Catfish And The Bottlemen will release new single ‘Fallout’ on July 7 through Communion/Island Records. The track premiered last night as Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record In The World, just ahead of the band’s May 24 headline slot on the BBC Introducing Stage at this weekend’s Radio1 Big Weekend, and following a sold-out London headline show at Dingwalls last night. Catfish’s summer tour itinerary will see them taking in over 20 festival dates, including the likes of Latitude (Lake Stage, curated by Huw Stephens), Reading & Leeds Festival, Ibiza & Mallorca Rocks (supporting Jake Bugg) plus T In The Park.
‘Fallout’ sees frontman Van McCann in part squaring up to his unusual past, particularly his origins as something of a trans-continental test tube baby. Having eloped to Australia barely out of their teens, McCann’s young parents found themselves unable to conceive (Van’s mother having been badly hurt in a childhood car crash), and proceeded to hold down various part-time jobs to fund several rounds of unsuccessful IVF, the third and final of which produced Van. ‘That’s why I needed a record deal so bad’ quips Van, ‘to pay my parents back for all the cash they spent trying to make me happen’. ‘Fallout’s insistent chorus, ostensibly concerned with the inconsistencies of lust- ‘Always seem to just fall out when I’m most in need of it / Always seem to just call out for it when I’m up for leaving it’ –finds McCann’s blistered vocals simultaneously tapping into distinctly more personal material. ‘It felt like it wasn’t just an archetypal thing to write a song about’ says McCann, ‘I thought, if I word it right, this can relate to two completely different things but still u-turn back to the same sentiment’.
‘Fallout’ is the fifth single release in under a year from Catfish and The Bottlemen, whose equally frenetic tour schedule (over 100+ gigs in the last 12 months) has seen the 4 English kids from North Wales play Radio 1’s Future Festival and perform on the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading & Leeds Festival, amidst a relentless UK tour itinerary which has also taken in sold-out headline London shows at The Barfly, Sebright Arms and Borderline.
