Demob Happy return with the release of their genre-fluid new single ‘Sympathy Boy’ and UK headline tour dates, including London’s SCALA and a landmark show opening the Reading & Leeds Festival mainstage. Stream ‘Sympathy Boy’ here and watch the lyric video here.
Layered with space age synths, ‘Sympathy Boy’ is a representation of who Demob Happy are in 2021. Sitting in between the lines of their critically acclaimed fuzzed out garage rock that’s seen support from The Guardian, Independent, DIY, Kerrang, The Line of Best Fit, Dork, BBC Radio 1 and many more – and the new genre blurring territory they’re paving for the future.
Produced and recorded by frontman Matthew Marcantonio and mixed by Dom Craik from Nothing But Thieves, ‘Sympathy Boy’ was written pre-pandemic, but has foreshadowed the world’s fraught feelings. Speaking of the track’s inspiration, Marcantonio says:
“There’s a lot of potential in the world at the minute for divisive thoughts. It’s becoming very us and them these days. It’s very black and white, people are seeing things in very binary terms. We ought to all see the humanity in people first before we judge, which is essentially what the song is about. There is a mantra-esque feel to it. I’ve never done a song like that.”
“It’s a simple message: try to be empathic. Try to be sympathetic with people. Try and connect back to nature. We all came from a single place, we all came from the soil. What’s the difference between anyone? There is no difference.”
Through the lockdown Demob Happy’s creativity has remained unshackled, reaching outside the confines of the studio whilst they continue to work on new music. Earlier this year, they announced a collaboration with Argentinian brewery New Doom for their very own ‘Doom Soda’ beer, and released a music video for ‘Mother Machine’ completely hand drawn and animated by drummer Tom Armstrong.
Demob Happy will make their return to the live stage in August with UK headline tour dates including London’s SCALA, and a landmark set opening the main stage at Reading & Leeds festivals. Having clocked over 26 million streams, these anticipated shows mark the band’s first live dates since their most ambitious period of touring to date culminated in 2020. With over 120 shows, and four tours of America, their last live outing saw gigs with Jack White, Band Of Skulls, Royal Blood, The Amazons, festival appearances at All Points East, Shaky Knees, Sonic Temple, Mad Cool and more.
Demob Happy live dates TICKETS HERE
25th August – Cavern, Exeter
26th August – Thekla, Bristol
27th August – Reading Festival
28th August – Leeds Festival
31st August – O2 Academy, Oxford
1st September – Club Academy, Manchester
2nd September – O2 Academy, Liverpool
3rd September – Newcastle, Northumbria Uni
4th September – Broadcast, Glasgow
6th September – Bodega, Nottingham
7th September – O2 Institute 3, Birmingham
9th September – Scala, London
10th September – Patterns, Brighton
11th September – Patterns, Brighton
