Ambitious Sydney five-piece Gang of Youths are set to release their second studio album, the 16 track epic Go Farther In Lightness on Friday, August 18. If that isn’t enough, the Sydneysiders have a huge Australian tour that is set to end in Perth on Saturday, September 16 at Metropolis Fremantle. Apparently good things come in 16s.
Along with this exciting announcement, we’ve also shared the new track Atlas Drowned below and can announce that the next single The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows will be released on Friday, May 26.
Gang of Youths frontman Dave Le’aupepe explains the album in his own words:
“Go Farther In Lightness is my healing record. I suppose it’s my attempt of making sense of the world, and to some effect, my attempt to make the lessons I’ve learned from my heroes, my favourite texts, my friends and from my short time on earth readily accessible and available to you. So, Go Farther In Lightness is about being a real life human being. With all our self-loathing, hopes, anxieties, sorrows and joys. It is about not knowing what the fuck I’m doing, but having a good ol’ stab at it anyways. It is about demonstrating empathy, overthinking metaphysics and, at the risk of seeming overly trite, embracing humanness in myself and those around me in the here and now.
“No, I don’t believe that we are ‘cool’, nor do we clothe ourselves in ornaments of what is currently in vogue re: indie rock in 2017. We are not predominantly white, middle-class progressives producing music self-aware and effete — nor are we making a new fetishised brand of garage punk. We’re something of an in-between, I think. Not cool, but not totally garish and awkward, attempting to make music about, and for, the forgotten people whom like us, have always had trouble finding a place.
“What I do believe however, is that music that is geared toward connecting with all people on a human level, and bypassing bullshitty, arbitrary ephemera is making a cultural return in some way. Maybe it never left, and I’m playing the dumb card. But I hope that Go Farther In Lightness is part of this new sincere in some way. Because it means a lot to me, and to us and I hope it finds its way into the hearts of you who would dare to let go of your cynicism for an hour and a half.”
Atlas Drowned is out now. Go Farther In Lightness is released Friday, August 18. They play Perth on Saturday, September 16 at Metropolis Fremantle.
