Woes are days away from releasing their long awaited debut album. In anticipation they’re released the title track Awful Truth today, taking the Scottish four-piece’s pop punk blueprint to new heights.
“It tells the story of leaving a relationship that has been good in the past, but isn’t any more”, explains vocalist DJ, “The cathartic feeling of knowing that you’ve moved on, and you don’t want to go back. You’re over it, it’s in the past, you’re done. We’ve always been really interested, lyrically, in those kind of “two sides of the same coin” kind of stories”
This single follows previous singles Fancy, Money Shoe and Suburbs, which saw support from BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, Kerrang! Radio, Amazing Radio, Rock Sound and Upset. All feature on their forthcoming debut album Awful Truth, due 28th June on UNFD.
Produced by Seb Barlow (Neck Deep, WSTR, Roam), debut album Awful Truth takes Woes out of the pop punk niche. “I think it’s the most honest and complete representation of what we want to sound like”, says DJ. “It has elements of pop-punk, hip-hop, prog-metal, RnB and flows between them super naturally”.
Awful Truth also debuts the addition of guitarist Luke Bovill to the band. The album follows last year’s acclaimed Self Help EP, which launched the four-piece into the eye of rock press (KKKK – Kerrang!, ‘Bold’ – Rock Sound, 9/10 – Discovered) and landed a hefty touring schedule; highlights include support to Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, State Champs, Seaway, 2000 Trees, Download and Slam Dunk.
Speaking of the album inspiration, DJ explains “Awful Truth is a record about the realities of the progression of our band over the last 18 months. It really just tells the story of our last year as a band. We had all these incredible high points – playing Slam Dunk, Download, touring with Seaway, State Champs, Neck Deep, meeting all these great people on the road and having the time of our lives being this new band blowing up.
And it’s about the duality of that experience. In between doing all those insane things we’re all working pretty serious jobs, trying to keep up, taking loads of unpaid time off to go on these tours, or make our album. Spending months away from home, and from our families and just being so broke throughout it all. It took a big, big toll on us as people, and on all of our relationships. It’s a really stressful environment to be in. We’re dealing with all this stuff, whilst we’re trying to create this genre-bending album that’s a huge step away from what brought us to the table in the first place. So people DID actually pick that stuff up from the record and we wanted to pick a name that reflected the duality of the whole thing. Our double lives, the highs and lows, all of it. It’s kind of like the old saying ‘careful what you wish for’ That was us, experiencing the awful truth of living out our dreams”.
Track listing
1. Boy
2. Fake Friends
3. Fancy
4. Money Shoe
5. Awful Truth
6. Suburbs
7. Mess
8. Cross
9. Gone Forever
10. Ugly Woes became a fully fledged proposition in 2016, growing from Edinburgh’s burgeoning music scene. Signing to UNFD, the band released Self Help in 2018 and garnered support from the likes of Kerrang!, Rock Sound, BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, Kerrang! Radio and Upset.
Armed with new music, Woes are raring to hit the road again following their recent support to Millencolin in Europe. Catch them on their UK headline run in a few days time, followed by their support to Trash Boat in the UK this September.
Armed with their most ambitious effort to date, Woes are set to make one hell of a noise. Watch this space for further news.
LIVE Headline tour
28 Jun – Glasgow Attic (UK)
29 Jun – Newcastle Head Of Steam (UK)
30 Jun – Nottingham Bodega (UK)
1 Jul – Bristol Exchange (UK)
2 Jul – Worcester Marrs Bar (UK)
3 July – Bournemouth Anvil (UK)
4 July – Milton Keynes Craufurd Arms (UK)
6 July – Liverpool Zanzibar (UK)
suppporting Trash Boat
12 Sep – Birmingham O2 Institute (UK
13 Sep – London Islington Academy (UK)
14 Sep – Leeds Stylus (UK)
15 Sep – Glasgow G2 (UK)