| Fresh from recent spins on BBC Radio 1’s Future Alternative and following attention from Kerrang!, Euphoria, United By Pop and more, The Lunar Year have shared their brand-new single “Ghost Town” – listen here – while teasing even more music. Based between the UK and Croatia, vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Connor Ball [The Vamps] and drummer Sasa Macek [Cheat Codes] have an incredible sense of reinvention when it comes to pop-punk. “Ghost Town” is a shining example of this – it’s an unstoppable and biting track concerned with moving on after a break-up. “Ghost Town is one of the most upbeat songs that we’ve done to date.” Connor says, “It’s about how when you’re no longer with someone nothing that you do can ever feel the same. I was going over to LA to write the second half of the album and had not long broken up with my ex-girlfriend so the feeling was very fresh in my mind. I didn’t want to do the standard love song lyric and so I came up with the ‘Ghost Town’ concept whilst on the plane over. The lyric ‘now you’re not around, this city is a ghost town’ really captures the whole essence of the song for me. I also love how the verses are so different to the chorus’ – the verses are super isolated with that programmed type drum beat so when the chorus opens up with full live drums it feels like the payoff you’ve been waiting for.” Earlier this year, The Lunar Year announced their return with their previous single, “Hey! Wait!”, which was written in Los Angeles with blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and GRAMMY®-nominated producer Matt Malpass [blink-182, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Nas X]. High energy from the start, Connor’s introspective opening declaration sets the tone for “Hey! Wait!” as a distorted melody overlays accompanying riffs and heart-beat-like hip-hop percussion, making way for an incredible chorus and subsequent twists and turns. “Hey Wait” arrived with visuals from The Lunar Year’s UK headline tour last year – watch here. |
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| The Lunar Year’s self-titled debut EP was produced by GRAMMY®-nominated Matt Malpass and released via M3 Recordings – a collaboration between Matt Pinfield, Matt Malpass and Matt Holmes – in May 2022. Featuring their breakout single “Back For More” and successive tracks “Medicine”, “Boys Will Cry” and “When The Sun Fades”, The Lunar Year caught the attention of Kerrang!, Upset, Rock Sound, Daily Star and United By Pop – to name a few. “Back For More” struck an impressive balance at radio achieving plays on BBC Radio 1’s Best New Pop and The Rock Show with Daniel P Carter as well as plays on Kerrang! radio, and “Boys Will Cry” peaked at #1 on iTunes Top 40 UK Rock Chart and #22 on iTunes Top 40 UK Chart upon release. A refreshing change of pace for both Ball and Macek, The Lunar Year EP leant into the new era of pop-punk, exploring new sounds while igniting a one-two punch of chantable choruses and airtight instrumentation, and brought themes of vulnerability, coming-of-age and the deterioration of relationships together in a future-forward package. In 2020, Sasa Macek stumbled upon Connor Ball’s pop punk covers on YouTube. After shooting Connor a direct message, the pair began chatting via phone, Facetime, and Zoom. Up until this point, Connor co-founded award-winning platinum pop phenomenon The Vamps, toppled charts, and toured worldwide. Meanwhile, Sasa grew up in a family of eleven drummers and holds down the drums for multi-platinum hitmakers Cheat Codes. “At first, I didn’t think he’d respond because he has so many followers,” laughs Sasa. Together, they cooked up a cover of Machine Gun Kelly’s “forget me too” [feat. Halsey] and kickstarted an unbreakable creative partnership that exploded once Connor made the trek to Croatia in the summer of 2021. A year later, The Lunar Year was a fully-fledged reality with the duo releasing their debut EP and embarking on their first UK headline tour. 2023 will see The Lunar Year at their highest peak yet. |
