Incendiary Derry quartet The Wood Burning Savages cue up the release of the new album ‘Hand To Mouth’ with the expansive new single ‘Record Of Achievement’.
A raucous anthem of inner turmoil. Life chewing you up, spitting you out and leaving you asking if everything you’ve worked for has been for nothing?
‘It was the very last song we finished writing for the album and as soon as we finally put it to bed we pretty much knew that the record was finished.’
In some ways it ties the whole thing together.’ Says frontman Paul Connolly.
‘There was a certain catharsis in writing this song, expressing all the pent up anxieties that I have felt eat away for years.
This was a track that grew legs when writing it in our practice room, unshackled by what we felt a song by us ‘needed’ to be. We’re incredibly excited to release it to the world.’
On the upcoming album, Connolly believes the band has taken their trademark fretic alt-rock vitriol up another gear.
‘Yes, we’re angrier. Who isn’t?’
The past few years have been a pressure cooker for all of us and I think our own pent up frustration comes across in the album.’
The single comes off the heels of vocalist Paul Connolly opening up to fans about a life changing illness which took hold during a tour last year.
‘If it wasn’t for the phenomenal hospital staff who looked after me, I don’t think I would still be here today.’
‘Just as the band returned to releasing music and playing shows, my body began to break down. I tried to power through, but I could only ignore the signs for so long.
It was incredibly scary, for months doctors struggled to treat me as they couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong. I continued to lose a huge amount of weight and at one stage I struggled to get out of bed for weeks. It was the lowest moment of my life.’
Paul’s road to recovery has been long but is thankful that he’s back with the band.
‘The past 18 months have been hell at times. But it puts everything in perspective.’
The band’s guitar-driven rock, gilded with a political edge, has often drawn comparisons to IDLES, Queens of the Stone Age and Manic Street Preachers.
‘Hand To Mouth’ is the follow-up to 2018’s ‘Stability’. That debut album beat out the likes of Snow Patrol, Ash and Bicep to be the first self-released artist to win Northern Ireland Album of the Year. The band also took home the prize of Best Live Act.
The band has played Glastonbury festival’s LeftField stage, SXSW and supported Snow Patrol at their Ward Park III homecoming show in front of 30,000 people. They have been championed by BBC Introducing and BBC Radio 6Music, with Tom Robinson describing vocalist Paul Connolly as “one of the next generation’s great rock frontmen.”
‘HAND TO MOUTH’
1. Grind Your Teeth
2. Hand To Mouth
3. Record Of Achievement
4. 1000 Mumbling Virgins
5. Climb The Ladder
6. Monument Valley
7. Landlord’s Prayer
8. It Takes A Bomb To Raise A Village
9. Strict Diet
10. When The Hammer Hits The Chisel
11. Last Of The Legacies
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