Premiere: Playlounge Stream Debut Album ‘Pilot’ In Full

arrive on 14th April with their debut album ‘pilot’, a lowercase-favouring first work that sees Laurie Foster and Saam Watkins round off years of hard work and endless gigging with something that encapsulates the first chapter.

Toying with conventional notions of punk and noise-pop, thrashing melees are balanced out with bittersweet lyrics, personal to the extreme. Saam’s been kind enough to provide a guide to five tracks from the record (‘i am a lion’, ‘zero’, ‘waves and waves and waves’, ‘fan fiction’ and ‘gutterball’) for anyone intrigued by the meaning behind the furore that’s been put to tape.

The band’s debut on Dog Knights productions follows on from the debut ‘Kitten Frenzy’ EP and following ‘Thrash Magic’ EP. It concludes with a cover of William, because according to the duo that’s the band they always set out to sound like. On ‘pilot’ they strap themselves in for replicating their heroes and actually end up taking off to even headier heights.

We’re delighted to bring you the first play of ‘pilot’ - listen below. Pre-order via Dog Knights - it’s out 14th April.



i am a lion
Lyrically I was trying to channel my inner Tokyo Police Club on this one. They’ve always been one of my favourite bands and I think we were writing this around the time that ‘Champ\ came out and man, David Monks just went and said everything I wanted to on that record. I guess ultimately the song is a romanticised account of a failed romance. Te twists and turns and misinterpretations of the start of something new, but kinda dolled up to make it a story actually worth telling.
Favourite line: ‘You gave me a box that housed the ocean.’

zero
‘Zero’ is probably the most positive/optimistic song on ‘pilot’, the ‘can you feel it’ refrain referring to a sudden wave of elation induced by a new found sense of clarity (god that sounds wack but explaining happiness is hard). This song is me working out my head through travelling around Europe on the tour we did with Johnny Foreigner (the capitals mentioned in the song being a track from their new album), and sot of working out what I do and don’t need. It’s like writing new years resolutions 6 months into the year.
Favourite line: ‘If we could just get obsessed, I think I might go blind starting all these fires’.

waves and waves and waves
Probably my proudest achievement to date lyrically. ‘waves…’ is a running away song, but like to something rather than from something. I was trying to play Ben Gibbard on this one, trying to find a way of both defining an old relationship with hindsight as well criticising the city I live in.
Favourite line: ‘Driving doe eyed, a million miles far.’

fan fiction
Kind of a retrospective song, ‘fan fiction’ is an annotated letter to myself critiquing my performance in a relationship before finding some self understanding, and moving on with a clear head. ‘I got a blister pretending that I’m better’, being the apology I never really gave.
Favourite line: ‘It feels like summer.’

gutterball
Wearing my love of comic books more clearly on my sleeve than ever before, ‘gutterball’ references ghost world (killing time with Enid and Rebecca) and black hole (we caught cold swimming out of our depth - a black hole). Kind of playing to the loose concept built up within the lyrics of ‘pilot’ (if you really wanna know, let’s go for coffee and I’ll tell all), ‘gutterball’ mirrors ‘i am a lion’ in terms of lyrical themes but with added resolve.
Favourite line: ‘Another popcorn movie. we’re better friends. like the best of friends.’

Playlounge support William at London’s Old Blue Last on 15th May.