Stud Farm Mafia arrived with a question and a six-track gut punch. The Oxford heavy rock four-piece released their debut EP “Did You Have a Good Weekend?” on March 17th, a self-released slab of baritone riffs, stop-start grooves, and shout-along choruses that sounds like a band who have been waiting for exactly this moment. The wait was worth it.
Recorded with David Radahd-Jones at Red City Recordings in Manchester, the EP takes a throwaway piece of Monday-morning small talk and turns it into something with real teeth. The guitars snap between clipped rhythm patterns and warped, twisting lines. The bass barges into the mid-range and carries hooks of its own. The drums favour bounce over bludgeon, and when the choruses hit they feel less like rock moments and more like slogans the room already knows.
The songs hit specific targets with precision. “Ten Past Ten” dismantles the 9-5 loop. “So Pretty” and “Gun Show” take aim at gym-floor toxic masculinity through falsetto hooks and rap-rock swagger. “S.O.S.” builds its main riff around Morse code and doubles as a charity track supporting ActionAid, turning doomscroll-era anxiety into something loud and strangely hopeful. This is heavy music with a brain and a smirk, and it works.
The band, Cole Bryant on vocals, Nath Digman on guitars, Rikard Ridemark on bass, and Luke Evans on drums, rebuilt from previous projects with one clear goal: make something that actually sounds like them. Heavier, funnier, and a lot more honest. “Did You Have a Good Weekend?” delivers on all three counts, and then some.