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Photo Credit: Rhiannon Kane

“A Leeds post-punk  four-piece who take their place in the front rank of great new British bands” The Sunday Times

 “The fierce and magnetic draw of a future punk great” NME

“Leeds post-punkers with an eye for a cutting one-liner” DIY

“English Teacher are the shimmering new band on the bloke who’ll be dropping jaws in no time” Dork

Leeds indie heavyweights English Teacher announce details of debut EP ‘Polyawkward’, and share sumptuous new cut ‘A55’, out today (January 17th) via Nice Swan Records (Sports Team, Pip Blom, FUR).

The follow-up to mammoth lead track ‘Good Grief’, ‘A55’ captures the group’s trademark enigmatic wordplay and vivid musicianship in full flow, adding further credence to their status as key players amongst the emerging indie elite, having already been spotlighted in the NME 100, DIY’s Class of 2022 and Dork’s 2022 Hype List.

Detailing their second EP reveal, bandleader Lily Fontaine explained: “”Writing the lyrics for ‘A55’ was a cathartic exercise after waking up with ‘The Fear’ the morning after the night before – reflecting on the rise and fall of the ego as it became affected by what I put in my body, I hoped that putting it down in verse would make the embarrassment all worth it.”

With a formidable twelve months ahead, English Teacher are certainly primed to capitalise on their impressive early momentum, following widespread critical acclaim (The Sunday Times, NME, DIY, Dork, So Young, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash, Gigwise), a slew of impeccable live slots (supporting Sports Team, Yard Act, FEET, SPRINTS and TV Priest) and countless spins on the BBC Radio 1 (Jack Saunders, Gemma Bradley), BBC 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne, Huw Stephens) and KEXP airwaves.

Produced by Theo Verney (TRAAMS, FEET, Lazarus Kane), English Teacher’s ‘A55’ is out today (January 17th) via Nice Swan Records and will be available on all digital platforms. Pre-order debut EP ‘Polyawkward’ here.

English Teacher Online

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English Teacher is Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums, vocals), Nicholas Eden (bass), Lewis Whiting (lead guitar)

Polyawkward (EP) Tracklist

01 – Polyawkward

02 – A55

03 – Mental Maths

04 – Yorkshire Tapas

05 – Good Grief

Live Dates

18th Jan – The Old Blue Last, London (DIY’s Hello 2022 showcase)

““On course towards future raucous, beer-soaked headline festival sets.” NME

“Screw-you power, relentless motorik rhythms and impressively large choruses.” The Guardian 

“Sprints may be the latest to emerge from Dublin’s fertile stable of guitar-wielding new heroes, but their two-fingers-up, no-nonsense rattle and roll arrives as the natural heir to Amyl and the Sniffers’ grot punk – DIY

 SPRINTS SHARE NEW SINGLE LITTLE FIX LISTEN HERE A MODERN JOB EP OUT 11TH MARCH 2022 ON NICE SWAN RECORDS

Sprints today share new single Little Fix taken from their upcoming EP A Modern Job, which is out 11th March 2022 on Nice Swan Records. The band will also tour the U.K. through Feb/March – full dates below. Little Fix is an instant and glorified banger. Direct and arresting, and, as with their previous singles, the Dublin based outfit once again hit the sweet-spot between fragility and no-nonsense punk attitude. On the new single, singer Karla Chubb says: “Plagued by insecurities, imposter syndrome and gender stereotypes, Little Fix is the culmination of all my fears – the, sometimes, self applied pressure that as a woman in music I can’t just be good, I have to be great. I feel like I am in a constant state of proving myself.

