Following the release of their critically acclaimed second album ‘A Picture Of Good Health’, a recent A-listing on BBC 6 Music for ‘Hollow Thing’, a blistering BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale session for Jack Saunders and a packed out album launch in a Camden kebab shop, Hull outfit LIFE have shared a new video for album track ‘Excites Me’.
The animated, stop-motion video was directed by Manchester/York based artist Callum Scott-Dyson who says, “For ‘Excites Me’, we really wanted to do something manic and full of energy to match the pace of the track, while also develop a loose narrative that echoed some of the ideas in the song and lyrics. What started out as a more vague thing based around wanting to escape boring situations and explode with pent up rage, became a bit of a character piece about a man stuck in a boring job with lots of mundane things going on, who has to do something crazy to escape this life. Then the narrative gets crazier and crazier as his inner demon comes out and he grows into a rage filled monster.”
Speaking about the single, frontman Mez Green, said “Sometimes music hits you like a shot of pure adrenaline, like electricity in your blood stream, like a never ending firework. Sometimes music heals you. Sometimes music excites you. Music excites me. Let it excite you.”
A staple of the band’s set and a live favourite amongst fans, the video is announced midway through the bands UK headline tour. The band will be supported Night Flowers and local rising Hull band New Meds across their forthcoming shows. They will play the following dates:
Tues 5, November – Cookie, Leicester UK (^)
Wed 6, November – Moth Club, London UK (w/ Italia90)
Thurs 7, November – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff UK (#)
Fri 8, November – West End Centre, Aldershot UK (^)
Sun 10, November – Anvil, Bournemouth, UK (^)
Mon 11, November – Green Door Store, Brighton UK (^)
Tues 12, November – Joiners, Southampton UK (^)
Wed 13, November – Forum, Tunbridge Wells UK (^)
Thurs 14, November – Horn, St Albans UK (w/ Fiende Fatale)
Fri 15, November – Crauford Arms, Milton Keynes UK
Weds 4, December – Academy 2, Dublin IRE
Thurs 5, December – McHughs Basement, Belfast UK
Fri 6, December – Kasbah Club, Limerick UK
w/ support from:
^ = Night Flowers
# = New Meds
Tickets are on sale now from https://www.lifeband.co.uk/
Alongside the tour starting, ‘A Picture Of Good Health’ was also recently announced as Album Of The Day on BBC 6 Music, leading to the B-list addition of their previous single ‘Bum Hour’.
The band also embarked on a sold out two-week European tour as main support for IDLES as well as playing one of three sold-out London shows at the Electric Ballroom and have played packed out sets at various festivals throughout the year including: Glastonbury, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Pukkelpop, Best Kept Secret, Rock For People, Pahoda, Latitude and more.
Produced by Luke Smith (Foals) and mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer (Parquet Courts), the new album sees the band home in on a bigger and more focused sound whilst also channelling the lyrical content inwards. Whereas the band’s debut album ‘Popular Music’ was broadly political, the new album takes a more personal approach with beguilingly honest and brave lyrics that are bold in both sound and feeling, whilst also retaining the core DNA of their previous material.
Going on to speak about the album Mez says “A Picture of Good Health is not a collage of work but rather a snapshot of time; our time and the time of those around us. It’s political, but in a personal way. It’s a body of work that explores and examines the band’s inner-selves through a precise period; a period that has brought pain, loneliness, blood, guts, single parenthood, depression and the need for survival and love. It is the sense and need for belonging that is the resounding end note!”
‘A Picture Of Good Health’ is out now via band’s own label ‘Afghan Moon’ and also sees them partner for the first time with [PIAS].
