Who Are Vanderlye?
Vanderlye are an alternative rock band from Glasgow, blending anthemic indie rock with politically charged lyrics and atmospheric soundscapes, all brought to life through dynamic male-female dual lead vocals. Since forming in late 2023, they’ve gained serious momentum, with a top 10 spot in the Amazing Radio Charts, an Artist of the Week in Scotland on Sunday as well as being named one of the Artists to Watch by
Resonate Scotland in 2025. Sold-out hometown shows at venues like King Tut’s, Nice N’ Sleazy, and The Hug & Pint, along with a support slot at St Luke’s with Mickey 9s, have further solidified their reputation.
Their first six singles have earned international airplay and acclaim from tastemakers across the Scottish music scene. Guilty Lovers & Heartbreak Serenades won Single of the Year at the 2024 Unsigned Music Awards beating over 9,000 nominations. Terrible Comfort and This Plastic Ego were both long-listed for SNACK’s Scottish Single of the Year whilst 2025 single Romantic Anarchy received a 9/10 review from Northern Exposure.
The band’s debut EP, The Reckoning, dropped on May 23rd, following the release of their new single and title track Reckoning, the most successful track the band has released this year amassing over 15k streams in its first 60 days. The EP was met with rave reviews, with Hive Magazine hailing it with a flawless 10/10 score. With their second EP already fully recorded and more singles on the way including Blackout Sky on 19th September, 2025 is shaping up to be a defining year for the band.
Moreover, the band will be performing at the Glasgow festival Tenement Trail in October 2025 and will be headlining King Tuts in January 2026.
‘A band so hypnotic, they should come with a health warning… Imagine Britpop in a leather jacket colliding with grunge that hasn’t washed its hair in a week, and you’ve got Vanderlye."
- Angela Canavan, The Golden Bough
‘…their voices work so well together…this dynamic really helps to separate Vanderlye from the pack…a band you should buy your stock in now’.
– Jake MacFarlane, Hive Magazine
‘One of the best parts of this song is the build into the final chorus… creating a real tear-jerking atmosphere’.
- Kimmi Naidoo, Northern Exposure (‘Romantic Anarchy’ review)
THE RECKONING
THE STORY OF OUR DEBUT E.P
Marking a pivotal moment in the band’s evolution, The Reckoning is fuelled by emotional candour and unflinching vulnerability. It’s a meditation on endings, awakenings, and the dangerous beauty of looking in the mirror too long.
Speaking about the single, primary songwriter and frontman Sean McGarvey says:
“At its core, The Reckoning is about reclaiming agency. It’s very much what the title suggests – a critical juncture. The songs reflect the dualities of life and love - heartbreak and healing, guilt and growth, chaos and clarity. It's a reckoning with the past, and a tentative reach towards what lies ahead. We are all immensely proud of what we have achieved with this body of work and it feels like a real milestone in the story of Vanderlye so far”.
The Reckoning opens with ‘Understand’, a stark, haunting ballad penned by Becky Clarke after the unexpected death of a loved one. The song explores the self-destructive nature of mental illness and the lingering uncertainty often experienced by those affected by loss. Raw and vulnerable, Clarke’s voice, paired with sparse instrumentation, captures the ache of grief and fragile hope.
It flows seamlessly into the title track and single, ‘Reckoning’ — a soaring, bittersweet anthem of love, loss, and redemption. With intertwining female and male vocals from Becky and Sean, framed by sun-kissed guitars and vibrant indie textures, Vanderlye capture the heartbreak and beauty of facing the past head-on. Together, these tracks set the emotional tone for the EP: unflinching, melodic, and deeply human.
Across the EP, Vanderlye delve into fractured identities (This Plastic Ego), emotional inertia (Terrible Comfort), and the chaotic nature of love in a fractured world (Romantic Anarchy), before closing with the award-winning ‘Guilty Lovers & Heartbreak Serenades’ — a fragile, defiant hymn to self-acceptance that finds the grace in being broken — and the strength in owning it.
The Reckoning is not just another EP. It’s a declaration. A crossroads. A surrender and a statement. It captures the uncertainty of emotional evolution — the threat of losing everything and the promise of finding something more authentic in the rubble. The reckoning has arrived — and what comes next is anyone’s guess.
