As Everything Unfolds

eastside present
AS EVERYTHING UNFOLDS
plus support
Sunday 7th February 2027
Newcastle - Northumbria University SU
Doors 7pm

Depth. An infinity loop of layers that unravel over time, reserved for the most observant of
eyes – for those who long to dig beneath the surface. In the case of Charlie Rolfe, the
importance of depth has come to define both the art that she creates – as frontwoman and
lead vocalist of As Everything Unfolds – and recontextualise the art she holds dearest.
“As I've got older, I've appreciated the depth of anything in my life,” she explains. “I can
never accept something for how it is on the surface, I have to understand it.” Whether it’s the
allegories and social commentary in Blade Runner, the secrets of the vaults in the Fallout
video games or My Chemical Romance’s seminal album ‘The Black Parade’ – which she will
see performed live in its entirety on her 30th birthday – that desire for artistic depth flows
through Charlie.
“I love absorbing information,” she adds. “I think that information is one of the most powerful
tools in the world, and it's undervalued by a lot of people. The more you know, the more you
can potentially set yourself free.” Which brings us to just one thread of the concept behind
‘DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE?’, the first album from the Buckinghamshire quartet since
signing to Century Media Records (Electric Callboy, Heriot).
Set free from who? What? Where? The rigour of that question is what characterises the
fluidity of As Everything Unfolds’ third full-length, which grapples with the tightrope between
a dream state and reality. Should you walk the tightrope and risk leaving your safe haven of
fantasy, or do you continue to live vicariously through other characters and worlds? Do you
want to? Are you able to? Whatever the choice – conscious or otherwise – will you find
‘freedom’ at the end of the road? That never-ending labyrinth of questions, not answers, is
what shapes the crux of the record.
Having supported new labelmates Electric Callboy and genre-bending experts Enter Shikari
around the release of 2023’s ‘Ultraviolet’, tragedy hit camp As Everything Unfolds in August
2024 when drummer Jamie Gowers, who was also Charlie’s boyfriend, passed away.
Midway through writing this album, with a dream support tour with Bury Tomorrow on the
horizon, the quartet – completed by Adam Kerr (guitar), George Hunt (bass) and Jon
Cassidy (keys) – banded together to re-ignite the flames of As Everything Unfolds.
“It's going to be shit and it's going to be horrible, but running away from it felt like the wrong
thing to do.” recalls Charlie. “This is the hardest record we will ever have to do – how can
we flip it into something we’re proud of, and give it the longevity and legacy it deserves?”
Taking two years to give writing and pre-production the TLC it deserved, the album was
recorded between London and Hawley across three weeks in February 2025.
Despite initially feeling – understandably – like a record of two…