If you just tuned in to my live interview with Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music then you will know that the cat is now out of the bag (or the first single at least…) and you can now preorder my new album, As We Once Were.
It will be released via Last Night From Glasgow this Summer and there’s lots of limited edition goodies on offer so don’t sleep on this. The first 100 copies of the double LP and first 100 CDs sold by LNFG will also be signed by me. There’s also lots of bundle discounts if you want multiple formats and even the option to include a rare test pressing: Preorder the album here.
We’ve also just announced a one-off special album launch show at London’s legendary 100 Club – the oldest independent venue in the world – on Saturday August 22nd with a parent-friendly early curfew of 10pm. Tickets are very limited and go on sale on Tuesday 14th April at 10am here.
BBC 6 MUSIC PREMIERE & NME FIRST INTERVIEW
Thanks to everyone who tuned in live tonight to BBC 6Music with Lamacq playing the first single from the album, ‘I Had A Baby Not A Lobotomy’ and chatting about all my exciting news! If you missed it, you can listen back to the show here.
If that wasn’t enough, you can also now watch the shiny new lyric video for the first single and read my first interview about the album exclusively with the NME here.
ALBUM FORMATS
SO… what will you be getting? 14 tracks and around 58 minutes of brand new music. Formats wise, the album will be released on 2LP vinyl (in two colour options: coral and linen) with a leopard print etching on side 4 which I’m very excited about. Apparently this is the closest you can get to actual leopard print vinyl. Yes I did ask.
The standard gatefold CD will come with a lovely 24 page lyric booklet, while for the completists, the ltd edition deluxe 2CD hardback media book edition will include a 48 page hardback book with exclusive artwork, unseen photos, extended liner notes, scans from my studio notebooks + 1 additional CD featuring original demos, alternative mixes, and writing demos. All for just £25.
A strictly limited edition cassette album will also be available to conceptually complete the beautiful back cover art, which has been lovingly created again by Simon Morse at Standard Designs in homage to the lost cassette tape of my grandmother’s voice that inspired much of the album. No spoilers on that just yet as it will give away some of the very special guests that appear on the record that I will be teasing you all with over the coming weeks…
As We Once Were is my third studio album and the long-awaited follow-up to the UK Top 40 album The Art Of Losing, which scooped up a rack of Album of The Year nods from The Sunday Times, to Prog, to the Mail on Sunday. With Sir Elton John naming it “one of my favourite records of the year” and Caitlin Moran calling it “the inadvertent, beautiful and truthful soundtrack to this moment”, it went on to sell over 10,000 physical copies via the power of word of mouth.
I created this new album at my very own Black Lodge Studios, while being given access to Pete Townshend’s collection of vintage analogue synthesisers to produce an epic 14-track widescreen exploration of the nature of time and transformation.
Against the backdrop of the birth of my daughter (after the multiple losses documented on The Art Of Losing) and the discovery of my grandmother’s voice on a long lost cassette tape in her mother’s attic, I found myself asking the question: “What can we build out of the past? Are we destined to be held down by it? Can we ever return to these past versions of ourselves?”
This is As We Once Were.
I really think it’s my best work to date. And you know what a perfectionist I am…
Preorder it now and be part of this new chapter.