21 Aug 86TVs share new music and announce debut headline tour
Some things in life deserve not to be rushed. Though 86TVs are about to share their first music with the world – songs that fizzle and crackle with all the excitement and inventiveness of a group in their first flush of creativity – the path that led them here stretches back over five years.
The Maccabees bowed out at the absolute pinnacle of their game, having just scored a #1 album, won an Ivor Novello and headlined their first festival. After playing three celebratory farewell shows at Alexandra Palace, you might assume that they would have taken some downtime to reflect, but within days Hugo and Felix White were back in the studio with their younger brother Will (aka the solo artist BLANc). While the idea of forming a new project lay dormant in the back of their minds, step-by-step it evolved into something more, and 86TVs was cemented with the addition of former Noisettes and Stereophonics drummer Jamie Morrison.
Now 86TVs unveil their debut single ‘Worn Out Buildings’, which has just received its first play from Steve Lamacq on 6 Music, and announce details of their first headline tour.
‘Worn Out Buildings’ pulsates with the joyous, liberated feeling of a band relishing making music for the pure joy of expressing themselves – and that uplifting tone is elevated by the soaring, four-way lead vocals shared by its band members. Its dopamine shot of propulsive energy is a departure from the spiky intensity of The Maccabees, but it shares their expansive spirit. Hugo started writing the song as a message to his younger self, but with the help of Will it took on a broader perspective and a conversational tone.
Hugo says, “‘Worn Out Buildings’ is about the importance of validation in being off track, with the reassurance that you’ll get back there in time, as a different person, one built on everything you’ve been through. And we’re all united in that.”
The quartet kept 86TVs under wraps for five years, eager to preserve the creative freedom and fun that comes when freed from considering deadlines, schedules and external pressures. They had their own lives outside of music and for the first time, the band was going to have to fit around that, not the other way round. Hugo had become a father and was working as a producer for artists including Jamie T’s number one album, Matt Maltese (325 million streams on Spotify alone) and Jessie Ware. Felix was running his own record label Yala! and had forged a successful new career as a broadcaster and writer. He also co-hosts the BBC podcast/5 Live show Tailenders, which has received over 20 million downloads, and wrote the Sunday Times bestselling memoir ‘It’s Always Summer Somewhere’ that was also a Radio 4 book of the week. Will became a father too, as he worked on short film scores and solo music, while Jamie toured with the Stereophonics. Their lives outside made the process of writing music together something they all cherished and allowed to grow in its own time. If someone couldn’t make a rehearsal at their new studio HQ in Wandsworth it wasn’t a big deal, they could do it another time.
As their catalogue of songs began to emerge, just one question remained: who was going to sing them? They toyed with the idea of asking a few musician friends to add their vocals to make a collaborative album, but years after Johnny Marr had initially suggested that these songs really needed to be sung by the people who’d written them, they found the final piece of the puzzle. None of the White brothers were comfortable stepping forward to be the frontman, and as it turns out, they didn’t need to be. One day in rehearsals, they stood around a single microphone and sang in unison. It suddenly clicked. Their voices – three of four being siblings – became one and the group found its identity. The band itself became the frontman.
There’s much more new music to come from the band, much of which was recorded in a little over a week with trusted producer Stephen Street, who also worked on The Maccabees’ debut ‘Colour It In’. In the meantime, having so far played select shows including a low-key debut at Omeara, gigs with their friend Jamie T, and The Great Escape, 86TVs will embark upon their first headline tour next month which also takes in festival dates at Reeperbahn and Float Along.
SEPTEMBER
11th – Brighton, Prince Albert
12th – Hull, Adelphi
13th – Hebden Bridge, The Trades Club
15th – Edinburgh, Mash House
16th – Huddersfield, Northern Quarter
17th – Cambridge, The Six Six
19th – Cologne, MTC
20th – Hamburg, Reeperbahn Festival
22nd – London, Moth Club
23rd – Sheffield, Float Along Festival
