Girl Band are excited to share ‘Going Norway’ the second single from their new album ‘The Talkies’, out on Rough Trade Records on September 27th. ‘The Talkies’ is the follow up to the band’s critically acclaimed debut LP ‘Holding Hands with Jamie’, of which Pitchfork wrote, “it’s hard to think of another guitar-based band conjuring fear this exhilarating and volume this rapturous.” Following on the heels of lead single ‘Shoulderblades’, ‘Going Norway’ debuted with a Bob Gallagher directed music video for the track, and can be found streaming on all DSPs. A 7” vinyl version of the single is also out now.
‘The Talkies’ was produced by the band’s own Daniel Fox, and recorded in November 2018 at Ballintubbert House, a stately manor on the outskirts of Dublin. “In many ways,” says band member Alan Duggan, “the idea behind the album was to make an audio representation of the manor home.” The space became Girl Band’s sonic playground as the members worked to adjust to the house’s corners and textures to create the soundscape of the record.”
Dara comments, “‘Going Norway’ was actually one of the first tracks we finished but the melody actually comes from a track that I wrote about 8 years ago. I saved that melody and brought it up when I didn’t have any ideas left, I was also doing a lot of mindfulness mediation around the time of it, so lyrically I decided not to use any pronouns within ‘Going Norway’ and the whole album – that came about when I came across this quote from the Buddha which was ’Nothing is to be clung to as I, me or mine’ – and I removed all that in a way to kind of find an abstract world to live in.”
‘In Going Norway’, we hear the mimicry of Dara’s vocal to Alan’s guitar coming close to a moan, both simultaneously reaching outside of the confines of Adam’s steady, flitting snare sound: “And Why/ Is the Death/ So Alive?”. The track pushes and pulls against itself, and the emotion is felt within this combative movement and the elongation of vowels – the intensive repetition to the point of abstraction results in a violent discrepancy between language and meaning, as Dara draws attention instead to the way the mouth moves and how sound is formed.
Album Track List
Prolix
Going Norway
Shoulderblades
Couch Combover
Aibohphobia
Salmon of Knowledge
Akineton
Amygdala
Caveat
Laggard
Prefab Castle
Ereignis
Pre-order/pre-save ‘The Talkies’ here: https://girlband.ffm.to/thetalkies
LIVE
Oct 2nd – Chicago – Beat Kitchen
Oct 4th – Allston, MA – Great Scott
Oct 5th – Philly, PA – Boot and Saddle
Oct 6th – Washington, DC – Songbyrd, DC
Oct 8th – Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere
Nov 2nd – Manchester – Academy 2
Nov 5th – London – Electric Ballroom
Nov 7th – Brussels – Botanique (Sold Out)
Nov 8th – Utrecht – Le Guess Who? 2019
Nov 12th – Berlin – Bi Nuu
Nov 14th – Paris – La Maroquinerie
Nov 22nd – Dublin – Vicar Street (Sold Out)
Nov 23rd – Dublin – Vicar Street
Photo Credit: Richard Gilligan
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