Honeymoon Suite Music

Over the course of the last 30 years, a conception has developed within the music industry in which every new band arising from Manchester is dead set on recreating the sound that the likes of The Smiths, The Stone Roses and Oasis brought to the music scene across the 80s and 90s. Arkayla are not one of those bands. They are here with their own sound, their own influences, and determined to make music on their own terms.

Arkayla were formed in Manchester by lead vocalist / rhythm guitarist Cal Blakebrough and lead guitarist Finley Rubens in 2020. 2023 saw the addition of bassist Joey Harley, and a year later in 2024 saw Arkayla welcome drummer Dylan Murphy to the band, thus establishing the core lineup that has achieved great success over the last three years.

Arkayla’s first release came in March of 2023 with their debut single ‘Calling Time’ which, as of present, has attained just under 150,000 streams on Spotify. Calling Time is everything you want from a band’s debut single – an infectious chorus, eloquent lyricism and the kind of youthful swagger that only music can bring to the table.

Following the release of Calling Time, June of 2024 saw the release of Arkayla’s sophomore single, ‘Falling Down’. Whilst having a more melancholic sound in comparison to Calling Time, Falling Down is every bit as captivating as their debut single and, to date, is the band’s most streamed song on Spotify, with an admirable 395,000 streams on the streaming platform. The following months saw the release of two more singles by Arkayla – ‘Lost In A Valentine’ and ‘Rita’ which were released in July and August of 2024 respectively.

Succeeding the release of these four singles, Arkayla released their debut EP in October of 2024, titled Ella Malone. Ella Malone consists of the band’s previous three single releases in 2024 in addition to a new track ‘Ella Malone’ in which the EP is named after. As far as debut EPs go, I struggle to think of an indie rock band within the last decade that have released a debut EP as strong as this. Ella Malone doesn’t feel at all as if it is just four singles cobbled together under the excuse of releasing an EP – it is a cohesive, structured set of tracks which play off one another flawlessly.

Whilst Ella Malone provides evidence that there is still plenty of room for indie rock in the modern music industry, it just as much feels that the EP could have been released amidst the garage rock revival of the 2000s and slotted in perfectly. The balance in Arkayla’s sound is always a brilliant attribute to have as a band. It is often challenging for bands to find the perfect balance between originality and familiarity without swaying too far in one direction. Prioritising originality can often deter bands from following their instincts, as they apply too much emphasis on not wanting to be branded as a ‘rip off’ of one of the major players of the indie rock genre. On the other hand, placing too much emphasis on familiarity can stand in the way of a band from releasing music that brings something fresh and original to the genre – with instead focus being placed on replicating the sound of an already beloved band just to make a name for themselves within the industry (The Reytons).

February of 2025 saw Arkayla release Kempton Street Sessions, which featured acoustic versions of each of the four tracks on Ella Malone. Succeeding this, Arkayla released their sophomore EP, DON’T LOOK FOR ANSWERS in October of 2025. The EP consisted of two singles, ‘Doctor’ (released in August of 2025) and ‘Waste of Time’ (released in September of 2025) as well as two new tracks, ‘Long Way Back’ and ‘Fortune Teller’. I always find it refreshing when new bands, and I suppose artists in general, don’t feel the need to rush out releases on the back of the success of their previous one. There was a year between the releases of Ella Malone and DON’T LOOK FOR ANSWERS, with Kempton Street Sessions releasing at the midpoint between the two. I am unsure as to whether this was intentional or not (it probably was), but I see the release of Kempton Street Sessions marking the exact midpoint between the band’s first two EP releases as the perfect means to keep fans satisfied yet hungry for new music.

In November of 2025, it was announced that Arkayla would be supporting indie rock giants The Blossoms on their 2026 European tour in February of 2026. As fate would have it, Arkayla are in the middle of that tour right now and as I plan to upload this, they are playing at Cologne’s Die Kantine tonight. The same month, Arkayla announced their first headline tour of the UK which is set to take place in May of 2026. The second date of the tour is at the Sidney and Matilda in my hometown of Sheffield. You better believe I will be there.

Last month, it was also announced that Arkayla are to support the music royalty that is Paul Weller across his summer tour of the UK and Ireland (Bedford and Liverpool dates only). I obviously can’t speak for the band, but this would be a pretty big ‘made it’ moment for me if I was to be supporting Paul Weller on tour.

Now, I don’t believe this to be a Honeymoon Suite exclusive – however I also don’t believe the band have officially announced this yet, but Arkayla are set to release their third EP later this year. This may be redacted from the article if I was not meant to publicise this but if not, there you go. I have no doubt it’s going to be brilliant and over the coming years it is going to be so exciting to see the heights that Arkayla can reach. The world is truly their oyster.

Hope you enjoyed this, many thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far. ‘Rising Artists’ is going to be a series that I continue as part of my relentless determination to unearth and highlight some of the nation’s most exciting new artists. Check out Arkayla’s music if you can, because it’s bloody good shit.