Billingham, Teesside-based based lo-fi garage queer-punk duo Mouses are pleased to return with the video for their new single ‘Fiends’, the latest track to be taken from their long-awaited second album bwywtb, set for release on 21st June 2024 via Butterfly Effect.
Commenting on the track, vocalist/guitarist Steven Bardgett says: “Fiends is about the danger of idolisation. It’s about not being afraid to turn your back on artists and people you once idolised when they do terrible things. It’s something we’ve seen come to light so often in recent years. This song is about being sick and tired of reading about this sort of sh*t every day. It’s unfortunately so common. There was a period where it felt like there was a new name, a new band, every day and the allegations just got worse and worse.”
“On a more personal note too, it’s about finding the idea of manipulation and abuse of power abhorrent. It blows my mind when horrible stuff comes out because it feels like it’s so easy to just not be a piece of sh*t. I don’t believe you can separate the art from the artist. It just feels like an excuse to knowingly give money to abusive people. F*ck that. Always support victims. On a more general note too, the breakdown of the song touches on coming to terms with societal change and to not get downhearted or discouraged when sometimes things feel like they’re going backwards.”
“We fight because some things need fighting for, and whether or not we see real change in our lifetimes or in generations to come, we know that we’ve done what’s right and we’ve been a tiny part in that change.”
The new record is the pair’s first new material in 7 years after the release of sensational 2016 debut The Mouses Album, during which time the pair have raised families, forged careers, and explored identities. The band recently revealed AA side single ‘Illusion’/‘Nostalgia’ as an introduction to the record, warmly received with open arms from fans and press alike.
bwywtb stands for “Be Who You Want To Be”, a phrase and ideology that runs right through the album as well as everything Mouses do—it has become a motto of sorts for the band, and a call for the freedom to express yourself however you want, as well as a way to instill this confidence in expressing your true self into the Mouses audience too.
A feeling of hope is central to the new record, much more so than on their debut. Yes, there’s criticism of institutions, of corruption and abuse of power, of political apathy, of privilege, but where the first album ended at that—picking apart the injustices of the world—bwywtb comes much closer to offering a solution, or at the very least a feeling of how to move forward.
Recorded in a bedroom in Bargett’s house between the summer of 2018 and the spring of 2019, and mixed by producer Rob Irish, bwywtb turns their experiences with The Mouses Album on its head.
“On the first album we felt like we spent a whole lot of time trying to make a studio recording sound like it was recorded in a bedroom,” laughs Bardgett of the band’s comparative studio sessions. “This time, we wanted to do just that.”
“There’s just something about DIY recording, especially in somewhere so homely, so familiar, that creates such a calmer environment. We felt we truly had time to experiment with different ideas, create more complex structures and compositions, all the while keeping that raw Mouses sound. There’s obviously drawbacks in the technology and space when doing something like this, but the ability to really take our time over writing parts, writing lyrics, and capturing a performance we were truly happy with hugely outweighed that.”
The band will be announcing further live dates over the coming weeks.
Mouses’ second album bwywtb is released 21st June 2024
Live Dates:
May 3rd – The New Adelphi Club, Hull
May 26th – Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek
August 22nd – 25th – Greenbelt Festival, Kettering
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