
Watford based six-piece ensemble Lakes have announced their signing to Big Scary Monsters for their new record “Start Again”, which is set for release on July 30th, 2021. Today they release title track and lead single “Start Again”. Watch the video below.
Recorded over the course of nine months and various lockdowns - and produced and mixed by Neil Strauch (Owen, Owls, Joan Of Arc, Slow Mass) - “Start Again” is a testament of the human condition, as it explores themes such as mental health, addiction, break-ups and cutting out toxic friends.
Single “Start Again” addresses collective suffering as a result of Covid and subsequent lockdowns, with lead singer Roberto Cappellina hitting the reset button after spending the summer self-medicating in order to deal with panic attacks. Cappellina explains: “During lockdown last year my mental health was really suffering, and as a result I had been self-medicating pretty hard. There’s a collective suffering right now which makes it harder to relate to an individual’s story, but this was my outlet”.
But despite the album’s core of anxiety and its resolutions of hope, the band majestically wrap their brand of “glock-rock” around their lyrics with ease, fusing math-pop time signatures and 80s pop inspired dual-vocals.
“This batch of songs has been a vehicle for healing for all six of us in some way, so there are a lot of different but raw themes throughout the record. Even though we’re currently all isolated from each other, the one person you can’t escape is yourself”, says Cappellina. “We talk about anything from mental health to addiction; from break ups to cutting out toxic friends, to postpartum psychosis. We’ve been to some dark places between us, but ultimately, "Start Again" is about coming out the other side. This record is about facing that darkness, owning it and letting go of the past. It’s about being at peace with it and moving forward and saying that it’s actually OK to start again”.
Pre-order “Start Again” here.
Tracklist:
1. Blind
2. No Excuses
3. Matches
4. Windermere
5. Mirrors
6. Peace
7. Start Again
8. Talk!
9. Get Better
10. Taupo
11. Retrograde
12. Animals
Born from drummer/guitarist Matt Shaw’s newfound desire to write music — having been inspired by midwestern emo giants American Football’s LP2 in 2016 — within the space of a month he had the basis for an EP (2018s “The Tahoe” EP and 2019s “The Geneva” EP) and album laid out. With former bandmate Roberto Cappellina on vocals, those early works were recorded on a single mic and PC and soon the pair were joined by Blue Jenkins (vocals, glockenspiel, keys), Rob Vacher (guitar), Gareth Arthur (guitar) and Charlie Smith (bass).
Inspired by 80s pop rock icons Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel and stimulated by the sonic legacies of their scene peers (The Appleseed Cast, TTNG, Broken Social Scene and Bon Iver), in 2019 Lakes released their debut album “The Constance” LP, which saw praise from the likes of Rocksound, Brooklyn Vegan, Alt Press and Punkstatic — with Washed Up Emo championing the ensemble as “Your new favourite band”.
Lakes’ spell-binding and triumphant live show has seen them out on the road with label mates Orchards and Nervus, and unexpectedly spread their reputation half way across the globe, with Tower Records Tokyo profiling the band in store, as well as their signing with Friend Of Mine Records in Japan and Know Hope Records in the US.
Weblinks:
ourbandlakes.com
facebook.com/ourbandlakes
Recorded over the course of nine months and various lockdowns - and produced and mixed by Neil Strauch (Owen, Owls, Joan Of Arc, Slow Mass) - “Start Again” is a testament of the human condition, as it explores themes such as mental health, addiction, break-ups and cutting out toxic friends.
Single “Start Again” addresses collective suffering as a result of Covid and subsequent lockdowns, with lead singer Roberto Cappellina hitting the reset button after spending the summer self-medicating in order to deal with panic attacks. Cappellina explains: “During lockdown last year my mental health was really suffering, and as a result I had been self-medicating pretty hard. There’s a collective suffering right now which makes it harder to relate to an individual’s story, but this was my outlet”.
But despite the album’s core of anxiety and its resolutions of hope, the band majestically wrap their brand of “glock-rock” around their lyrics with ease, fusing math-pop time signatures and 80s pop inspired dual-vocals.
“This batch of songs has been a vehicle for healing for all six of us in some way, so there are a lot of different but raw themes throughout the record. Even though we’re currently all isolated from each other, the one person you can’t escape is yourself”, says Cappellina. “We talk about anything from mental health to addiction; from break ups to cutting out toxic friends, to postpartum psychosis. We’ve been to some dark places between us, but ultimately, "Start Again" is about coming out the other side. This record is about facing that darkness, owning it and letting go of the past. It’s about being at peace with it and moving forward and saying that it’s actually OK to start again”.
Pre-order “Start Again” here.
Tracklist:
1. Blind
2. No Excuses
3. Matches
4. Windermere
5. Mirrors
6. Peace
7. Start Again
8. Talk!
9. Get Better
10. Taupo
11. Retrograde
12. Animals
Born from drummer/guitarist Matt Shaw’s newfound desire to write music — having been inspired by midwestern emo giants American Football’s LP2 in 2016 — within the space of a month he had the basis for an EP (2018s “The Tahoe” EP and 2019s “The Geneva” EP) and album laid out. With former bandmate Roberto Cappellina on vocals, those early works were recorded on a single mic and PC and soon the pair were joined by Blue Jenkins (vocals, glockenspiel, keys), Rob Vacher (guitar), Gareth Arthur (guitar) and Charlie Smith (bass).
Inspired by 80s pop rock icons Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel and stimulated by the sonic legacies of their scene peers (The Appleseed Cast, TTNG, Broken Social Scene and Bon Iver), in 2019 Lakes released their debut album “The Constance” LP, which saw praise from the likes of Rocksound, Brooklyn Vegan, Alt Press and Punkstatic — with Washed Up Emo championing the ensemble as “Your new favourite band”.
Lakes’ spell-binding and triumphant live show has seen them out on the road with label mates Orchards and Nervus, and unexpectedly spread their reputation half way across the globe, with Tower Records Tokyo profiling the band in store, as well as their signing with Friend Of Mine Records in Japan and Know Hope Records in the US.
Weblinks:
ourbandlakes.com
facebook.com/ourbandlakes