Mouth Ulcers step back in time with dark post-punk single “Prevail”

The band began as an experiment, after a spontaneous decision sparked when guitarist and vocalist Zak Watson rediscovered a folder of riffs abandoned on his hard drive, three years earlier. “He rather impulsively decided to make one of them into a song,” they explain. It wasn’t until Watson reached out to Josephine Rose (guitar/vocals) and Jamie Lee Culver (bass), that they realized Mouth Ulcers is more a band than any.

Drawing from the shadowed architecture of 80s post-punk and goth, Mouth Ulcers have quickly become a new fixture in the corner of London’s moody underground, selling out early UK and Netherlands shows while still in their infancy as a band. Their sound has playfully been described as “music for vampires to dance to,” while also rooted in post-punk revivalism taking from Joy Division’s stark emotionality, The Cure’s romantic gloom, Bauhaus’ In the Flat Field – particularly Daniel Ash’s wiry guitar work. But there's an atmosphere beyond strict post-punk orthodoxy. They cite Grouper’s ambient melancholy alongside modern acts like Twin Tribes, DIIV, bdrmm, and The Soft Moon.

On their new single “Prevail,” the band takes a more cinematic turn, with the track drawing directly from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker, specifically the idea of “The Zone” – a hostile, reality-warping space that threatens both sanity and survival. “The lyrics are about the mental and physical struggle of ‘The Zone,’” says Mouth Ulcers. But the metaphor extends inward, into internal resistance. “Our songs frequently talk about emotional suppression, vulnerability and surviving your environments. It’s interesting the war we have sometimes with our mind, whilst it tricks you into thinking you are unsafe or in danger, whereas in fact you might be safe as ever. ‘Prevail’ is just a term for being more powerful than these emotions and being able to power through them without it ever hurting you.”

Released alongside a music video, the band lean into their description of making music “vampires can dance to.” Washed in blue light, they perform in a cellar adorned with lanterns before the video drifts into desolate shots of an abandoned English farm. Though comparisons to 80s goth are inevitable, Mouth Ulcers are quick to undercut nostalgia. “We’ve been told it’s a step back in time for a lot of people,” they laugh, “but we were all born in the 2000s.” The live show may feel like a relic from another era, but heavier grunge passages and shoegaze textures complicate the reference points.

Their recent signing to LAB Records marks the beginning of a more structured chapter. A seven-track EP on the way, physical and digital, accompanied by more videos. For a band that started as an afterthought, things are accelerating fast. If “Prevail” captures anything, it’s momentum: a song about psychological survival that refuses to linger in paralysis. And while Mouth Ulcers may borrow from the ghosts of post-punk past, they’re not content to haunt, but rather push forward.