Being in a rock ‘n’ roll band based in Los Angeles sounds, on the face of it, like the basis of many young fantasies.

In the course of making their second album, though, Bleached – consisting of songwriting sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin, Micayla Grace and Nick Pillot – experienced an altogether less romantic version of the city.

Welcome the Worms, released earlier this year, was created as singer Jennifer was going through a period of depression after the end of a torrid relationship. Working whole-heartedly on the record provided a “refuge,” but, inevitably, some of the album is informed by this difficult spell.

Los Angeles was wrapped up in this; the press release for the album dictated that it was based around “the life of eye-rolling caused by dating men in bands, dirty Sunset Boulevard and futile drunken nights”. On the other hand, Jennifer says she was “in a time of such trouble I felt like Los Angeles was my best friend”.

For better or worse, the city saturates the record: “I didn’t realise how LA this record was until it was done.”

Ahead of a gig at The Green Door Store on Sunday, as part of promotion company Be Nothing’s fifth birthday event, Jennifer said she was treading the precarious line between debauchery and nihilism as she spiralled into excess and depression.

“There were times when I was like, ‘is this ever going to end?’. You kind of become a victim in your own game, and it is about taking control of your life and making it what you want it to be. But I had to hit rock bottom to see that...a blessing in disguise.”

Of the band’s new songs, Chemical Air was written when Jennifer was “thinking about the Hollywood sign”, and Desolate Town is about loneliness in a city of thousands of people. Some of the album was recorded in Joshua Tree, where U2 have famously recorded. While in this desert landscape, writing songs about LA “felt like singing about an ex”. Even away from the city, it loomed large on the consciousness of the band.

“They say when you get clean you should do it where you will be living, so you create your lifestyle within your surroundings,” says Jennifer. “Figuring out how to manage depression in a productive way was important.”

The temptation of vice always exists in a city with thousands of late-night bars and clubs, but Jennifer went from losing herself in such locations to grappling back a level of control over her wellbeing.

“If you start living healthier you can enjoy the late nights as a healthy person, and you don’t get sucked in to that kind of life.”

Bassist Micayla indicates that this fine balance of LA life – between wellbeing and the “tons of distractions and excesses of the city” – extends to the life of a touring musician generally.

“You don’t have an anchor until you reach land. The work is hard and the dangers are real, but the sleep is more satisfying and contented because you’ve earned it.”

Bleached worked with Joe Chicharelli on Welcome the Worms, the esteemed producer behind music by Elton John and The Strokes.

One of the pieces of advice he gave to Jennifer and Jessica was to “never lose the pop melodies” that Bleached build their sound around. Despite this accessible touch, though, the band are adamant that a rougher edge is never far from the agenda.

Jennifer states: “I don’t want to be in a pop band, I want to be in a punk band.” While Micayla says that the sisters “wouldn’t be able to steer away from their true LA rock ‘n’ roll selves if they tried” .

Through thick and thin, Bleached and Los Angeles remain intrinsically linked.

Edwin Gilson

Bleached, Be Nothing is 5, Green Door Store, Lower Goods Yard, Brighton, Sunday, August 7, From 3pm, £5, 07944 693214