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Patty Walters and Ronnie Ish chart how they and their band got lost, then found themselves again on new album 'I Went to Hell and Back'.

- By Maddy Howell. Photographs by Jennifer McCord

Sometimes being in a band can seem like the dream. Escaping the monotony of your hometown, seeing the world with your best mates, and playing music to people who truly care about what you do, on a surface level there seems to be few downsides to packing up your life and picking up a guitar, but as we know, reality is a little more complicated.

After releasing 'The Great Depression' back in 2018, As It Is were seemingly living out the dream of bands all over the world. Spending the better part of two years out on the road celebrating the success of an ambitious, theatrical concept album and rounding affairs off with a sold-out show at London's Forum, things seemed to be going swell. But as the curtains were drawn on their latest era, they came to realise that it's possible to have a little too much of a good thing.

We worked so hard to connect with as many fans and play as many shows as possible, and we came off that cycle pretty bruised and broken, guitarist Ronnie Ish starts.

You take a shiny car off the lot, and everyone is so excited to be in it, but by the end of 'The Great Depression' touring cycle due to love, loss, success, and failures, we came to a screeching halt. It felt like half the tyres were missing, only three out of the five us were still in the vehicle, and it was all in flames.

Amidst burnout, grief, and saying amicable goodbyes to some bandmates and friends, As It Is made plans to record an EP to take to the Reading and Leeds Festival main stage. Booking a trip to LA in April 2020 to work with producer Zach Jones, as the weeks rolled by and the obvious followed, they soon found themselves scribbling crosses in the diary.

The first sign that COVID was very real was when we had to cancel that trip, Ronnie nods.