Squid share new single ‘Undergrowth’ & accompanying video game

Squid have debuted a new single, ‘Undergrowth’ and released a video game based on the song. The song concentrates on themes of environmental peril, morality and the natural world. It is the latest track, after ‘Swing (In A Dream)’ to be taken from the post-punk band’s upcoming second album ‘O Monolith’, which will be released on 9th June. “I really got into animism, the idea that spirits can live in inanimate objects,” explains frontman Ollie Judge of the track. “I was watching Twin Peaks, and there was the episode where Josie Packard’s spirit goes into a chest of drawers. So ‘Undergrowth’ was written from the perspective of me being reincarnated as a bedside table in the afterlife, and how the thought of being reincarnated as an inanimate object would be dreadful. ‘This isn’t what I wanted/ So many options to be disappointed.’

“Even though I’m in no way religious,” he continues, “I don’t think anyone who isn’t religious is confident enough to not have had the fleeting thought of ‘Fuck, what if there is an afterlife? What if I’m going to Hell?’”

The song’s accompanying video game was designed and developed by Frank Force, and has been described in a press release as “the bastardized love child of Super Mario and Space Invaders, with an English Folklore twist”. Check out the video game here.

Frank comments: “Imagine the game itself as an interactive music video where gameplay and animation is synched up to the music and changes as the song progresses, moving into different phases.”

Meanwhile, the music video for ‘Undergrowth’ was shot by guitarist Louis Borlaise. “When we were writing ‘O Monolith’ we rented a little studio in St Pauls and whichever way we’d walk home, the BRI Hospital chimney would always be standing there – jutting out in front of a disc of countryside beyond: the home of the Devil’s Den, a stable’s worth of chalk horses further afield towards Cherhill, Pewsey and Westbury,” he said. “Sometimes it feels like most folklore hides in the countryside’s nooks. At other times it comes in closer, lurking in the bins on the walk back from the shops.”

Watch the video for ‘Undergrowth’ below.

In addition, Squid have also announced a run of live dates in North America for early 2024, which will kick off in Austin, Texas at the beginning of February and last until the beginning of March, where they will sign off in Los Angeles. Prior to that, they will also be performing in the UK and Europe. You can see their full tour itinerary below and buy tickets here.

MAY
05 - Focus Wales, Wrexham, Wales

JUNE
18 - Beyond The Pale, Wicklow, Ireland
30 - Rock Werchter, Werchter, Belgium

JULY
02 - Fusion, Larz, Germany
21 - Standon Calling, Hertfordshire, UK
22 - Truck Festival, Oxfordshire, UK

AUGUST
16 - Paredes De Coura, Portugal
18 - Green Man, Brecon, Wales

SEPTEMBER
02 - Into The Great Wide Open, Vlieland, Netherlands

OCTOBER
13 - SWX, Bristol, UK
14 - SWX, Bristol, UK
16 - Town Hall, Birmingham, UK
17 - O2 Academy Leeds, Leeds, UK
18 - New Century, Manchester, UK
21 - Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK
22 - Boiler Shop, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

NOVEMBER
01 - Troxy, London, UK

FEBRUARY 2024
02 - Austin, TX, The Parish
03 - Dallas, TX, Dada
05 - Nashville, TN, Basement East
06 - Atlanta, GA, Terminal West
08 - Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
09 - Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer
10 - Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn Steel
14 - Boston, MA, Paradise Rock Club
15 - Montreal, QC, SAT
16 - Toronto, ON, Phoenix Concert Theatre
18 - Chicago, IL, Thalia Hall
19 - Minneapolis, MN, Fine Line
23 - Portland, OR, Revolution Hall
24 - Vancouver, BC, Rickshaw Theatre
25 - Seattle, WA, The Crocodile
27 - San Francisco, CA, Regency Ballroom
29 - Santa Ana, CA, The Observatory