Ride returns today with the news of their seventh studio album, Interplay, out on 29th March via Wichita Recordings / PIAS. The new record is the Oxford four-piece’s third since reforming in 2014, having now been together longer in their current second phase than their original iteration as 90’s shoegaze pioneers. The announcement is accompanied by the album’s first single, ‘Peace Sign,’ which is out now.
Interplay will follow 2017’s Weather Diaries and 2019’s This Is Not A Safe Place, which re-lit the Ride spark, both pleasing old diehards and introducing one of their generation’s most forward-thinking guitar bands to a whole new audience. Produced by the band with Richie Kennedy and mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer, it connects all the dots from their career, taking the frenzied guitar attacks, hypnotic grooves and dreamy melodic hooks of their early work and setting it to a more expansive sonic template, inspired by 80’s pop gems like Tears For Fears, Talk Talk & early U2.
Thematically, it pairs classic Ride lyrical hallmarks such as escapism, dreams, and the dissatisfaction of modern life with a sense of resilience and perseverance that come from imploding, then reforming and finding a way forward to their second peak, as guitarist and singer Andy Bell explains: “This album has taken a long time to make, and has seen the band go through a lot of ups and downs; maybe the most of any Ride album. But it has seen us come through the process as a band in a good place, feeling able to shake off the past, and ready to celebrate the combined musical talents that brought us together in the first place.”
With its driving bassline and euphoric 80s-inspired synths and saxophone, ‘Peace Sign’ is the perfect introduction to Interplay. Speaking on the new single, Andy says: “‘Peace Sign’ started life as a jam recorded at Marks’ OX4 studio, in early 2021. We called it ‘Berlin’ and initially it featured Loz on drums, Steve on bass and myself on a prophet 5 synth. About six months later I got hold of the recording and wrestled it into song form. Lyrically I was inspired by a film called ‘The Alpinist’ about the visionary free climber Marc-André Leclerc. Soon after I’d finished working on the song I remember I was raving to my bandmates about Leclerc at OX4, and a good memory of that time was us all watching that film at Mark’s studio.”
Listen to ‘Peace Sign’ – BELOW:
Made up of guitarist/vocalists Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, alongside drummer Laurence “Loz” Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt, Ride were formed in Oxford in 1988; four friends rooted in art-school aesthetics who combined 60s guitar-pop sensibilities with avalanches of noise and driving rhythms. It was a recalibration of indie-rock that would come to be defined as ‘shoegaze’ and with their seminal 1990 debut Nowhere came a run of critical and commercial success that eventually hit the skids in 1996, with intra-band turmoil prompting them to call it a day.
They reformed in 2014, finding a global scene full of bands indebted to Ride and their peers (Tame Impala, Beach House, Slowdive to name a few), and after a successful tour went into the studio with legendary producer Erol Alkan to create the critically acclaimed Weather Diaries and follow up This Is Not A Safe Place. Now in 2024, shoegaze is one of music’s fastest growing genres, having picked up a new wave of Gen-Z fans via TikTok, with artists such as DIIV, bdrmm and Just Mustard converting millions of views into impressive streaming numbers and ticket sales. A quarter of a century since originally forming and with a new generation discovering their music, Interplay finds Ride hitting new creative heights and stronger than ever.
Ride – Interplay tracklist:
Peace Sign
Last Frontier
Light in a Quiet Room
Monaco
I Came to See the Wreck
Stay Free
Last Night I Came Somewhere to Dream
Sunrise Chaser
Midnight Rider
Portland Rocks
Essaouira
Yesterday is Just a Song
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