Hello world,
We’ve got this week’s FP Picks update and it’s full of banging fresh cuts fm Fat Dog, Tom A. Smith, Mac DeMarco & lots more. If you like what you hear please follow and share this playlist, it helps us keep doing our thing by getting the algorithms on our side. Also please support the artists featured in any way you can!
Until next week
Helen (Futureproof) x
Fat Dog – Pray To That
Fat Dog have unveiled their frantic new single Pray To That, taken from their debut album WOOF and it’s co-produced by frontman Joe Love and Dan Carey. The accompanying video comes courtesy of Dylan Coates with Love starring as a wayward preacher. Already notorious for their brand of genre-bending, skull crushing, electro-rock, Fat Dog will pull you in, chew you up and spit you out on the absolute monster that is Pray To That. Keyboardist Chris Hughes said to NME: “What we’ve got as a band is special. I hear things from my friends who are in other groups, and there just seems to be constant animosity elsewhere. We get these moments where everything lines up: sometimes, we all look at each other on stage, and quietly recognise that we’re playing a really good gig. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Dead Air – Fast Food World
South London punks Dead Air have shared their high-powered new single Fast Food World. Taking aim at global overconsumption, throwaway culture and society’s ever-growing obsession with greed over substance, Dead Air have clapped back the only way they know how – with high speed riffs, furiously biting lyrics, and as many breakdowns as they can fit into three minutes. They state: “The idea came from us all working and touring and writing, just living the day-to-day of being in the industry. Over the last couple years, it’s felt like there’s this overwhelming obsession with things like AI and just… the commercial side of music. So much of it feels soulless now. Reuben started throwing around the phrase ‘Fast Food Music’ and it stuck.”
Dream Nails – Organoid
London punk trio Dream Nails reveal their third album You Wish alongside new single Organoid, exploring digital-age anxiety and human resilience. “It’s about the fight to stay human in the outright insanity of the digital age,” drummer Lucy Katz explains. “It’s a response to feeling silenced by the tech overlords and the toxic social environment they have created, which corrupts how we all relate to each other and ourselves.” Guitarist Anya Pearson states: “This is a punk album about resilience. Each song a story of strength. It’s called You Wish because it perfectly captures our punk swagger counterpointed with our cosmic optimism.”
Tom A. Smith – Fashion
Tom A. Smith has signed to Fiction and dropped yet another anthemic banger in the new single Fashion. It’s a track that showcases the urgency and drive of the artist’s sound and style, packed full of razor-sharp riffs and a swaggering, charismatic allure that feels timeless throughout. Ever-maturing alongside his sound and style, Tom’s vocals have a real sense of grit and bite to them that on the new release that pairs really well his dynamic alternative rock style and approach to his writing. Tom states: “Signing to Fiction is incredible. So many of my influences came through this label and I feel that connection already. It’s a real honour, and Fashion feels like the perfect way to kick off this new era.” We say it every time a new single comes out but Tom really does just get better and better!
Suede – Dancing With The Europeans
Suede have shared the uplifting & optimistic new single Dancing With The Europeans. Frontman Brett Anderson states: “I remember specifically we were doing a gig in Spain during the time we were writing this album. I was going through a bad time and at a low, personally. But we played this brilliant gig. There was a great connection between me and the audience. I thought of the phrase, dancing with the Europeans. There’s something about that word, Europeans, that I really like. The phrase summed up the experience of looking for connection in a disconnected world. This sense of, where do we find those bonds with our fellow human beings? That show in Spain broke down those barriers.”
shame – Quiet Life
South London band shame have released rockabilly-influenced single Quiet Life, taken from their forthcoming new album Cutthroat. Vocalist Charlie Steen says: “Quiet Life is about someone in a shitty relationship. It’s about the judgment they receive and the struggle that they have to go through, trying to understand the conflict they face, of wanting a better life… but being stuck.” The new album, produced by Grammy winner John Congleton, marks a creative evolution for the five-piece. “It’s about the cowards, the cunts, the hypocrites,” says Steen. “Let’s face it, there’s a lot of them around right now.” Guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith incorporated electronic elements into the band’s sound, bringing together his previous separate creative endeavours. “This time, anything could go if it sounded good and you got it right,” he notes.
Wolf Alice – White Horses
London rock band Wolf Alice have shared powerful new single White Horses, taken from their upcoming album The Clearing and it’s about locating roots and foundations, coming from a highly personal place. Featuring drummer Joel Amey sharing rapid fire lead vocals with Ellie Rowsell, it is based around a hypnotic acoustic guitar riff that propels the psych-flavoured track like a driving synth line. Amey states: “I was inspired by what songs we had already that were becoming The Clearing; the sonic shapes we were creating, the big acoustics, the harmonies, but I wanted to underpin it with a driving krautrock beat.”
Tyler Ballgame – Got A New Car
Tyler Ballgame has shared the exuberant new single Got A New Car and it begins with a simple acoustic guitar melody and some jangly percussion before Ballgame is joined by a full band. Regarding the philosopher Alan Watts’ influence on the song’s lyrics, Ballgame shared: “Watts said ‘The ego is an obsolete vehicle for human consciousness.’ So I wondered, what if I bought a new car? It’s about my spiritual awakening. Realizing I’m not this set of stories. I don’t need to attach to stuff around expectations, which is 90 percent of human suffering. There’s so much peace under personality, there’s so much peace in the cessation of the active mind and surrendering to the Now.”
Mac DeMarco – Holy
Mac DeMarco has shared the captivating new single Holy from his upcoming album Guitar – a sparse yet cosmic tune about superstition. The track comes with an endearingly goofy music video, about which the singer-songwriter explains: “I waded around in the ocean fully clothed for a couple hours and completely filled my boots with seawater. There were some other shots on some rocks I kept trying too, but in the end the clip of me falling in the garden and eating the apple was best. Thank you for listening.” Of the album, Mac states: “I think Guitar is as close to a true representation of where I’m at in my life today as I can manage to put to paper. I’m happy to share this music, and look forward to playing these songs as many places as I’m able.”
NoSo – Who Made You This Sweet?
Korean-American singer-songwriter NoSo has shared new single Who Made You This Sweet?, taken from forthcoming album When Are You Leaving? Built on a minimal arrangement, just finger-picked acoustic guitar, a gentle synth, and soft, layered vocals the song radiates an unrivalled intimacy. When reflecting on the song, Baek states: “This was the first song I wrote for the album, and it’s always held a special weight for me. It’s a bittersweet reflection on someone who made me feel deeply seen and the kind of rare kindness that stays with you. I wrote it while living in a quiet house with French doors that opened to the backyard, where the light would pour in and birds would sing in the mornings…That house, and that relationship, will always live in a tender corner of my memory.”
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