Described by Adam Walton of BBC Radio Wales, as a "Jolt of colourful noise electricity", Picsel are the Swansea alt-grunge pop four-piece, the side project of Broken Fires. They released 'Fucked Society', their hard-hitting second single from forthcoming debut album 'Modern Life Discovery', at the end of July. Recorded live, the song details injustice: "Trump President, Boris PM and the world is staring at idiots on Love Island as civilisation sinks into an ocean covered in the excessive packaging used to wrap your avocados. Fucked Society just about sums it up."
Who are you?
I’m Tom. I play bass and sing backing vocals in Picsel. The other band members are Gareth (guitar and main vox), Justin (guitar and backing vocals) and Dai Francis (drums on the album). Occasionally we have another live drummer called Dan.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
We are from a little place called Swansea in South Wales. We all started playing music together years ago and have just continued to write, record and release whatever comes out. Picsel was a bi product of us writing a load of material for the second album from another of our projects, Broken Fires. We loved the kind of nostalgic post punk sound that came out, so dragged all our recording gear into a rehearsal space and recorded the album in two days live.
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
For this project we were heavily influenced by bands like Japandroids, Menzingers and early Fidlar stuff. I guess some of the other stuff we had done had been so complex and layered with violins, piano and loads of harmonies, we were longing for a bit of old-fashioned carefree punk. We have also always been huge weezer fans, which I think comes through quite strongly.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
We tend to knock out and idea at home on our own (either me or Gareth), roughly demo it and then get together to develop and work on arrangements. As I’m now based in London and the other guys are still in Wales we have tended to write more separately lately and bring more fully formed ideas.
Recording wise, we do it all ourselves. Justin engineers and produces everything and so is a bit of a wizard.
Tell us a little about your new single.
So the new single is called 'Fucked Society'. It’s one of our favourites to play live. It just has a load of energy to it. Lyrically it’s probably one of our angriest! Just us on a bit of a rant about inequality, privilege and the strange situation we find ourselves in.
Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?
Well… we are currently plotting. Planning a couple of shows to celebrate the album release and looking forword to getting the music out there.
How's the rest of the year looking, plans-wise?
We are putting out another track this month, and the album in September. We are also super busy at the moment recording the second album for our other project Broken Fires and planning for that release too. So lots happening.
Where can we hear more of your music?
Best bet is to follow us on Spotify. Apple Music, SoundCloud or YouTube. It’s all out there!
What social media platforms can we find you on?
Facebook // Instagram // Twitter
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