Having last month premiered their latest single, ‘Brother’, Meatraffle have now unveiled a brand new video for the single. You can check it out above.
Set for release digitally and on a limited 7" vinyl next month via Moshi Moshi Singles Club, the track comes amidst recording sessions for the band’s third album having decided to skip the oft-feared ‘difficult second album’ syndrome. That album will follow on from 2015 debut Hi-Fi Classics.
Describing the new single, the band say: "’Brother’ is about the platonic love you have with your friends (sex is forbidden). It’s about sharing and having things in common. The ups and downs, of course – about who buys more rounds of drinks than the others. It’s a dry orgy, that’s all it is."
The band will play at Bristol’s The Crofters Rights this Saturday (June 10) while an appearance at September’s Liverpool Psych Fest is also scheduled. The single is out on July 14 and you can read on below for a little chat with the band’s Zsa Zsa Sapien about the new record and more.
Did the connections within the band influence the themes explored on ‘Brother’ at all?
Zsa Zsa Sapien: The people mentioned in the lyrics are people or bands that we have shared bills with or been influenced by. I guess the song Is about me and Tingle, as I have known him since school days (he still owes me that 50p), and about others of course. It was at Tingle’s house, smoking slate, where we watched a documentary about the incredible story of the slave rebellion in Haiti, lead by Toussaint L’Overture. A brilliant book was written about it by Trinidadian cricket nut and Trotskyist CLR James, as mentioned in the lyrics. The book is called The Black Jacobins, and it’s the greatest story ever told in the history of this planet. The song is about platonic love. If you want to keep your friends, do not fuck them.
One of the track’s lines mentions never voting for Tories. Do you have any words for those planning to vote Tory on June 8th?
ZZS: I may know a few Tories you know, that I don’t really socialise with anymore, that I say hello to now and again in a limited capacity. I am a gentleman you see and I am always polite. I suppose they earn the right of association through growing up together. Yes, they are still stupid cunts though and I live in hope that they will redeem themselves one day, and stop being so competitive, paranoid and insular in their perspective of the world. I like spiking their drinks with liquid acid and watching them blossom in front of my childlike eyes. That is quite a thing to behold, a psychedelic Tory. So yeah, fuck them all .
How is progress coming along on the new album you’re currently recording?
ZZS: We are making progress, but the process is painfully slow sometimes. We have these songs called ‘Conan The Sales Marketing Advisor’ and ‘Britpop On An Electric Chair’ which are both coming along nicely. The latter will feature a full Nyabinghi orchestra and samples of Fats in the kitchen cooking Lobster Thermidor.
The next record will be your third having opted out of recording a second album to avoid "second album syndrome". Can you tell us more about that decision?
ZZS: We actually got that wrong because it is actually the third album that is the difficult one, not the second, so skipping the second was a mistake. We should have just done the second and skipped the third. But nothing betters the first, that will never be beaten.
Have there been any of those dreaded difficulties with writing and recording so far?
ZZS: There has been no difficulty musically. The lyric side is much more difficult. We could take the easy route and do a ‘A Day In The Life’ by The Beatles-type thing, but I would rather just sit and wait for something to happen. It could take years for something to develop, like ‘Acid In The 1940s’, which would not have had happened if it wasn’t for the Second World War . So yeah, lyrics are the hardest thing ever. The music is already there, if you know what I mean – already been made by Percy Sledge and people like that. I hear a lot of vacuous crap on the radio like Goldfrapp, singing about eating the Moon when you get a bit horny.
How much truth is there, if any, in the mentioned legends about the formation of the band?
ZZS: It’s all true, I swear to god. We did a charity night at The White Lion in Streatham with me, Tingle and Clams from Warmduscher. Every band had to do a Beatles cover and none of us could play any instruments at the time, but we still threw ourselves in at the deep end and did their hardest song ‘Revolution Number 9’. The organiser who was running the show got really upset with our rendition. He is called Clarry McDonald from a fake news surf band called the The DB5s – he used to work for the Richardsons. All we did was play a Billy Joel LP backwards and told a few jokes. This guy afterwards called The Lone Groover said "that was one of the best things I have ever heard". That’s when we all knew we had the gift.
