“The Rills are dead! Long live The Rills” proclaims frontman Mitch Spencer about their new single ‘Bones’, set for an eerily well-timed Halloween release. “Everything that we were had to die. We were more like influencers than artists for a time. We blew up online so quickly that it seemed natural to be these characters, but we were never quite being ourselves, it was a chokehold. With Bones we’ve stripped it all back to the bare bones, building something new on the old foundations. We’re trying things we were afraid to do and writing our best tunes to boot.”
‘Bones’ has an unquestionably Arctic Monkeys style swagger to it, true to the band’s Indie roots, but it marks a new direction – drawing inspiration from French synthwave artist Kavinsky, genre bending Steve Lacy and modern Hip-Hop beats. “Working with Dave McCracken has been eye opening” said Mitch on working closely with the Beyonce & Depeche Mode producer. “He’s taken us to a new level. We’ve been free to create in a really fun way & that happens in a comfortable environment, there isn’t a right or wrong way to create. Lots of happy accidents are happening & our best work is coming as a result.”
The band are also breaking new ground with an Ai hot-wired music video for the new single. Ai has been a buzzword for a while, but not many artists are incorporating it into their image as intensely as The Rills. Filming shots at several shows across the UK & Europe, young director Luke Reid has manipulated the footage using Ai software, taking the band into realms that few dare occupy.
In 2021, the band became the face of Indie music on TikTok, accumulating an enormous worldwide online audience. Today they boast a following of 126K on the app, amassing 4.7M likes and several 1M+ videos. This has lead to slots at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Reading & Leeds Festival, Boardmasters and huge radio support from Jack Saunders at Radio 1, Steve Lamacq at R6Music and John Kennedy on Radio X. The band has also been championed by NME, being listed as one of their ‘Top 100’ artists in 2022, alongside support from Dork, DIY & the Daily Star.