New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Following the track's premiere with Marc Riley at BBC 6music, Cambridge indie pop trio Mammoth Penguins are pleased to reveal the video for their new single 'Closure'. The track is the latest to be taken from their third album, There's No Fight We Can't Both Win, released on 26th April 2019 via Fika Recordings.
Alongside the video, the band are pleased to announce a run of spring/summer UK headline tour dates plus an appearance at Indietracks Festival later this year (see below for full listings).
Front woman Emma Kupa says of the new single: "Closure is a song about an interaction, or day, or moment, or occurrence when something shifts and feelings that you may have been carrying around for a while just dissipate. I think real closure can be quite rare and incredibly profound."
Directed by Fraser Watson at Foliage Films, the video shoot was a low key affair, as Kupa explains further: "We met up on a Saturday morning recently to film our bits in a little theatre above a pub, then Fraser went off to film the rest of the narrative, so we had no idea what the final thing would look like. I'd love to thank the actors for doing some excellent slo-mo pillow fighting and adding some fun and energy to the release."
The band have so far seen support from BBC 6music,
Radio X, idobi Radio, Louder Than War, London in Stereo, Drowned in Sound, Exclaim!, God Is In The TV, and a whole host of blogs and specialist radio shows for their raw and incisive brand of lo-fi pop.
There's No Fight We Can't Both Win is released 26th April 2019
Mammoth Penguins live:
Friday 15 March - Telford's Warehouse, Chester
Saturday 16 March - Soup Kitchen, Manchester
Friday 12 April - The Finsbury, London
Friday 10 May - Karma Kafe, Norwich
Sunday 12 May - Fusion Arts, Oxford
Monday 13 May - The Moon, Cardiff
Friday 24 May - The Tin, Coventry
Thursday 30 May - Bar Brig, Edinburgh
Saturday 15 June - The Shacklewell Arms, London
Thursday 20 June - Rough Trade, Nottingham
Tuesday 23 July - The Blue Moon, Cambridge
26-28 July - Indietracks Festival, Derbyshire
Mammoth Penguins online:
https://mammothpenguins.com
https://www.facebook.com/MammothPenguins
https://twitter.com/MammothPenguins
More info on There's No Fight We Both Can't Win:
Mammoth Penguins are a 3-piece indie pop powerhouse, showcasing the songwriting and vocal talents of Emma Kupa (Standard Fare, The Hayman Kupa Band) backed up by the noisiest rhythm section in indie pop.
Their first album, Hide and Seek, was released with the much-loved and sorely missed Fortuna Pop! in 2015. Stand-out tracks 'Strength In My Legs' and 'When I Was Your Age' were picked up by BBC 6Music and
Radio X, and the band played a live session for Marc Riley the following year.
But Mammoth Penguins didn't want to stop there. Their follow-up release John Doe in 2017 was an ambitious concept album, exploring the feelings of loss and anger at a man who fakes his own death, only to return years later. It featured contributions from Haiku Salut's
Sophie Barkerwood and Alto 45's Joe Bear, and expanded well beyond the 3-piece rock'n'roll template, with washes of strings, synths and samples (field recordings of butter being scraped on toast, photocopiers, and Ramsgate beach helping to fully immerse the listener in the world the band have created) filling out and developing Kupa's songwriting.
Having had their "and now for something completely different" moment, the band have brought that ambition and expanded palette to the production of this new release. The sound is big, bold and confident—with layers of guitars, backing vocals and keys all adding extra muscle—but maintaining Kupa's candid, heartfelt, confessional style of songwriting, and the jubilant power pop hooks that made the first record so special.
As with many songwriters, Kupa's songs are derived mostly from her own personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings, be they long-lived or fleeting. "The times when people have said my lyrics resonate with them or articulate something specific for them are extremely validating for me and I hope that happens with this album," she explains of the new record.
"Arranging the songs with Mark and Tom is a massive buzz and playing them live as a band feels so exciting. Having Joe and Faith put their mark on the album was also a massive privilege. Making a record can be an extremely slow and drawn out process that requires patience, perseverance and resilience, and because of that we are super excited and proud to be releasing this album."
This time around, classic themes of love, loss and conflict are (mostly) given a hopeful and optimistic spin that opposition is neither inevitable nor hopeless. For musical comparisons, think Land of Talk, and Philadelphia bands such as Swearin and Hop Along, but Kupa's insight into the everyday and her ability to pen such relatable and honest missives means that, often, the best comparison for Mammoth Penguins' music is with your own past.
