Formed in 2014, Cultdreams turned plenty of heads with their debut 2016 EP SAD and subsequent 2017 debut album Seafoam. The pair received praise from a diverse spread of press including Kerrang! Magazine, Total Guitar, She Shreds, The Quietus, Drowned in Sound, Louder Than War, New Noise Magazine, Substream, UPSET, Discovered Magazine, The Skinny, Alternative Press and many more for their bold and unflinching explorations of depression and PTSD, whilst shining a light on harmful behaviour, sexual harassment and every-day misogyny in society. After taking nearly two years away from the studio to tour Seafoam both in the UK/EU and across the Atlantic in the US/Canada—and guitarist/vocalist Lucinda Livingstone officially joining the lineup of their friends and labelmates Nervus last year—the arrival of Cultdreams’ long-awaited second album Things That Hurt comes as welcome news. “I kind of forget how much we toured between SAD and Seafoam, it got a lot at some points,” laments Livingstone on the punishing schedule the band subjected themselves to, which included support slots with Enter Shikari, Pianos Become The Teeth, Foxing, The World Is A Beautiful Place…, Gnarwolves, and Nervus. There were also international festival appearances at 2000 Trees, Arctangent, The Great Escape, TRUCK Festival, NXNE, Winnipeg Jazz Festival, Ottawa Explosion, and The Fest, plus a gruelling 8 week DIY tour of the USA and Canada which the band booked themselves. Spending the best part of the last two years living in separate countries (drummer Conor Dawson now lives in Belgium) also took its toll on their productivity, as she continues, “With SAD and Seafoam we were very much jamming in a room together and I would go away and write lyrics and structures, but with this record it was completely the opposite.” As demos flew back and forth between the pair at the start of 2019, the band finally felt ready to head back into the studio in March, with producer and friend Bob Cooper once again returning at the helm.