DRENGE have announced their third album, STRANGE CREATURES, produced by long-time collaborator Ross Orton [Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A, The Fall] will be released on 22 February 2019 via Infectious Music. The follow up to their critically acclaimed albums DRENGE [2013] and UNDERTOW [2015] as well as this year’s AUTONOMY EP, the album includes the singles THIS DANCE and AUTONOMY, and was recorded in Sheffield at McCall Sound earlier this year. The album was made “after months of chiselling away, ripping themes and ideas apart, and sewing them back together,” and is described by the band as “the most considered record we have ever made”. To coincide with the release of the new album, DRENGE have announced a UK tour for spring 2019, with tickets are on general now.
Speaking about the new album, the band say, “It’s a nocturnal record. A psychological horror movie on wax. Warped hallucinations from mundane observations as you move through it. Is that a school or a skyscraper on fire in the distance? Or maybe it’s just the ski village? You drive nearer, past roadside diners jammed with dancing teenagers, through Uncanny Valley, past the most unhygienic nightclub in the world. The stereo sounds like it’s going to fall apart at any moment. The car judders to a halt and all you can hear is the sound of the sea.”
Hailing from the English village of Castleton, brothers RORY and EOIN LOVELESS formed DRENGE [taken from the Danish word for ‘boys’] whilst in their mid-teens. Initially with Eoin on lead guitar and vocals and Rory on drums, their raw grunge-inspired blues-pop sound was cultivated from the countryside landscape and their desire to escape from it. Their self-titled debut album was released a month after they made headlines for appearing in British Labour MP Tom Watson’s resignation letter from the Shadow Cabinet. After making their American television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman, they released their second LP UNDERTOW and toured it throughout festivals and headline shows across the world, alongside playing with the likes of WOLF ALICE, THE MACCABEES and ARCTIC MONKEYS.
Now expanded to a live four-piece, the band recently returned to their hometown of Sheffield for a one-off Halloween party Night of The Living Drenge, with guests Fizzy Blood and The Seamonsters. This special show followed their Grand Reopening Tour earlier this year and headline performances at Sŵn Festival in October and Deer Shed and Truck Festival in the summer. DRENGE will now embark on a headline tour in the spring of next year, in celebration of the new album, as follows:
MARCH
Wed 27 GLASGOW Garage
Thu 28 NEWCASTLE Northumbria Institute
Fri 29 MANCHESTER O2 Ritz
APRIL
Mon 01 CAMBRIDGE Junction
Tue 02 LONDON Electric Brixton
Wed 03 PORTSMOUTH Pyramids Centre
Fri 05 BRISTOL SWX
Sat 06 BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
