Offtask at Dublin Castle, London

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by Rebecca Tregaskis

Brighton-based band Offtask recently returned to London, bringing their sound to one of Camden’s most iconic music venues. Consisting of Frontman Kian, Lead Guitarist Oscar, Bassists Dan and Drummer Luke, Offtask sit somewhere between indie and alternative.  

Headlining Dublin Castle for the first time, the band brought the classic Brighton band sound to the stage. Delivering a confident set that drew out an energetic response from the crowd, Offtask proved themselves as present, captivating performers. 

Ahead of the show, Echo Magazine spoke with them about their journey so far, their dynamics as a band and what is up next for them. 

Echo Magazine: How does it feel to be back in London? 

Oscar: It’s good to be back in London. 
This is a cool venue. I've seen a lot of the artists that played here before. It’s cool to be part of this line-up tonight. 

Dan: Feels pretty crazy to be headlining in London. Nice to be done with exams and headlining a gig in London. Couldn’t be better really. 

How did you guys meet? 

Kian: I met Oscar first. I've known Oscar since 2017, 2018. 
We went to a secondary school together. We were in a band together back home. Luke lived opposite me in the first year. 
I don't think you (Luke) liked me very much when we first met. 

Luke: We just bumped into each other in the corridor. He was like, ‘oh, you should come around for pres.’ I was just chatting to Kian, and I was like, ‘oh yeah, I quite like my music and I play drums’ He was like ‘do you?’ He didn’t trust me. He was like ‘how long have you played for?’

Kian: I needed to make sure you were legit. 

Kian: We met Dan through Snap Chat. We have loads of mutual friends. Our mutual friends failed to tell me that she had a mate who played bass. I put up a post on the Snap Chat story for Sussex Uni asking if ‘anyone knew anyone who plays bass’ and he just sent me a video of him playing bass. 

Luke: I remember Kian showing me a video of you and he was like ‘it looks like he can play bass.’ 

Kian: I didn’t really know what I was expecting from a bassist though. 

Luke: I think it was when you (Dan) were tuning by ear and we were like ‘Oh, okay I think he’s good.’ 

Dan: I have been playing bass for eight years when I met you guys and now 10 years, so, yeah. 
 I know a little bit. I know what all the notes are. It just clicked when we first practiced together. 

South came out at the end of last summer, how do you guys think you’ve evolved as a band 

Kian: probably changed a lot, I think. Definitely got a bit more confident. I know I have more confidence with singing. I haven't really been a front man for that long before this band. 
I was the drummer before. Oh, okay. I think we've definitely leaned more into the alternative side of things a bit more. 


Dan: South was written before Offtask existed. The rest of our music was written for the band. It's what we all brought together, but South is our crowd pleaser.

How does the dynamic work between the four of you when you guys are creating music? 

Kian: I feel like we’re all very different people sometimes. I think that really works.

Luke: I don't think anyone is afraid to be like, ‘that sounds terrible, don't do that.’ It works well. 
I know no one's going to be pissed off if someone says that. Never ended in tears.

Dan: I think it also does help that Kian was a drummer. I’ve played guitar before, and we’ve all been in a million bands before. I can suggest a drum part to Luke and either he does that, or he doesn’t. He’ll know what’s best for it. I’ll feel comfortable suggesting it to them. 

Luke: These two (Oscar and Kian) write a lot of stuff together and turn up 

Kian: I feel like the process remains the same for a lot of the songs.

Luke: You’ll turn up with something and then you’ll give a basic idea of what you’d like and then we just run with it. 

Kian: With South, because it was our first time ever recording, we really underestimated the power of pre-production recording. None of us had a fully laid down idea of what we wanted to do. 

Dan: There were like 18 takes for the lead guitar part on South. 

Kian: It was so worth it. I think when we all started, we were quite perfectionists. It’s good that we knew what we wanted, it just took us a sec to figure out how to get what we wanted. 

Dan: We’ve reached a point now as a band where Kian will just show up with some chords and in like an hour, two-hour band practice, it'll all just come together because we've been together for two years now. We'll know what we're playing, and we trust each other to know what we need to do to bring a whole song together. 

Oscar: I think it's just about being able to respect each other’s ideas but also say if we're not really feeling it. Just to kind of understand that and understand what's best for the band. We've never really abandoned songs before. We really keep chipping away, even if you know, a song ends up starting completely differently to when it was first conceptualised. We get there in the end. 

How does it feel to be headlining the green door next month?

Kian: Pretty gassed. We’ve been there a lot for the club nights. They just play pretentious indie music and that’s us.

Dan: We’re the pretentious indie music…ultimately the dream of a band in Brighton is to play Green Door because it is the indie venue in Brighton. 

Luke: It feels like a special place to us because we’ve spent so much time there over the past three years. To headline during graduation week as well it’s going to be good. To us, it feels important. 

Dan: There’s bands I know from America who have come over and played Green Door as their UK date. It’s a good venue, it’s a storied venue and it’s a fun venue. 

Kian: I can’t believe the first time we’re playing it; we’re headlining. Originally, we wanted to book it out just because we wanted to play a gig at graduation week and then they were like ‘you can just play at one of our nights.’ 

What’s your favourite part/moment about being in the band? 

Kian: I like when we get a pint after rehearsals. 

Oscar: You can’t say that but he’s not wrong.

Kian: I feel like it’s something you can’t really get from anything else. You have your personal life and then you’ve got this thing that’s not really a profession - preferably we’d like it to be a profession - it’s a weird combination of hanging out with your friends but feeling good. Doing something worthwhile. 

Dan: We have lost several thousand pounds over the last two years. When you're in the rehearsal studio and you're writing songs with your friends, it feels like you're having a conversation but not about something you could ever talk about. You're all bringing something different. We take the piss out of each other, we have a massive laugh, but you're writing something together that's sort of bigger than all of you and it’s amazing fun. 

Oscar: It’s an outlet you can’t really get with anything else. People will have some form of art where it feels the most rewarding. I think for all of us, that’s just music. Being in a band with people that you truly love and trust, it’s important and something money can’t buy. We all feel lucky to have each other. 

What’s next for you guys? 

Dan: I think we’re all staying in Brighton. 

Oscar: We’re going to keep it going. Take on the world. Offtask world tour. We want to get some more gigs going across the country. We’ve not played any gigs further north than London.

Kian: It’d be cool to check out surrounding towns - Manchester, Birmingham, Worthing - reach for the stars. 

Dan: We do need to release the EP. It’s just so expensive to record these days. 

Kian: Probably in the summer we’ll try and get some recording going. I mean, trying to get everyone in one place is a struggle. It was a struggle to get everyone in one place for this interview today and we were all in the same place. 

Dan: We said last year we’ll try and get an EP out at the end of this year, and it didn’t happen. We got two singles out, but we want to try and get an EP out at the end of 2026. 

Kian: It’ll be nice to have something out there forever. If anything, releasing music is a permanent form of existing. I love this band. I love this band; I love my bandmates. 

Oscar: Long live Offtask.