That no matter what I achieve, learn, write, play or sing, there will always be a critic, a voice in the crowd or in my head telling me that it’s still not good enough, that there’s a million men out there who are better and I’ll always just be “good for a girl”. Little Fix is a song that instead of running away from that fear, shit talk and criticism, it runs head first at 100 miles an hour into it. Pulling influence from Thee Oh Sees and Courtney Barnett, it’s lyrically the song I am most proud of and one that on tour proved a serious fan favourite” Sprints combine guitar-driven hooks, motoric rhythm and emotive lyricism to create a unique sound that pulls from garage, grunge, punk and beyond. Like the Irish guitar acts who have paved the way for them: Fontaines D.C., Silverbacks and Girl Band, the sound of Sprints is urgent and vital at every turn. Often labelled a political band (Debut EP Manifesto’s title track, for example, was written in response to the Repeal the 8th referendum), even the way Sprints inhabit that idea feels refreshing. “I don’t have to know everything to be able to tell you that something’s shit.

I understand that women should have access to abortion, and I understand that mental health services are not adequate to stop people from committing suicide, so yeah, I don’t know exactly how much money is being spent on it but I don’t need to in order to tell you that it’s not enough,” Karla stresses. “It’s just a class barrier to make people feel like, if they’re not educated enough, then they can’t be involved in the conversation. But you don’t have to be Usain Bolt to run a race, and you don’t have to understand the theory of everything to understand that, morally, someone’s an asshole.”

More confident in their opinions and identities than ever, forthcoming EP ‘Modern Job’ (produced once again by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox) is set to take these ideas – that the personal is innately political, and that expression and using your voice is fundamentally crucial – and solidify them even further. Sprints have received a wealth of press support as well as love at Radio 1 and Radio 6Music. Recent single Modern Job was premiered by Steve Lamacq and covered by The Guardian, Dork, NME, Loud & Quiet, Gigwise and others. Sprints embark on a full U.K. tour though Feb/March – see dates below. EP pre-order: https://sprintsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/a-modern-job

Today Prima Queen release their new single Chew My Cheeks – the song, produced by The Big Moon, is Prima Queen’s first release on Nice Swan Recordings. After 18 months away from the stage, Prima Queen made a triumphant live return at this summer’s Green Man Festival, boasting a new collection of songs and an expanded 7-piece band. With Chew My Cheeks, Prima Queen once again display the subtle touches and lyrical flourishes that marked them out as pre-pandemic press favourites.

On the new single Prima Queen offer the following: “Chew My Cheeks is a song that centres on an unhealthy obsession with someone who is slightly out of reach. We wrote it in lockdown last year when we were remembering what it was like to idealise people you don’t know and to use them as a form of escapism. We ended up watching The Matrix in isolation together around the same time and were really inspired by the world in which the movie creates” Prima Queen are an all-female indie/alternative rock band fronted by songwriting duo and best friends Louise Macphail (Bristol, UK) and Kristin McFadden (Chicago, USA). Combining vulnerable and nostalgic story telling with light-hearted lyrical imagery, their ethereal yet gritty style draws influences from artists such as Julia Jacklin, Nilüfer Yanya and Lucy Dacus.

Discussing their collaboration with The Big Moon, the band say “It was incredible being able to work with The Big Moon since they’ve been such a big inspiration to us and we look up to them so much. They really understood our vision for the song and we were so impressed with how they were able to bring it to life.” Prima Queen have recently played sold out headline shows at The Windmill and the Dalston Victoria and have just come off tour with Billy Nomates.

Shortly after releasing their debut single ‘Milk Teeth’, the band joined The Big Moon on a sold-out UK tour, and have since supported the likes of Pip Blom, Brooke Bentham and fellow Windmill-alumni Black Midi. Prima Queen.

Tour Dates:

ENGLISH TEACHER

English Teacher share mammoth new track ‘Good Grief’, out November 9th via Nice Swan Records

Photo Credit: Sophie Jouvenaar

“The fierce and magnetic draw of a future punk great” NME

“A rattling post-punk storm of frustrated lyrics and rumbling bass” DIY

“They could be your new favourite band” The Line Of Best Fit

“Just one weapon in their vast musical armoury” Dork

Positioning themselves at the forefront of the emerging indie elite, Leeds quartet English Teacher announce the next phase in their remarkable development with mammoth new track ‘Good Grief’, out November 9th via Nice Swan Records (Sports Team, Pip Blom, FUR).

