THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Both terrifying and liberating to write, Circa Waves’ Death & Love Pt. 1 is an urgent, nine-track hit of cathartic guitar-pop, serving as a powerful coping mechanism to help process frontman Kieran Shudall’s near-death experience.
Back in early 2023, Kieran received a call from doctors to say that the main artery in his heart was severely blocked. Two days later, he was lying on an operating table watching a wire being inserted into his heart to fix it. What followed was the cancelling of a lot of shows, working out a lot of medication, and most crucially, now having to navigate a new way of life.
And the results are quite simply stunning. Self-produced by Kieran, and engineered by Matt Wiggins (Adele, Lana Del Rey, Glass Animals), the songs on Death & Love Pt. 1 ooze nostalgia, and hark back to the sounds and themes that made Shudall want to pick up a guitar in the first place.
Shudall formed Circa Waves in Liverpool in May 2013. After writing a batch of songs and putting some demos online, he recruited second guitarist Joe Falconer, bassist Sam Rourke and drummer Sian Plummer (replaced by Colin Jones in 2015).
The band first gained a buzz and earned favourable comparisons to The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, and Vaccines before they hit paydirt with their debut, 2015’s Young Chasers. Buoyed by singles like T-Shirt Weather and Stuck in My Teeth, the album reached the Top Ten of the U.K. albums chart and paved the way for a series of well-attended live shows, including a sold-out date at London’s O2 .
Without shying away from their influences, the band matured, and albums like 2017’s Different Creatures and 2019’s What’s It Like Over There? showcase their knack for crafting their own distinctively infectious, post-punk anthems. In 2020, they reached number four on the U.K. albums chart with Sad Happy and returned in 2023 with Never Going Under.
Death & Love Pt. 1 is the first instalment of a snapshot in time – a reflection on a moment of true terror, and the joy of coming through the other side. It’s a brave and remarkable next step for a band in the finest form of their career.
The first single Like You Did Before channels the 2000s New York scene, serving up a nice big slab of Strokes-y dancefloor destruction even as it references Shudll’s life-changing experience. “This song is a reminder of a moment in my life that many people don’t know about,” he explains. “Just before my heart operation lying in hospital when life felt uncertain and fragile, I would imagine myself in a packed sweaty indie club, dancing like my life depended on it. It was a daydream, a form of escape and this song fits perfectly into that vision.”
