MJ Hibbett & The Validators are back with a new album Still Valid on the 4th of July, which lead singer MJ Hibbett describes as “A Greatest Hits of what we’ve been up to for the past four years!” We have the premiere of the entire album here:
Opening track ’20 Things To Do Before You’re 30′ – a raucous rant about enjoying yourself whatever age you are – first appeared in ‘Hey Hey 16K’, a rock opera MJ took to last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and recently released on DVD, while album closer ‘We Did It Anyway’ first appeared in 2013’s touring show ‘Moon Horse VS The Mars Men Of Jupiter’.
Two songs were written to help drummer Tim Pattison get ready for his gigs supporting Mogwai with his old band, Prolapse. “Their songs are much longer and faster than ours,” says bass player Frankie Machine, “so we did some jams during practices to help him get match-fit, and they turned into ‘Burn It Down And Start Again’ and ‘(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock’.”
‘Can We Be Friends?’ is about two people meeting at the long-running Hibbettfest event in Kingswinford in 2014. “There was a big crowd that year to see MJ be presented with his own tribute album, which the festival organiser Ray Kirkham had put together in secret” explains violinist Tom McClure. “It featured people like Chris T-T and Gavin Osborn covering his songs – the only person who didn’t know about it was MJ himself!”
Every song tells a story; ‘Hills And Hollows’ was written in a failed attempt to become Poet Laureate Of Peterborough. ‘I Want To Find Out How It Ends’ was commissioned as the theme tune to online sitcom ‘A Brief History Of Time Travel’. ‘In The North Stand’ was made for a football-themed album also featuring Josie Long and Ballboy, which – like Michael Platini’s presidency of FIFA – seemed like a good idea at the time but never actually happened.
This is their sixth studio album. Since forming in 1999 they have performed live on Radio One, had a Record Of The Year in Rolling Stone, an Album Of The Day on 6Music, released one of the first ever viral videos, and toured the UK and Europe. They’ve done all this independently from record labels – writing, producing, designing and releasing all of their albums themselves. “If we could get access to a pressing plant we’d probably make our own CDs too!” says singer Emma Pattison.
Still Valid is released on MJ Hibbett’s own ‘Artists Against Success’ label via iTunes, Amazon and all digital download services on Monday 4 July 2016, with a limited edition CD version available exclusively from the band via their website, www.mjhibbett.co.uk.
LINKS to buy the album here:
Direct (for CDs) – http://mjhibbett.co.uk/releases/release.php?filename=stillvalid
Bandcamp – https://mjhibbett.bandcamp.com/album/still-valid
Amazon – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F7FJ84G/