Steeped in alt-rock sensibilities and politically-charged lyricism, ‘Good Grief’ follows acclaimed singles ‘R&B’ and ‘Wallace’, landing them firmly on the radar of key figures across the press landscape (NME, DIY, Dork, So Young, The Line Of Best Fit) in recent months, as well as receiving considerable praise on the BBC Radio 1 (Jack Saunders, Gemma Bradley) and BBC 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne, Huw Stephens) airwaves.

Fiercely lead by enigmatic frontwoman Lily Fontaine, English Teacher’s soaring momentum shows no signs of slowing anytime soon, with the exhilarating guitar work and tenacious vocals in their newest effort sure to resonate with a clearly growing fanbase; whilst recent supports alongside the likes of Sports Team, FEET, SPRINTS and TV Priest have showcased their boundless potential on the live front.

Detailing ‘Good Grief’, the band explained: “The track follows the love story of Track and Trace as they navigate their relationship through 2020. It’s about the virtual dates, the TikTok dances, the Karens in supermarkets and the obscene levels of potentially avoidable suffering, once again, orchestrated by those at the top.”

Produced by Theo Verney (TRAAMS, FEET, Lazarus Kane), English Teacher’s ‘Good Grief’ is released November 9th via Nice Swan Records and will be available on all digital platforms.

English Teacher Online

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English Teacher is Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums, vocals), Nicholas Eden (bass), Lewis Whiting (lead guitar)

Live Dates

10th Nov – Oporto, Leeds (w/ SPRINTS)

13th Nov – Stag & Dagger Festival, Glasgow

14th Nov – Stag & Dagger Festival, Glasgow

18th Nov – Stylus, Leeds (w/ Sports Team)

2nd Dec – The Lexington, London (BBC Introducing Presents)

“One of London’s most exciting bands”So Young Magazine
“One of the most exciting new acts out there” DIY Magazine
Tracks Of The Week The Guardian
“A tense and urgent piece of post-punk” Gigwise

Last year, Nice Swan Records started the monthly ‘Nice Swan Introduces…’ series, shining a light on the most exciting emerging talent. Following releases with the likes of Sports Team, Pip Blom, FEET & FUR, the Series introduced a whole wave of new and exciting talent including Courting, Sprints, Malady, English Teacher & Mandrake Handshake, which cemented the label as one of the country’s most exciting independent record labels for discovering the hottest new talent. The series is now set to return for a second volume and is launched by dynamic new six piece DEADLETTER.

 Today (03/11/2021) DEADLETTER release their new single “Pop Culture Connoisseur”. Hailing from Yorkshire, the now South London rooted band channel the droll fury of The Fall and the lopsided rhythms of Talking Heads into a strain of danceable post-punk, exploring the darker side of existence through a lens of narrative-driven levity.

Previously supporting the likes of Squid, Viagra Boys and Pip Blom, DEADLETTER have emerged as a genuinely thrilling live prospect. Experts in the field of intensity, the band seamlessly switch from conversational verses into a mix of unadulterated post-punk fury and irresistible rhythm, addressing themes such as bureaucracy, loss of personal identity, and modern-day consumerism.

New single “Pop Culture Connoisseur”, produced by Theo Verney (TRAAMS, Lazarus Kane, FEET), finds singer and frontman Zac Lawrence switching from the overt politicism of previous releases into a more tongue-in-cheek narrative centred around the case of PC Read, a police officer fired for stealing doughnuts through a self-service checkout. In addition to providing a case study into the fashion those in positions of authority often consider themselves above the law, the track also aims to comment at the manner modern morality so often relates to PR optics, as the cultural  trope of law enforcement eating doughnuts is played out in real time.

DEADLETTER’s 2020 debut single “Good Old Days” was a clear stylistic marker of the band’s vision and received both regional BBC and 6Music play, as well as being added to 6Music’s ‘Introducing’ playlist alongside the normal A, B and C list.  Follow-up single ‘Fit For Work’ received both regional BBC and 6Music play from Steve Lamacq and Tom Robinson. The track was also made Huw Stephens’ “Tip of the Week” on BBC Radio 1, and a live session of the track was also played on his Introducing show on Radio 1.

