There’s a certain electricity that follows As December Falls (ADF) everywhere they go, not the TikTok-viral kind, not the industry-manufactured kind, but the kind that feels like static clinging to your clothes after you’ve left the gig. The Nottingham four-piece have built a reputation for doing everything the way most bands are told not to. No label, no safety net, no machine behind them, just an unshakeable belief that if you’re going to build something that lasts, you do it brick by brick, mistake by mistake, with your own hands.
Being independent isn’t a quirk for ADF. It’s the centre of their philosophy, a deliberate choice of equal parts frustration, ambition, and an almost reckless sense of integrity. As we sat down with vocalist Bethany Hunter and guitarist Ande Hunter, it became obvious that independence isn’t the “easy” route. It’s the route where you wear every hat, juggle every spinning plate, and somehow still smile at the end of it.
The conversation quickly dissolves the fantasy that anyone might have about DIY success being romantic. In reality, it’s a tactical grind with ADF chipping away at every part of being a band. “We’ve never been a band that focuses on one thing; we’re always doing everything all at once”, Beth states. Ande adding, “we’ve always been able to sell albums, sell records, and sell tickets.” While other acts accumulate millions of streams and can’t sell out a pub, ADF are selling tickets because their foundation is wide, not tall. They’ve built something sturdier than hype.
But with independence comes invisibility, at least in the eyes of the music world. “A lot of the industry hasn’t known about us,” Ande stated, “people don’t realise we’ve been a band for 11 years now. We’re on our fourth record!” With so much of the music sector being who you know, it can be a challenge for independent bands to get the word out about their music. Ande continues, “There are US bands that have much bigger streaming numbers than us, and their teams will look at us and go, oh, that’s not a good fit because they don’t stream as highly as you do. We’re playing 2,000-cap venues in the UK… you’re doing 200-cap. This is a perfect fit.” When ADF have thousands of fans who know every word, yet they’ve still struggled to get support slots because they aren’t backed by the “right people”, you start to wonder if it’s the artists or the industry that’s the issue.
Being a DIY band really means doing everything yourself, from the music to the marketing, management, and distribution, and everything in between. It really relies on everyone being able to wear multiple hats outside of the music in order to survive, so how do they make it work? “I feel like we have tried to delegate, but it just so happens that the delegation means that Ande normally handles nearly all of the business side of it now,” Beth says, with Ande adding “An average week might be that Beth is spending a full day doing content, and Timmy’s doing all of our customer service for our merch queries. Kieran’s managing our socials, and then we’ll be doing live streams and Discord. It’s just nonstop.” And yet, despite the grit, there’s no bitterness. Only pride.
As they tell the story of learning to self-manage their tours, you can sense the scars. Every mistake can be financially catastrophic when you’re funding it alone. One wrong turn, one incorrect advance, and suddenly the band’s bank account looks drier than a desert. As Ande explains a recent mishap that led to the delay of their most recent album, Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine, “I get a phone call on a Sunday… ‘I’ve got like 5,000 vinyl being delivered tomorrow… it looks like a house address.’ He reads it out, and I’m like, that’s my home address! Please do not bring 5,000 vinyl to my garden.” It just goes to show that it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows with Beth adding, “We’re still learning, we’re doing our first ever bus tour, but again, it’s completely self-managed. So, I was trying to figure out how to manage a bus tour and have another band with us, and it’s absolute chaos.” Although ADF have yet to face a blunder that’s cost them their livelihood or reputation, it just goes to show that one wrong foot could derail an independent band, unlike signed bands that have the financial support and aid, going it alone is ballsy. “I think it leads to endearing stories that we’re always living on the knife’s edge of making a mistake that’s going to have massive repercussions”, Ande concludes.
But something that has made a huge impact and given ADF some security is that their fans don’t just support them, they’ve become part of the process. The fans have seen the struggle in real time, the transparency, the late-night updates, the oversharing, the real human cracks beneath the musician façade. It’s become the glue binding the ADF community. “They know the only reason we achieve anything is because they’ve had our backs every step of the way”, Ande shares. “They’re alongside us. They know what we’re doing all the time, they know what I’ve had for breakfast! I think they feel that connection like they’re on the journey with us,” Beth adds.
Beth and Andy talk about their supporters with the same fondness most people reserve for childhood best friends. Being independent has forced them into an intimacy most artists never experience, and in turn, their fans have become fiercely protective of them. They’ve stayed indie because of this fanbase. It’s what keeps them afloat financially, emotionally, and creatively. Their followers don’t just stream music; they invest in the band’s survival. They show up, buy tickets, share posts, and spread the word like proud conspirators in a secret revolution. “I feel like the reason why we talk about it so much is because it’s never a reflection of us, it’s always a reflection of the fans” says Ande, adding “there’s an amount of pride around what we do, because they all know there’s not been some mega corporation buying us slots on festivals, or whatever it might be.”
There’s a repeated theme in ADF’s message: the fans like supporting the little guy. They like being part of the journey, not just watching from the sidelines, and a key to building this connection has been transparency. “I think we’ve just always taken the approach of tearing down walls first”, says Ande. Coupled with being so easily accessible to their audience, from doing more intimate in-store shows, to having their Discord channel and their live streams, fans always have a way to easily reach out to the band. “If you want to show me some really cool piece of fan art, just post in Discord, tag me, and I will jump straight in” Beth exclaimed with genuine excitement. This is a band that not only knows the importance of community when growing a following but enjoys being a part of it.
