cleopatrick have announced their highly anticipated debut album ‘BUMMER’, due for release June 4th via their own label Nowhere Special Recordings via Thirty Tigers / The Orchard (pre-order here). Coinciding with the announcement, the band have shared lead single ‘FAMILY VAN’ with its own video game, and headline UK tour dates for November 2021. Stream ‘FAMILY VAN’ here (official PowerPoint here) and play the video game here.
Utilising their penchant for hip-hop arrangements, ‘FAMILY VAN’ is cleopatrick’s biggest statement to date, a truly thrilling and cut-throat fuzz laden declaration that is a much-needed reawakening of guitar music, heading straight for the jugular.
The release of ‘FAMILY VAN’ comes alongside its own video game, complete with an 8-bit soundtrack created by the band themselves. The video game sees cleopatrick wake up in their hometown of Coburg, Ontario, late for a headline show in Toronto, where the player then has to drive the duo’s trusty van Vannah Montanah to the gig on time, dodging various obstacles and challenges along the way including picking up the band and crew, major label contracts and over-zealous hangers-on.
At just 23 years old, cleopatrick have proved themselves to be a genuine underground global sensation. They were the only band picked for Amazon Music UK’s Ones To Watch 2021, and have amassed nearly 100 million streams alongside multiple sell-out tours across Europe which included an immediately sold-out underplay at London’s Electrowerkz and several shows (including London’s Alexandra Palace) supporting Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes in 2020. Along the way they’ve garnered high-profile fans across the board including The Guardian, Independent, MTV UK, Kerrang, Rock Sound, Dork and Upset, as well as BBC Radio 1 plays from Annie Mac, Jack Saunders and Dan P Carter.
Comprised of best friends since the age of four Luke Gruntz (guitar/vocals) and Ian Fraser (drums), cleopatrick’s debut album ‘BUMMER’ sees the duo harness all the magic they’ve been brewing over their two-decade friendship and funnel it into a record that aims to reinvigorate the rock landscape from the ground up in every sense. Taking the ethos of their New Rock Mafia collective – a group of friends and fellow bands, united in making a more inclusive, equality-driven space in rock music – and imbuing it with the sonic ambition and ferocity of a record designed to be played hard and loud, ‘BUMMER’ is an album made to mean something.
“We want our music to feel as big as hip hop does in the club – big subs and loud drums and vocals right up front. But lyrically, we want to sing songs that everyone in the crowd feels comfortable singing along to. There’s a [historical] formula to rock music where people sing about drugs and alcohol and sex and it’s so phoney; it makes us so angry that kids who want to hear guitar music and get something from it and have a favourite band have to settle for that, and listen to these dudes lying to them,” Luke asserts. “It’s so gross to me and completely the opposite of how this genre started.”
cleopatrick November headline UK tour dates (TICKETS HERE)
24th November – Tunbridge Wells Forum, Tunbridge Wells
25th November – Islington Assembly Hall, London
26th November – O2 Institute, Birmingham
27th November – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