Third single “Fall of the Big Screen” received national airplay from Steve Lamacq (who chose the band as his ‘Spotlight Artist’) and Tom Robinson on BBC 6Music, and Gemma Bradley on Radio 1.

To date, DEADLETTER are widely praised at press by the likes of The Guardian, DIY Magazine, Loud And Quiet, So Young Magazine, Upset Magazine, Gigwise and more.

DEADLETTER are Zac (Vocals), Alfie (Drums), Will (Guitar), James (Guitar), George (Bass), and Tom (Saxophone)

Today, Lincoln’s rising indie trio The Rills are sharing their brand new single ‘Skint Eastwood’, the band’s first release via their freshly inked deal with Nice Swan Records (home to early releases from Sports Team, Fur, FEET and more).

Raucous and whip-smart in equal measure, ‘Skint Eastwood’ tells the story of local outcasts, distant in their family lives and chastised by their communities.

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“Skint Eastwood is a Lincoln loner. He’s a BMX bandit who lurks the streets for affection, be it by begging, stealing or borrowing” explains frontman Mitch Spencer. “Suburban life gives way to people like Skint Eastwood, kids with nothing but the change in their pockets and the rucksack on their backs – cycling into oblivion as much as they are crying out for help. There’s something familiar about that old cowboy cliche; a hard exterior crossed with a soft and vulnerable interior is easily used to describe the lost boys and girls of our generation.”

If you can take the band out of Lincoln, then you can’t take the keen eye for wayward characters and hometown anti-heroes out of the band, and nor should you want to. Having spent the past 18 limbo months cultivating a fervent online following (their joke-filled TikTok currently stands at a not-too-shabby 4 million likes) and huge performances at Reading & Leeds Festival under their belts, now The Rills are ready to pick up that mantle and run with it.

The band will hit the road with Bloxx this Autumn before a headline tour in December beginning in Leeds on the 7th and culminating in a homecoming show at Lincoln’s The Scene on the 16th. Full tour dates are below.

Armed with a forthcoming debut EP full of biting, streamlined indie – all taught, propulsive rhythms and witty, acerbic vocals – the omnipresent backbone of small-town living lies front and center in everything that The Rills create, coupled with the driving ambition to make something bigger of themselves that rings in every cutthroat riff.

BUY 7 INCH VINYL

ANORAK PATCH

RELEASE NEW SINGLE ‘DELILAH’ AND ANNOUNCE NEW 7 INCH VINYL

LISTEN HERE

“Anorak Patch are unquestionably an alternative godsend” – So Young

“the Colchester quartet’s first offering for tastemaker label Nice Swan stands up as a vital, visceral cut from a band of any demographic.” – DIY

‘Rising Stars’ – Daily Star
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Already championed by BBC6 Music, BBC Radio 1, Radio X, Daily Star, BBC, I Paper, DIY, DORK, So Young, and more, Colchester’s Anorak Patch have been quick to grab the attention of tastemakers across the UK. They were even snapped up by label Nice Swan Records that have put out releases from some of the UK’s buzziest acts including Sports Team, Silverbacks, Hotel Lux, FUR, Courting, and Malady.

Following breakout tracks ‘6 Week Party’ (watch here), ‘Irate’ (watch here), and ‘Blue Jeans’ (here), today the 4-piece share new single ‘Delilah’ – a tale of wanting more than the small town you call home, and further proof of why Anorak Patch are one of the UK’s most exciting, young bands to emerge in recent times.

On the track, the band say, ​​”Delilah is a story. It’s about a girl who’s struggling her way through life…the song is sort of a snapshot of how difficult life can be when you are in a bad headspace without good people around you. It’s a lonely place to be. The ‘town’ is just a reference to wanting something more than the place you grew up in…I guess in that sense it’s a little autobiographical. We are from a little place in Essex, it’s not a bad place, but we collectively dream that by playing our music we will have a chance to move out of its orbit.”

