Neu Tigercub look to inspire hope with their new ‘Repressed Semantics’ EP

Recorded in the same session as ‘Destroy/You’, ‘Repressed Semantics’ deals in gritted teeth, clenched fists and a hope for unity. Written around the time of the 2015 general election, “it was quite cathartic for me writing a lot of these songs. I don’t feel like anyone my age has a voice. The few people that do, have no real way to make anything change.”

Despite the backdrop, Jamie assures, “it’s not a political record. I really did believe there was an outside chance, at least from my demographic of being a 24-year-old graduate, there might be some sort of a future I could scrape and then it was quashed in a fucking landslide. It was a real sobering moment.”

“I want to show and not tell. I want to get across a feeling but not necessarily come out and say it. It always makes me cringe when people do that. I’d prefer to be a little more subtle and let people make up their own minds. It’s a pretty good way to get out some tension.”

From the fraught refrain of ‘Pictures of You’, through the swaggering bounce of ‘Rich Boy’ until the rolling swell of ‘The End’, ‘Repressed Semantics’ sees a band pouring everything they have in but know exactly what they want out. “I just want us to be a really hard working band and do a lot more than music. I want to just fucking try and create an ideology, something that people can really get behind rather than just writing fucking pop songs. It’s fun and great but the bands I like, Black Flag and stuff, your personality becomes that band. I want to try and create that, create something that’s unique. Push the genre forward a bit.”

True to their word, ‘Repressed Semantics’ is more than five really excellent songs. From the cover art featuring a bin burning from the inside and the phrase, “Something that you can do today, dispose,” in German to the zine that comes with preorders, there’s a world to explore; to scrutinise.

“There’s a lot of things I wanted to get across,” says Jamie. “I’m still learning and trying to get better so the statements I’m trying to make are probably ham-fisted. There’s a lot of ways you can get your point across without having to write a song. There’s a lot of things you can’t really say in a song unless you want to be really embarrassing about it. There’s poems and ranty stuff, word searches, I just want our band to be - make it an all-encompassing ideology.”

After years of support tours and being a ‘Brighton band’, Tigercub are keen to step it up with ‘Repressed Semantics’. “I just want it to do well,” he states. “I want to keep doing this and to keep getting better. We’ve done a lot of support tours, we’ve had a lot of expectations and we’ve just done a lot of learning.” A tour with Royal Blood led to bars being set high. “Our manager at the time thought we were going to be a major label band and we got sucked into that a little bit,” Jamie admits, “We then realised we totally aren’t a major label band. It’s been a journey and we’re slowly realising you just have to work it from the ground up and bust your arse. All my favorite bands just toured it into the ground. It’s slowly been getting busier and picking up and hopefully, going into 2016, it looks like we’re going to be touring loads. That’s all I want to do, the road. Working.”

Wasting no time in getting to grips with their rejuvenated work ethic, Tigercub kicked off their UK tour last night (November 3rd). Snaking around the UK with their very excellent labelmates Youth Man, the band are excited to get stuck into their “first proper tour”.
“I can’t wait,” Jamie says. “When I’m not on tour, I’m just sat in my pants trying to write songs so it’s always nice to hop in the van and feel slightly important for a little bit. We’ve sold a couple of tickets so the shows won’t be empty. We’ve got low expectations but we’re hoping for the best.”

While we’re toying with the idea, ‘Repressed Semantics ‘ is by far the best Tigercub have ever sounded. It looks like it’s only going to get better from here on out.

“I want people to feel like there’s unity,” he signs off. “I want ‘Repressed Semantics’ to be a refuge for anyone who feels a bit fucked over by the current state of affairs or anything in their life really. There’s a little source of frustration that people can get behind. Hopefully people will feel the same way that I do about things.”

Catch Tigercub at any of the following dates:

NOVEMBER
03 Newcastle, Cluny
04 Glasgow, Nice and Sleazy
05 Derby, Radar Love
06 Birmingham, The Rainbow
07 Nottingham, Rock City Basement
10 Leeds, Oporto
11 Manchester, Gullivers
12 Doncaster, Diamond Live
13 Wakefield, The Hop
14 Southampton, Independence Festival
18 Stoke, Sugarmill
19 Milton Keynes, The Craufurd Arms
20 Bristol, Start The Bus
21 Exeter, Cavern
24 Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
25 London, Barfly
26 Guildford, The Boileroom
27 Brighton, The Haunt

JANUARY
11 Hamburg, Germany, Molotow Skybar (w/ Dilly Dally)
12 Munchen, Germany, Milla (w/ Dilly Dally)