The brilliant HAGGARD CAT return with a brand new single and an incredible video for ‘European Hardware’, released today, Friday 29th November through Earache Records. The idea behind the video came from the band wanting to make a statement on the general frustrations they feel at the moment with the political climate, apathy towards making real change as well as highlighting movements like Extinction Rebellion (with who they created a special album pre-orderT-shirt for, with 100% of the profits going to the ER cause, which you can still buy – HERE)
Guitarist and vocalist Matt Reynolds discusses the tracks DNA –“It’s basically our take on the classic three minute long punk thrasher. The lyrics satirise our current political climate, where the actions and decisions seem to be entirely driven by self and ego. The song describes a desire to escape it all and channels all our frustrations into a sing-along mantra for the downtrodden.”
Matt (Reynolds) on the video and its creation and meaning – “Just over a month ago we sealed ourselves in a concrete catacomb for 24 hours. The video itself documents the whole thing, it’s all real, we actually stayed in there for the duration and live-streamed the whole thing, it was hell! We did this to visually represent what we’re talking about in the song, in order to hopefully get a few more of you talking about how detrimental the current political path we’re on will be to every one of us (well those of us who aren’t billionaires, or millionaires working for the billionaires).”
The band will be releasing their much anticipated 2nd album ‘Common Sense Holiday’ on March 13th through the legendary Earache Records, a follow up to their hugely acclaimed debut album ‘Challenger’ from 2017. They have already released the massive ‘First Words’ single (premiered on the Radio 1 Rock Show in October, watch the video – HERE). The new record chronicles modern life at the turn of the decade from different perspectives. Each track takes on a different aspect of what’s going on in the world around us, from social media, drugs and alcohol to politics. Each track acts as a single chapter of the whole record. As Matt explains “We love the idea of revealing the album slowly, track by track; so a listener will get a really fragmented idea of what’s going on at first, which finally opens up into the big picture, it feels like a good metaphor for what the album is trying to say as a whole.”
Live wise, the band have just wrapped up a UK support tour with the gentleman Jamie Lenman, and will then head out supporting The Virgin Marys (in December) and then InMe (January 2020). These follow a steady build of DIY headline touring, a packed live support schedule including with the likes of Enter Shikari, Dead Kennedys, Black Peaks, Jamie Lenman, DZ Deathrays, Employed to Serve and Palm Reader, as well as a rapturous performance at this years Glastonbury Festival.
All current and announced UK shows are as follows:
2019
30 Nov – London – Moth Club (w/ Jamie Lenman)
11 Dec – Stafford – Redrum (w/ Virginmarys)
12 Dec – Nottingham – Rough Trade (w/ Virginmarys)
13 Dec – London – The Islington (w/ Virginmarys)
14 Dec – Manchester – Academy2 (w/ Virginmarys)
2020
18 Jan – Southampton – The Joiners (w/ InMe)
19 Jan – Bridgwater – Cobblestones (w/ InMe)
20 Jan – Cheltenham – Frog & Fiddle (w/ InMe)
21 Jan – Swansea – The Bunkhouse (w/ InMe)
22 Jan – Stafford – Redrum (w/ InMe)
23 Jan – Chester – The Live Rooms (w/ InMe)
24 Jan – Leicester – 02 Academy 2 (w/ InMe)
25 Jan – Milton Keynes – Crauford Arms (w/ InMe)
26 Jan – London – Boston Music Rooms (w/ InMe)