Anorak Patch are also set to perform their debut headline shows, including in their hometown of Colchester next month, and in London next year.

Keyboardist Effie Lawrence formed the group in late 2019 with high school friends Luca Ryland (drums), brother Oscar (guitar), and bass player Eleanor Helliwell. The drummer being just 15, and the oldest member 18, the new single continues to show the band’s immense musical talent at such a young age.

Anorak Patch are:

Effie Lawrence, Vocals/Keyboards (17)
Eleanor Helliwell, Bass (16)
Oscar Ryland, Guitar (18)
Luca Ryland, Drums/Vocals (15)

SPRINTS 

ANNOUNCE A MODERN JOB EP & SHARE TITLE TRACK MODERN JOB

LISTEN HERE

A MODERN JOB EP OUT 11th MARCH 2022 ON NICE SWAN RECORDS

““On course towards future raucous, beer-soaked headline festival sets.” NME

“Screw-you power, relentless motorik rhythms and impressively large choruses.” The Guardian

“Sprints may be the latest to emerge from Dublin’s fertile stable of guitar-wielding new heroes, but their two-fingers-up, no-nonsense rattle’n’roll arrives as the natural heir to Amyl and the Sniffers’ grot punk” – DIY 

Today Sprints unveil details of their upcoming EP A Modern Job, which is out 11th March 2022 on Nice Swan Records. The band also today share new single Modern Job – the latest taste from the impossibly buzzy Dublin-based quartet. Lyrically, Modern Job finds singer Karla Chubb at her sardonic and angry best, detailing her own personal wish-list “I wish I had the guts/I wish I had the gall/ I wish I had a girl” – all set to cascading guitars and a formidable rhythm section; working in unison to create unrelenting tension, all the while echoing the subject matter Chubb explores in her lyrics. 

On the new single, singer Karla Chubb offers the following:
“Modern Job is a critique of modern existence but also an exploration of growing up queer. In your formative years, you are bombarded with media, books, news that depict what a “normal” life should be. Grow up, fall in love, get married… long live the nuclear family.

By contrast when you grow up queer all these ordinary things can seem extraordinary, out of reach and in some parts of the world, illegal. It leaves you feeling lost, excluded and confused. I wanted Modern Job to capture those feelings; chaotic energy, loneliness and longing of normality while trying to find acceptance within yourself.”

Sprints have received support from the likes The Guardian, Clash, NME, DIY, Dork as well as love at Radio 1 and Radio 6Music. Recent single How Does The Story Go? (also on the EP) was premiered by Steve Lamacq who praised it as “their best song yet! These guys are going to be something,” The single was included in Spotify UK‘s New Music Friday as well as leading in playlists from NME, Loud & Quiet and others.

Sprints combine guitar-driven hooks, motoric rhythm and emotive lyricism to create a unique sound that pulls from garage, grunge, punk and beyond. Like the Irish guitar acts who have paved the way for them: Fontaines D.C., Silverbacks and Girl Band, the sound of Sprints is urgent and vital at every turn.

Sprints have hit a nerve. Driven by experience, tough political climates and social and economic uncertainty – their music is honest, often politically charged and authentic. The band begin their U.K. tour next week (details below) 

EP pre-order: https://sprintsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/a-modern-job

Tour Dates

Oct 21st – The Waiting Room, London (sold out)
Oct 22nd – Rough Trade, Bristol
Oct 23rd – Heartbreakers, Southampton
Oct 26th – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
Oct 27th – The Attic, Glasgow
Oct 28th – The Castle, Manchester (sold out)
Oct 30th – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
Oct 31st – Bootleg Social, Blackpool
Nov 2nd – Head of Steam, Newcastle
Nov 3rd – Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield
Nov 6th – Mutations Festival, Brighton
Nov 7th – Festival of Voice, Cardiff
Nov 9th – The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
Nov 10th – Oporto, Leeds
Feb 24th – Yes, Manchester
March 2nd – Moth Club, London