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Welsh Melodic Punks Ex-Vöid Want To Be ‘Bigger Than Before’

The UK power-pop punks drop ‘Churchyard’ the lead single off their soon to be released debut album.

Ex-Vöid is a “dangerously melodic” pop-punk group formed by Lan McArdle and Owen Williams of Welsh five-piece noise-punk band Joanna Gruesome.

Ex-Vöid, McArdle and Williams’ new project, has just released Churchyard, the lead single of its soon to be released debut LP ‘Bigger Than Before’. The track is a 1:57 power-pop epic stuffed with hooks. Guitarist Williams says of the single: “I wrote it when I was like 24 and living in Brighton. My friend and I were unemployed. We spent a lot of time drinking cans of lager and taking legal highs in a pet graveyard. It was boring so at the end we sing:’ I get so bored’ over and over etc.”

McArdle and Williams have written an album of solid gold power-punk tunes. Even on the more mellow numbers, the band have a way of pummeling the listener with an unhealthy quantity of hooks, harmonies and Thin Lizzy -inspired dual guitar solos.

There’s a delicacy to the vocal of Bilinda Butcher, which imbues the album with a kind of grounding ethereality. McArdle and Williams’ voices blend and trill with a folk-like quietness on Churchyard.

Down in the grubby engine room, bandmates Laurie Foster (bass) and Jonny Coddington (drums) thrash their way through noise jams, hardcore breakdowns and open-chord power-pop riffs.

The album was laid down live, with a few minimal overdubs, in just over an hour at the studio in Hackney, London. The songs were recorded without breaks. Foster apparently “kept on playing even though his belt came loose and his trousers fell down”.

Bigger Than Before is out via Don Giovanni Records on the 25th of March. It is available for pre-order now.

Churchyard is available now across all streaming platforms including Bandcamp.


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