The Spook School reveal "Binary" Video directed by Nathan Griffin from Martha

Reveal video for “Binary”, directed by Nathan Griffin from vegan DIY punkers Martha

Taken from new album Try To Be Hopeful – due out on Fortuna POP! on 9 October

Live Dates:

2nd October – RVIVR, London, Boston Music Hall
9th October – List party, Glasgow, The Lighthouse
17 October – Carefully Planned Festival, Manchester, Gullivers
26 Oct – Album launch day 1, Edinburgh, Banshee Labyrinth
27 Oct – Album launch day 2, Edinburgh, Banshee Labyrinth
29 Oct – Album launch, London, DIY Space
30 Oct – BMX Bandits, Glasgow, Hug and Pint
6 Nov – Martha/Radiator Hospital, Glasgow, 13th Note
20 Nov – Brighton, The Joker
26 Nov – Leeds, wharf chambers
27 Nov – Edinburgh, Citrus Club (with the Lovely Eggs)
28 Nov – Dundee, Buskers – Book Yer Ane Fest IX
5th Dec – Nottingham, Chameleon
Watch the video “Binary”,

 “Binary” is the new single from DIY-punk-pop quartet The Spook School, taken from their brand new album, Try To Be Hopeful (out on 9 October via Fortuna POP!). A triumphant queer pop song, exploring gender and identity, “Binary” bursts with noisy energy and a maddeningly catchy tune that you just want to sing over and over, blending together influences ranging from Buzzcocks, to T-Rex and the noisier end of C86.
The video for the song was directed by Nathan Griffin from kindred spirits and labelmates Martha, who described the collaborative process of making the video. “I really think this song is so important but also so personal, and I wanted to do it justice. It turned out the idea that I had come up with was pretty similar to the one they had come up with, so we smushed it all together and shot it quickly at Nottingham Queer Fest.”  The video premiered on Noisey this week, who wrote: “Celebrating life beyond the false choice between “bowties or high heels”, the video shows the band dressed up in makeshift robot costumes before discarding them bit by bit as it escalates to a massed chorus of “I am bigger than a hexadecimal”.”
The original recording of the track didn’t quite match the excitement of their live show, so the band headed back into the studio to record a new version, the one you hear now, which also served to demonstrate the change in singer and guitarist Nye Todd’s voice during the making of the record. As Nye undertook his own personal journey by embracing his trans identity and starting testosterone therapy his voice had become considerably lower! As he explains: “It was a bit nerve-wracking and frustrating to not be able to sing things that I’d been able to sing easily before, but it sounds pretty great!”
The song itself about about questioning gender norms, something that Nye’s experience of coming out as being trans has forced him to think about. As he explains, “I could never understand gender when trying to think about it as a choice between ‘men’ and ‘women’. What was it that separates those two types of people? When I discovered the idea of gender as something a lot messier and more nuanced than two categories, something that could be defined according to how people actually wanted to identify and place themselves, things made a lot more sense. I’m so proud and fortunate to know quite a few amazing people who openly identify as non-binary, genderqueer or other non-binary identities – they exist in the world on their own terms and consistently challenge something that so many people just take as read, that there are men and women and nothing else.”
Try To Be Hopeful follows The Spook School’s critically acclaimed debut album Dress Up (2013), which received plaudits from the Guardian (which featured them as a New Band of the Day), Uncut which called it “a rewarding, multi-layered debut” and Loud and Quiet which said, “this is music for the young and disillusioned, but identifiable to anyone who’s ever been frustrated by the grievances of identity and growing up.” The Spook School have since seen their music used on TV, having recorded the theme tune for BBC Three series “Badults” (Adam, Anna & Niall all have sidelines in the world of comedy), and have also toured the US, where they became the subject of a Rolling Stone documentary and met Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!.
Try To Be Hopeful is the sound of a band growing up, embracing their identities, and taking charge at the world. But amidst the fight for a place in society for everyone, there’s still time for love, friendship, and fun. With their bold, fizzy and electrifying anthems, The Spook School are the shot of optimism we’ve been hoping for.
“Edinburgh’s Spook School are a band who have to exist… the quartet’s bright indie-pop – sometimes breezily cheerful, sometimes dramatic, always steeped in the best traditions of their nation’s indie history – is addictive.” The List 4*s
“Emotionally literate and politically conscious… The Spook School deliver the goods with a good-humoured, no frills approach.” The New Internationalist 4*s