join Blue Bendy on a Flight Simulation with their new single

Photo credit: Trinity Ace. Hi-res available here.

“a pleasingly unpredictable and singular debut album” – Uncut (8/10)

Blue Bendy are sharing the final preview of their hotly anticipated debut album ‘So Medieval’ with their new single ‘The Day I Said You’d Died (He Lives)’ which is available to listen to now via state51.

Once again evading second guesses, Blue Bendy careen around musical hair-pin turns from explosive synth stabs into rolling boil rhythms, through a dark and jazzy middle towards a guitar chugging outro on their new single ‘The Day I Said You’d Died (He Lives)’. And all of this in under 4 minutes.

Expanding on the meaning behind the track, singer and lyricist Arthur Nolan explains: “It’s another song about a folly to the continent. This time, I was Barcelona bound. 2 passports and 3 flights later, i met a hero of mine. So it’s dedicated to Bradford Cox. You probably shouldn’t lie to get free flights to music festivals. It works, but it doesn’t make you feel very good afterwards.”

Blue Bendy kicked off 2024 with news of their highly anticipated debut album ‘So Medieval’ which is being released via state51 on 12 April. Alongside this big announcement the band also revealed dates for their UK headline tour including their largest headline show to date at The Garage in London on 9 May and a special Album Launch Show in the band’s hometown of Scunthorpe to celebrate the release. Full tour dates listed below.

‘So Medieval’ captures all the musical foibles, idiosyncrasies and departures from the norm which Blue Bendy have displayed across their previous releases. Expressing their sound over the course of a full record for the first time, ‘So Medieval’ is an explosive mix of genre, atmosphere and emotions. The end result is something rare for a new band: a debut album which is as experimental as it is confident and assured, as tender as it is visceral, as quiet as it is loud, as bloody as it is teary.

Building on the momentum of their 2022 EP ‘Motorbike’ Blue Bendy are stretching out into vast new sonic terrain. Their following two singles ‘Mr Bubblegum’ – a joyously intricate piece of experimental guitar pop – and the frenetic, propulsive yet incredibly deft sprawl of ‘Cloudy’, saw the band reach new heights creatively. Of the former, The Guardian enthused: “indie is riddled with addled, verbose frontmen right now, but none so rapturous as Blue Bendy’s Arthur Nolan: here he dances all over splayed post-rock and micro-cataclysms.” 

Having toured as main support for Squid and Cola as well as playing packed out tents at festivals like End Of The Road and Green Man, Blue Bendy have struck a balance between being obviously skilled musicians, writing complex, layered, overlapping and ambitious compositions, while also utilising space, breadth, and restraint. Their music is bursting with dynamism, exploring push-pull dynamics that results in something ceaselessly unpredictable.

Blue Bendy ‘So Medieval’ UK Tour

12 Apr – Scunthorpe, Café Indiependent

4 May – Southampton, Wanderlust Festival

5 May – Bristol, Louisiana

7 May – Cambridge, Portland Arms

8 May – Oxford, Common Ground

9 May – London, The Garage

12 May – Kendal, Glisky

13 May – Glasgow, Stereo

14 May – Liverpool, Kazimier Stockroom

15 May – Manchester, YES Basement

18 May – Sheffield, Get Together Festival

26 – 29 Jul – North Yorkshire, Deer Shed Festival

15 – 18 Aug – Brecon Beacons, Green Man Festival