PREP are today sharing the new video for Snake Oil, lifted from the band’s new EP Cold Fire, which is out now via Jeffrey international. Also featuring fast-rising Kitsuné signing Reva DeVito, the track follows close on the tail of a recent sold-out headline show at London’s Oslo, and arrives ahead of a run of Asian tour dates from PREP. Watch ‘Snake Oil’ here.
The ruminative new clip for Snake Oil taps into frontman Tom Havelock’s cautionary lyrics, which are caught up between the track’s sun-speckled electro-soul. Speaking about the video, Korean director Jiwoon Kwon says; ‘We wanted to illustrate the idea of a person being bothered by memories that the happiness of the past and the pain of the present co-exist. The ‘snake oil’ that is expressed here as water forces our character to retreat into his inner-side, becoming trapped within a Möbius strip. It’s hard to escape from these memories – but the choice is either being trapped by it or escaping from that.’
Alongside DeVito – who sought PREP out herself seeking a collaboration – the new Cold Fire EP also features Kaytranada-approved producer Pomo (also featured on Anderson .Paak’s ‘Malibu’) and Korean megastar DEAN, a driving force behind PREP’s own hothoused success in Asia, where gigs are more-often-than-not the scene of hundreds of people, phones aloft, singing every word of the band’s debut ‘Futures’ EP (PREP recently returned the favour by opening for DEAN at a rare London headline show).
The new EP is the first new music from the hotly-tipped Londoners since ‘Futures’, released in 2016 alongside 4 Hype Machine hits, an AlunaGeorge remix and radio plays across Radio, 1Xtra and Beats 1, with over 7 million streams online. ‘Cold Fire’ captures PREP making good on the buzz, with an impressive string of collaborators which also includes fast-rising, Kitsuné-signed Portland singer Reva DeVito.
PREP came about as an alias for 4 artists with an eye-watering list of credits under their belts. Co-writer and keyboard player Llywelyn Ap Myrddin – a classical composer keen on electronica – began writing instrumentals with House music producer / drummer Guillaume Jambel (GIOM), who has previously headlined Fabric and collaborated with Defected Records. Llywelyn was thrown by the response to these tracks from Grammy nominee Dan Radclyffe, noted for his work on recordings by Drake and AlunaGeorge. ‘I played him this instrumental, and Dan said, ‘Well that’s quite Yacht Rock, isn’t it?’ And I was like ‘What on earth is Yacht Rock?’ Sensing the foundations of a shared musical DNA, Myrddin, Jambel and Radclyffe’s line up was solidified by frontman Tom Havelock (who’d previously been co-writing for Riton, Sinead Hartnett and Ray BLK), who’s effortless falsetto was immediately apparent as the perfect foil to the band’s airtight grooves.
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