JAMIE LENMAN releases a brand new single and video ‘The Future Is Dead’ which features a guest appearance from Illaman from Pengshui and is out now via Big Scary Monsters. The track was given its world premiere last night with Daniel P Carter and his
Radio 1 Rock Show, which you can listen back to – HERE
Built around a huge, crushing riff, ‘The Future Is Dead’ is an anthem for the moment (even more so right now during this pandemic, then when it was written and recorded in the wake of the environmental crisis), with a normally a-political JAMIE LENMAN lamenting on the current political climate and landscape. Working with close friend and producer Space (Idles, Black Futures) again, the single is the first release since 2019’s ‘Shuffle’ album and the first original material since the ‘Long Gone’ single feat Justine Jones from Employed To Serve back in 2018.
From JAMIE LENMAN himself on the single – “I wanted to get something out fairly quickly after the covers record to remind people I still write my own songs…I had a riff that had been knocking about for a while but no lyrics, and then everything just came out in one go – I normally try to keep big politics out of my music but we’re living in a time where that’s become impossible.”
“‘The Future Is Dead’ is about how it feels to be a citizen of the 21st century, to be totally powerless against the whims of an older generation. It doesn’t offer any solutions, it’s a cry of despair, and sometimes it’s good to get that out of your system – a kind of primal scream I guess.”
“(Producer) Space and I felt like the track needed another flavour to separate it from my usual thing and he recommended Illaman’s band Pengshui. It turned out we had some mutual buddies so we got in touch and went in for a session. I’m really excited to have such a talent on my track and get some of that genre fusion in there – his lyrics offer a slightly more positive outlook which perhaps the song needed, to stop it being all doom and gloom. That’s why it’s great to get other artists involved!”
Live wise, there are plans in the works ATM regarding live shows but as with all tours and shows at the moment, with so many moving parts, these are very much yet to be confirmed.
JAMIE LENMAN will however be broadcasting live on Tuesday the 31st March at 7pm on his Facebook page, as a TRL request show for anyone that wants to join him. He will take requests, perform stripped down versions of songs, do a Q and A, talk openly about his new material and much more.
“’I’d been thinking for a while about doing a TRL-style show where people just ask for whatever they want, and doing it as a live stream while we’re all boxed in seems like the perfect solution. I’m just gonna grab my guitar and keep playing till someone makes a request, and then I’ll give that my best shot, whatever it is. I can’t brush up on every song ever written or even all of my own tunes, so if it’s something particularly obscure it might be a fairly ragged rendition, but hopefully that’s part of the fun. You can ask questions, you can hurl abuse, we’ll have a right old time.
I think the artistic community is already throwing out some really imaginative workarounds to the situation despite zero support from their government, at least in the UK, so at the same time as being bummed out about the general state of play, I’m quietly excited to see what people come up with.”