Blossoms release new single, ‘Additional Driver’, the latest track taken from their forthcoming sixth studio album, Songs From The Wedding Cake.
Co-written with Declan McKenna, who also features on the track, ‘Additional Driver’ is a disco-flecked earworm inspired by a minor car collision involving frontman Tom Ogden outside Manchester’s O2 Apollo.
The song was written when Blossoms and McKenna decamped to an Airbnb in Anglesey – the same place the band previously visited with CMAT during sessions for their last album Gary, where they wrote fan favourite ‘I Like Your Look’.
Listen to ‘Additional Driver’ on the Manchester City playlist.
The starting point for ‘Additional Driver’ came from a Friday night when Ogden was on his way to pick up, “It was a Friday night and I was picking up Katie when I had this collision,” says Ogden. “The police were just there to make sure we exchanged details, but from the outside it looked like a full-on incident to the people going to the gig opposite at the Apollo. Just as I’m passing my driving licence over, I get a tap on my shoulder from a 21-year-old kid who just said, ‘Sorry mate, can I get a selfie?’ I obviously had to say yes, but the police and the woman involved had no idea what was going on.”
The brand new video, sees a re-enactment of the events, featuring Declan McKenna and fans as extras on the 192 bus. ‘Additional Driver’ is the latest example of the idea at the heart of ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’: seeing the ordinary moments of everyday life and putting them through an extraordinary lens.
The album takes its name from a nickname for Stockport Town Hall, where Ogden got married. It’s a record where acute observations on married life are transformed into an irresistible cocktail of 80s flecked funk, heart-on-your-sleeve anthems and dance-floor indie bangers.
