and never try to follow a trend or appease what is popular in the moment. We’re two brothers born in Bristol and proud of it. We have played and continue to play some amazing venues and festival stages, however we’re always keen to get back to our hometown for a pint at our local!
What can fans expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming projects or tours?
2025 is going to be the biggest year so far for Foreign Affairs, we have recently released our new single ‘Walk Away’ which has had great support from BBC radio and Spotify and lets just say we have several more songs to release over the course of this year, they may even be packaged all together… We head out on our summer festival tour in May starting in Dartmouth and finishing up in Denmark in September. Following that we will shortly be announcing UK headline dates for November.
Where do you see yourself and your music career in the next five years?
For us we want to be touring consistently year on year, playing bigger venues, connecting with audiences throughout the world and putting out new music.
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Listen to Foreign Affairs’ new single ‘Walk Away’ below.
