86TVs deliver brand new single 'Tambourine', taken from their eagerly anticipated self-titled debut album which will be released on August 2.
‘Tambourine’ received its first play earlier this week from Huw Stephens at 6 Music, and arrives alongside a video directed by Louise Mason and Will White. After making a big impression with their debut EP You Don’t Have To Be Yourself Right Now and selling out their recent UK headline tour,all eyes now turn to the debut album from the band – consisting of Maccabees alumni Hugo and Felix White, their brother Will White, and drummer Jamie Morrison (Noisettes and Stereophonics).
One of the first songs that the band completed, ‘Tambourine’‘s spiky, new wave knot of guitars unspools into a soaring, life-affirming chorus. In retrospect, it feels like a song which provided the miracle answer to counter the anxiety of what would come next. Will says, “‘Tambourine’ was the first song we started working on as a band. It was written one summer when lots of people I knew were entering their thirties – a friend described their Dad as a ‘human tambourine’ and it all found its way into that song. It’s two minutes long, the most succinct and direct thing we’ve put out yet.”
Listen to ‘Tambourine’ by 86TVs on our Fulham Fan Playlist on Spotify.
86TVs is the sound of a band with nothing to prove, yet conversely with everything to prove – if only to themselves. For if you’ve done it all – topping charts, selling out multiple nights at Alexandra Palace, headlining festivals, winning awards – you really need to believe in what you’re doing to commit to starting all over again from scratch. Joy and escapism sparks from every moment, from the rousing yet tender four-way vocal harmonies to songs that span the spectrum from ragged post-punk to skeletal introspection.
The freewheeling liberation of the album’s music frames its lyrical themes, permeated with echoes of nostalgia, existential questions of purpose and a pervading sense of loss. The White brothers lost their mother to MS when they were children and even though no song specifically addresses that, their shared experience is something that informs much of the record’s mood and reflections. Yet collectively, it’s a record in which catharsis, resilience and new dawns overcome the moments of sadness.
Felix says: “The feeling of missing someone comes up a lot in many different ways on the album. There’s a complexity to grief. There are moments where it feels like it happened yesterday and others where you can’t even remember it. Maybe it feels that there are certain things that are easier to communicate in a song. After our first gig someone came up to me and said it sounded like The Strokes if they’d had therapy.”
It’s also an album with an unusual genesis. Just days after bringing the final curtain down on The Maccabees, the three White brothers were back together making music with no particular goal in mind – an instrumental soundtrack, perhaps? But the arrival of Jamie sharpened their focus into fully realised songs. So, in a sense, this record was the project of five years work. Yet in another, its actual sessions – with producer Stephen Street (The Maccabees’ ‘Colour It In’, Blur, Suede) – were completed in a little over a week. And now, for all four members, an exciting new era is rapidly gathering momentum.
The band will celebrate the album’s release by embarking upon a series of in-store acoustic launch shows and signing sessions. Fans can access the shows by pre-ordering the album HERE. In the meantime, 86TVs are hitting the summer festival circuit, starting at the Isle of Wight ahead of Truck, Tramlines and more. They will also play Alexandra Palace Park as special guests to Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
