Irish pop-rockers modernlove round off an incredible 12 months with their beautiful new single “unfamiliar ceilings”.
Over the past 12 months they have sold out dozens of shows across the UK, Europe and America, and completed their own headline WORLD TOUR, been invited to play for the President, supported The Vamps, and played a number of international festivals including the DORK stage at Live At Leeds, Latitude, Eurosonic (NL), Bumbershoot (US), FingersUp (CZ) amongst many others, all off the back of their first 3 EPs. Add that to millions of streams and over 50 thousand new followers across platforms, and it’s clear modernlove. are establishing themselves as one of the most exciting up and coming bands in the world.
This single showcases a softer pop-rock side, with their inimitable capacity for relatable lyrics and singalong choruses shining through. Produced and mixed by long-term collaborator Tom Leach (Col3trane, AntsLive, Tribes), and mastered by Kevin Tuffy (Alfie Templeman, Sundara Karma), “unfamiliar ceilings” is yet another sonic statement from a prolific band that keep going from strength to strength.
modernlove. say:
‘unfamiliar ceilings’ is about that phase in some people’s lives where they’re going a bit off the rails. In living a bit hedonistically and abusing alcohol and other substances everything becomes a bit of a blur. Our better judgement is undermined by a sense of longing for some missing piece or some ineffable thing in our lives. It’s a search for meaning, just in all the wrong places.
The lyric, “unfamiliar ceilings” is a reference to waking up and realising you’re somewhere you don’t recognise, maybe with someone you don’t recognise either. Narratively and lyrically this song was very informed by the likes of The Streets and Republic of Loose. Sonically it was inspired by the likes of The Cure which lends to the atmosphere of melancholy and longing established in the lyrical narrative.
With larger than life indie-pop anthems born of small town boredom, coming of age, big nights out and young love gone wrong, modernlove. are a new generation’s brightest hope – already racking up streams in their millions and selling out shows, simply by singing about what they know and having a good time doing it. From playing dingey rural pubs to working with super-producer Luca (of Arlo Parks and Lana Del Rey fame), this Irish band of young 20-somethings are about to show the world the true heights of their ambition.
Formed in Drogheda near Dublin in 2016 of childhood friends and mutual pals, the four-piece came together as “the only people in town we knew who liked music”. Their shared influences of the game-changing future-pop of The 1975 and The Japanese House, the new wave sounds of The Cure and New Order, the danceable indie of Bloc Party and Bombay Bicycle Club, the experimental ambience of Jon Hopkins and Aphex Twin ,and a whole lot of day-glo pop-punk took them from jamming covers for the hell of it to carving out a monolithic, genre-shifting sound of their own to lift them out of the doldrums of their sleepy hometown.