The love for this community is so apparent when they shared stories of their fans, from helping a young individual with a terminal illness to attend one of their shows to watching one of their fans grow alongside them. “We had a fan who was 14/15 when she came to her first show. She was so shy, and now she’s got into theatre, she’s up for awards. She’s turned into this absolutely incredible woman.” Beth’s face is beaming as she tells the story of watching someone flourish, and the pride radiating off her is impossible to miss.
Of course, this intimacy also comes with its complications. Alongside the heart-warming stories, there’s a gentle caution about setting boundaries. Mental health sometimes needs to come before fan access, especially when their lyrics tackle heavy emotional themes. “We’ve had some really dark stuff, like posts or letters or messages, and that stuff can really hurt you because you feel so powerless”, Ande admits. Beth continues as she outlines where they often try to signpost fans to mental health services, “We try to help, but what if I do give you advice and it’s incorrect because I’m not trained in this.” Whilst it’s incredible to be so accessible to an audience, when things start to pick up, as they have with ADF, lines need to be drawn somewhere because, at the end of the day, they are just people like everyone else.
But amongst the challenges, also comes positive change. Without these boundaries, ADF might never have started doing their live streams! “It got to a point where we’re doing shows that are big now. I can’t go out after the shows anymore because I can’t meet hundreds and hundreds of people.” Beth adds, “That’s one of the reasons why I started Twitch streaming. So, I was like, ‘hey, you can still chat to me!’” These changes have also been seen, or rather, heard in their music, with a shift of perspective and a light at the end of the tunnel. “At the beginning, when I started writing songs, it was very wallowy, whereas now, when I mention mental health, there’s always a positive turn and a way that we’re getting through it”, says Beth.
And now, with their new album leaning toward a more uplifting perspective, there’s a shift, not away from mental health, but toward recovery. A natural evolution for a band growing alongside the people who listen to them. Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine didn’t appear overnight; it was shaped, broken, rewritten, and rebuilt. Beth and Ande described their creative process with the same chaos and joy that defines their live shows. Tracks evolve mid-recording, inspirations shift, and sometimes a song becomes something completely new, like the transformation of ‘Bathroom Floor’.
With Beth detailing their usual songwriting process, “if they go through a couple of rewrites and we’re still not vibing, usually those songs very quickly get thrown in the bin. But I loved the chorus to Bathroom Floor, there’s no way people cannot hear this chorus.” She continued to say it was likely one of the first times she’d gotten more involved in the production side of the album. In previous albums, their usual format for writing followed their “roles” with Beth writing lyrics, Ande writing the riffs etc but these unwritten rules were thrown out the window for their latest album. “We were working a lot more closely with our producer; it gave us all the freedom to just wiggle into each other’s lanes. I think that meant that we just had so many more ideas flowing in the studio,” said Beth. With some ideas even sparking from a friend’s real-life experiences. The inspiration behind ‘For The Plot’ was from Beth’s best friend, who recently left a toxic relationship and had sent her bestie a voice note questioning, “who sends a fucking email?” A snippet which made its way into the final recording.
Then there’s ‘Therapy’, the spark that lit the album’s fuse and a lightbulb moment that made everything click into place. Beth recalls when their producer had done a rough mix of the track after finishing its recording, and the usual listening back of a track would result in more ideas flowing or changes that needed to be made, but that wasn’t the case this time. “He played this one, and rather than us being like, ‘oh my god, this slaps’, we were all really quiet, and we were just looking at each other like, guys, we’ve done it. I think this is the track, this is the song,” Beth recounted. As it’s such a catchy song, it wasn’t hard for fans and newcomers to get it stuck in their heads and for it to rapidly become one of their most listened to tracks.
At the heart of the album lies the message they want listeners to walk away with, whether it’s resilience, hope, or catharsis. “It’s a case of if people had listened to the album when they’re happy, I was hoping that they would dance along. If they find it when they’re sad, and I hope that they just know that they’re not alone,” Beth explained. With its themes of mental health wrapped in a positive, upbeat sound, the album, much like ADF, embodies this message fully.
As the band look ahead with the kind of excitement that only comes from knowing everything you’ve built is yours. Their album tour, with part one now complete, was a milestone, especially the Rock City date, which ended up being completely SOLD OUT! Beth reflected on the moment the venue was booked for the tour, and thinking “we’re going to Rock City, there’s going to be 100 people there”, but seeing the tickets selling one by one and comparing it to the last venue they’d played in their hometown, there was no denying it was the right venue for them. “I don’t think you realise when you’re in the moment how much you’re growing,” Beth continues, “it just suddenly clicks that actually what we’ve been doing the last couple of years has been working.” With it being such a hugely successful year for the band, announcing a part two for their tour and with icing on the cake in the form of a live DVD, it seems the sky is the limit for this Nottingham 4-piece.
With their recent success, Beth and Ande offered some advice to new bands and artists. Beth’s words of wisdom gave a centre point: “You’re going to feel pressured to be swayed different ways, but stay true to you, whatever that may be, make sure you’re on a path that feels correct in your heart.” In an industry that’s so creative and ruthless at the same time, it’s imperative to find your nucleus… yourself. With Ande adding some pointers for handling that hardy side of the industry, including “Focusing on learning how to find new fans and get them in is more important than anything else that you can do.” Alongside some tips like avoiding signing with a label straight away, and being consistent with building your business, so that you have some bargaining power.
Who knows exactly what the future holds, but with the traction ADF have been gaining and their cult-like following, we know it’s not going away any time soon! They are living proof that you don’t need a label to build something real. You just need a ridiculous work ethic, a loyal community, and a belief that doing things your own way, even when it’s messy, is worth it. And as they step into their next chapter, confetti cannons primed and fans behind them, one thing feels certain: They didn’t just build a band. They built a movement.