Folly Group have released a new single called ‘Pressure Pad‘.’ The track is taken from their debut album Down There! which is set for release on 12th January 2024 via So Young Records. The band have also announced a new run of US tour dates. Following an acclaimed debut EP Awake And Hungry (also on So Young Records) and its follow-up in last year’s Human And Kind the new album arrives on the heels of the band’s critically acclaimed return with ‘Strange Neighbour’ last month and their packed-out tour with Brooklyn’s Geese, who are signed to Partisan Records.
The new single ‘Pressure Pad’ sees the band combining angular guitar lines with frenetic drumming, and synths reminiscent of 8-bit video games, before the track takes one of the album’s frequent unexpected diversions: this time into a trumpet section. Speaking on the themes behind the track, vocalist / drummer Sean Harper, says:
“Musically, ‘Pressure Pad’ is a testament to how far we’ve come as collaborators. Every different kind of remote or in-the-room collaboration we’ve ever found fruitful was involved in creating this Frankenstein’s Monster of a single. Its final version arrived after months of exchanging files, ideas and needless spanners in the works. This is probably the 6th or 7th iteration of this song, and its final form was ultimately dictated by a deadline – we’d probably never have been able to call it finished otherwise. Every room in which this album was made has birthed one or more elements of ‘Pressure Pad’: Louis’s flat, Tom’s flat, our rehearsal space, the studio where we recorded the bulk of the record.
Lyrically, it touches on someone else being a massive part of your self, but loving it. It’s about totally going with the flow of a relationship, becoming someone you never otherwise would have been, but not over-analysing that, rather being grateful for it”
Collaboratively self-produced by the full band, debut album Down There! explores being a young adult in this country: covering mental health (‘Bright Night’), physical health (‘Freeze’), financial pressures (‘East Flat Crows‘), and more. Its lyrics are split between Harper and guitarist / vocalist Louis Milburn, who – despite their respectively more abstract and literal styles – deal with shared themes of “disenfranchisement, dejection, anxiety and financial ruin,” Harper explains:
“For every personal step forward, an off-the-cuff decision by a politician we’ll never meet puts us two steps back – a lot of the time we’re basically furious.”
Folly Group Tour dates:
MARCH
6 – Brighton, Patterns
7 – Bedford, Esquires
8 – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
9 – Bristol, Strange Brew
12 – Birmingham, Dead Wax
13 – Liverpool, Arts Club
14 – Manchester, Yes (Pink Room)
15 – Leeds, Belgrave Music Hall
16 – Glasgow, King Tuts
19 – Newcastle, Cluny 2
20 – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
21 – London, Scala
APRIL
2 – Lille, Aeronef Club
3 – Paris, Le Pop Up Du Label
4 – La Roche Sur Yon, Quai M
6 – Bordeaux, Rock School Barbey*
7 – Donosti, Dabadaba
8 – Madrid, Maravillas
9 – Barcelona, Heliogabal
11 – Bologna, Locomotiv
12 – Bern, Isc
13 – Zurich, Bogen F
16 – Schorndorf, Manufaktur
17 – Prague, Cafe Lese
18 – Dresden, Polimagie Festival
19 – Berlin, Urban Spree
20 – Osnabrück, Pop Salon
23 – Cologne, Bumann & Sohn
24 – Nijmegen, Merleyn
25 – Amsterdam, Paradiso
26 – Rotterdam, Roodkapje
28 – Brussels, Botanique
MAY
8 – Brooklyn, Union Pool
10 – Montreal, L’Esco
11- Toronto, Monarch Tavern
13 – Chicago, Hideout
15- Los Angeles, Gold Diggers
* supporting Yard Act
For more information on Folly Group please check out their facebook and instagram.
