JAMIE LENMAN can now announce that he will be releasing a brand new mini album of original material ‘King Of Clubs,’ due out 25th September through Big Scary Monsters. This is a record returning JAMIE LENMAN back to his roots as a song writer, whilst also allowing him to push his creative mind with it not being a full blown, full length album. ‘King Of Clubs’ is a follow up to 2018’s brilliant ‘Shuffle’, his 3rd full length solo album and a record of reinterpretations and covers that incorporated pop tracks, pieces of literature, film scores, computer game music and more.
As well as announcing the new album he has also released new single ‘The Road To Right’ which was given its world premier last night on the Radio 1 Rock Show with Daniel P Carter, and you can listen to show HERE or watch the video HERE
Speaking on the new single Jamie said “This is a song I was writing before we started (previous full length album) ‘Shuffle’, so I shelved it when I realised that was going to be all covers. Then by the time I was touring that album, I wanted to play something new and ‘Road’ was just sitting there ready to go. It got a great reception, maybe because it’s quite a ‘traditional Jamie Lenman song’, if there is such a thing. People just like new music, really. Lyrically it’s very introspective, similar to the stuff on Devolver. It deals with the concept of ‘finding yourself’ and what to do if you actually manage that, only to discover what you really want is to get as far away from yourself as you can.”
He also spoke on the upcoming mini album ‘King Of Clubs’ and said “I didn’t want to make another full album straight after ‘Shuffle’, I wanted to give people more time to digest that, but I did want to get back to the studio fairly quickly and record something original just to remind people I’m still a songwriter first and foremost. I was wary of repeating what we’d done with (one off single featuring Justine Jones from Employed To Serve) ‘Long Gone’ coming after (2016 album ‘Devolver’), so I tried to make an EP instead of a single – but by the time I got there, I’d written so much material on the road and in rehearsals we ended up with enough for a mini album. I’ve always loved the format, so many of my favourite records are seven or eight tracks long, I think it’s a perfect package. It’s the musical version of a novella, like Conrad’s ‘Heart Of Darkness’ or Waugh’s ‘The Loved One’, which I was actually reading at the time of recording. It’s a dirty, dark-sounding record based on uncomfortable, conflicting emotions.”
Working again with producer Space (Idles, Black Futures), the pair came up with a word, ‘neisty’, to guide them as to how it should sound – “A perfect mixture of nasty and nice. I see this record as the closing chapter in a very creative and enjoyable period working with Space – the last piece in a very loose trilogy with ‘Devolver’ and ‘Shuffle’ before it, white red and black. It’s the angriest and most political record I’ve made since Muscle Memory, a painful place to be. I wouldn’t have wanted to make a full album like this, I think it would have been too much.”
Live wise, there will be some dates to announce in the coming weeks but JAMIE LENMAN will be performing his 2nd ‘Total Request Live’ show on his Facebook page on Tuesday 19th May at 7pm. This follows other recent shows for the likes of Dork Magazine (as part of their amazing ‘Homeschool’ Festival), Kerrang! Radio, PRS, Ticket Master and more.