New York’s Been Stellar have shared “Always On My Mind,” their most immediate and hook filled song to date. It’s the third single they’ve released this year, following the intimate and dynamic “Adored,” and the blistering “Breakway.” Along with the new single, they’ve announced they’ll be bundling all three tracks along with an acoustic version of “Adored” for a new EP entitled Breakway, available via Dirty Hit on 12” vinyl and cassette. Pre-order HERE, and watch a live performance of the song HERE.
The EP release comes on the heels of a breakout year that saw the band release their debut album Scream from New York, NY, tour with The 1975 and Fontaines DC, and pack out clubs on their own merit.
“We were really drawn to the circular logic of the lyric: ‘I need you, I want you because you’re always on my mind,’” shares vocalist Sam Slocum. “My favorite love songs can be read a few different ways. I think it’s great when there’s a tinge of sadness or anxiety— it just feels more accurate to me.”
WATCH OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR “ALWAYS ON MY MIND”
The band just made their Primavera debut and completed a run of EU dates, including three stops with Fontaines DC. Earlier this month they played a surprise NYC show with rising LA group Rocket, and appeared at Pukkelpop and Green Man festivals. They’ll wrap up their UK dates with Reading & Leeds festival plays this week.
In stark contrast to the blistering “Breakaway,” “Adored” sees the band expanding their already thrilling sonic palette, incorporating new dynamics and layers of acoustic guitar.
WATCH VIDEOS FOR NEW SINGLES
Scream from New York, NY is a remarkably brutal debut – bruised and volatile, it captures an image of ‘20s New York that’s unrelenting and harsh, where tenderness is a finite resource burned up by the machinery of the city and human connection is a luxury product. Leaving behind the driving shoegaze of their early recordings, the NYC-based five-piece tap into the disaffected sound and spirit of New York luminaries like Sonic Youth and Interpol, as well as the nihilistic, yearning cool of Iceage and Bends-era Radiohead, striking upon a sound that’s fearsome, buffeting and beautiful at the same time – a tidal wave as viewed from underneath.
As its wry title implies, Scream from New York, NY, is a record about what happens when language fails – between friends, partners, a city and its citizens – and the primal scream you might let out when words just don’t work anymore.
Preceding the album release, Been Stellar shared a handful of standout singles including the white-knuckled and cutting “Sweet,” the ferocious late-album highlight “All In One,” the masterfully dynamic “Pumpkin,” and head turning lead single “Passing Judgment.”
Tour Dates
August 22 – Reading, UK @ Reading Festival
August 23 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Festival
Like so many other dyed-in-the-wool New York bands, Been Stellar are transplants. Guitarist Skyler Knapp and vocalist Sam Slocum first met in their freshman year of high school a decade ago; members of the cross country team, they bonded over the band t-shirt Skyler was wearing and decided to start jamming together. In Michigan, they started performing under the Been Stellar name, but it wasn’t until the pair began studying at NYU that a sound started to coalesce and the band took shape.
Determined to break new sonic ground, the band embarked on a relentless practice schedule, even renting scrappy studios on days off during tours with Fontaines DC and Shame. After befriending him at SXSW, the band tapped producer Dan Carey (black midi, Wet Leg) to help coalesce the disparate elements of their sound that had been percolating: forceful, driving physicality; pop classicism; gnarled beauty; and a rich emotional core. The resulting 10-song album announces Been Stellar as gimlet-eyed chroniclers of contemporary youth, staring through noise and confusion into the dark heart of modern life. These songs embody the spirit of a city that makes and breaks its inhabitants on a daily basis – an irony befitting the album’s tone: Been Stellar’s preternatural ability to capture the disconnection that haunts New York with photorealist detail might just be the thing that vaults them into its pantheon.
Been Stellar is Sam Slocum (vocals), Skyler Knapp (guitar), Nico Brunstein (bass), Gigi Giobbi (drums).
Connect with Been Stellar:
Leave a Reply