Writing standout songs is only half the battle when you are a band hailing from Merseyside. Being journalistically pitted against Liverpool’s masterful musicians of the last few decades makes it no easy feat for new artists.

Fortunately, for Wirral-based By The Sea, long days and late nights honing their dreamlike guitar-pop meant their eponymous debut LP broke the banks of the river Mersey, elevating them from locality and gaining them appraisal from all manner of press. “I think it’s because you get unfairly pegged with the 60s revivalist thing when you’re from in and around Liverpool,” indicates frontman Liam Power. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing necessarily, but when you aren’t consciously adhering to that sound it is as if people haven’t really listened to the songs.”

A passionate belief in his own material has ensured Power has always overlooked potential comparative restraints and set about curating a melodic variety of songs where ethereal instrumentals are cut through by floating vocals and rounded with enriching choruses. Whilst all of this makes for enticing listening, it wasn’t all plain sailing during the formative process of By The Sea’s first release. “The first album was a proper labour of love. It seemed to take forever to do, as we didn’t really have any monetary backing. We had this beg, steal, borrow thing going on,” recalls Power. “We’ve always had a sense of ‘This is what we’ve got; let’s record as much of it as we can, with whoever we can, for as little money as possible’.”

Enter their own label War Room Records, on which Endless Days, Crystal Sky became the introductory release. “We’d had the tunes for a year or so and there’s only so much gigging you can do,” reasons Power. Where does this motivation come from? “Blind faith. Boredom. Avoiding having to work in Argos. It’ll just hit after a week or so without playing; then we’ll be in the practice room every night until 3am. It’s become habitual now.”