- Mundane, USA Bleak Soul 3:41
Bleak Soul have today released their new single titled ‘Mundane, USA’ from the upcoming album ‘ Shouting With Nothing To Say’, set to release in March 2022.
Electronically soulful from the start, ‘Mundane, USA’ kicks into overdrive with a slow build from a track meant for the stage. This song is subtly brutal while retaining every ounce of street cred that gives the masses a small taste of that signature sound. Keep your ears out for this album when it drops in March.
About Bleak Soul
With the announcement of their sophomore album, Shouting With Nothing To Say, set to release in March 2022, Benjamin Langford-Biss’ (formally of As It Is) latest project, Bleak Soul, will be releasing its latest single, Mundane, USA on January 13th 2022. After embarking on their debut UK tour alongside Tigress, Mundane, USA very quickly became a live favorite, even in the eyes of Will Gould of Creeper. About Will’s fandom, Langford-Biss stated, “after seeing the song live Will Gould said how much he loved that version so it really helped make my mind up about changing it”.
Discussing the song itself, Bleak Soul continues, “Mundane, USA is easily the loudest song on a mostly quiet, somber and subtle record. It’s a song about a lot of things; in hindsight my drinking habits when I was on tour with As It Is weren’t great and it was definitely something I used to cope with the cyclic nature of touring. I was so burned out by it that every city blurred into one. I never felt like I could complain about it though because I was getting to live a life many only get to dream of and it felt selfish and ungrateful to ever moan. As much as we always promoted talking about your mental health, sometimes we didn’t heed our own advice and often felt isolated with massive imposter syndrome. So this is me venting with that 20/20 vision on things. I started writing it in the drab waiting room when I did Jury Service – I never ended up getting assigned to a trial so every day for over a week I sat pointlessly in the same room and that mundanity is what sparked the song and the theme.”
Discussing the new album, Langford-Biss said, “Shouting With Nothing to say is the record I’ve always wanted to make but always been too afraid to. It’s raw, often quiet, sometimes loud and brutally honest and allows all my flaws and imperfections to show. I wanted this record to be more of a soundtrack, with vignettes of specific moments in my life forming a larger picture. The record fundamentally is about change; within the space of a couple of months everything I’d spent the best part of a decade working on was gone and making this record helped me deal with that. There is a comfort in the mundane, in the the simple things that make us human and this is me trying to find it. The internet has meant the world has become a place where people try to shout the loudest, a lot of the time with no real depth and this record is an escape from that. It is a self-aware reflection on my own need to tell a story in order to feel like I have purpose.”
Starting life as a studio project in 2019 after Langford-Biss stepped back from As It Is after 8 years of intensive global touring to focus on other creative outputs. Surprise releasing his debut solo album Existential Meditation in 2020 which saw Bleak Soul exploring concepts of purpose & mental struggles with the entire point of existence through vast sonic explorations from ambient soundscapes, to guitar-heavy rock songs, acoustic ballads, jazz & 80’s new wave. Between lockdowns in 2021 there was opportunity to put together a live band for the project as well as releasing the double a-side single Living / Nihilism through his very own Bleak Records.
Featured image by Rad Kroeger.
2022 Live Shows
- 15th January 2022 – Brighton, The Hope & Ruin*
- 15th March 2022 – Tunbridge Wells, Forum Basement^
- 16th March 2022 – Brighton, The Prince Albert^
- 17th March 2022 – Cardiff, The Moon^
- 18th March 2022 – London, Signature Brew Haggerston^
- 19th March 2022 – Birmingham, The Flapper^
- 20th March 2022 – Leicester, Firebug^
- 7th July 2022 – 2000 Trees Festival, Cheltenham
*supporting itoldyouiwouldeatyou
^album release shows w/ The Nightmares & Autumnboy
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/bleaksouluk
https://bleaksoul.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/benlangfordbiss
