Visa Anxiety’s debut EP, What Can I Get For You? Love, is a study in motion. Formed in 2021 by Emilio, Jamie, Jimi, and Ethan, the band writes from the in-between: between continents, languages, and stages of early adulthood. The four-track EP is less about arriving somewhere and more about chronicling the residue of constant movement—its restlessness, its quiet anxieties, and the subtle victories hidden in mundane survival.
Opening with “Closed Eyes,” Visa Anxiety immediately stakes their claim as a band that understands the poetry of liminal space. Mandarin lyrics weave through British-indie guitar textures, creating a sense of intimacy that is both precise and understated. It’s an exercise in emotional honesty, where reinvention feels less like performance and more like self-recognition.
The title track, inspired by Emilio’s bartending shifts at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, interrogates the dissonance between public and private selves. Lines born from repetition and service—“What can I get for you, love?”—become refracted into a meditation on history, labor, and ambition. It’s an exploration of survival as a creative act, framed with a gentle tension that resonates across the EP.
“Life Is Worth It” dives into the quiet pressures of modern life, channeling the fatigue of constant optimization into lyrics that are reflective rather than confessional. The band balances restrained introspection with moments of musical lift, alternating diary-like verses with bursts of distorted guitar-driven choruses, evoking an emotional landscape that is as nuanced as it is relatable.
The EP closes with “Summer Is Coming,” a track that gestures toward hope without offering tidy resolutions. It’s a quiet triumph, a forward-looking note that acknowledges uncertainty while embracing the momentum of life in transit.
Throughout What Can I Get For You? Love, Visa Anxiety reveal themselves as unexpectedly cool and quietly confident—playfully honest, emotionally resonant, and creatively rooted. Their fusion of UK indie sensibilities with East Asian musical textures, alongside bilingual lyricism, positions them as a band uniquely attuned to the complexities of belonging, identity, and migration. The record doesn’t just sound like a journey; it feels like one, mapping the space between arrival and continuity with care and clarity.
Visa Anxiety’s debut is a subtle, emotionally charged statement: reflective but never stagnant, tentative but ultimately uplifting. It’s a promising start, and if this is what they sound like in transit, one can only imagine where they’ll go next.
