Brighton alt-rock crew Muskets are streaming the video to their new single, You’re So Cool, exclusively on TeamRock. The track, which calls to mind the post-hardcore of early Biffy Clyro and At The Drive-In, all buffed up with a pop-laden sheen, marks the imminent release of their long-awaited debut album Chew, and we’re confident in saying it’s one of the best new tracks you’ll likely hear this week.
You can check out the single and its video below, as well as a quick catch up with bassist Dan Smith to find out more about the band, the video and what we can expect from the new album.
What’s the story behind You’re So Cool?
“The track You’re So Cool was pretty much our spin on a pop track. It’s written about a topic which I guess is easy to relate to as a young person in today’s society; you’re having a bad time or struggling in some way when you meet a person who makes you feel better about yourself or your situation. This is probably the closet thing we’re going to create to a love song.”
What’s going on in the video?
“I think once you watch the video the whole way through it’s pretty self explanatory as to what is happening. The concept is initially meant to seem like a kid is left in a post-apocalyptic England, just trying to get by and survive, until you release towards the end of the song that he just lives in a run down part of the country and is just bored, killing time, getting up to no good.”
How did you come up with that concept?
“We came up with this concept in a similar way [to how] we came up with all our other video ideas – by sitting down with Chris Wade aka Dog Brain Videos, the visual director we’ve been working with through this record campaign, and throwing some ideas around until we get something that works for everyone. We usually start with an interesting location and develop the idea around that so it looks as visually interesting as possible and once we’d settled on the post apocalyptic theme we took a lot of inspiration from the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy.”
What’s your favourite story or anecdote from recording the video?
“One of the locations we filmed in was a derelict pub that had supposedly been left abandoned after the owners were ran out by a group of travellers who’d settled on a surrounding field. Everything you’d expect to find in a family-friendly pub was still there, but nothing was in working order. The floor was littered with glass, rubble and broken objects. The juxtaposition between a half-completed colouring book and a piss-stained mattress was rather unsettling and we were pretty on edge as it didn’t have a very welcoming feel to it. We wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, as you could see the field of caravans from the window and we’d read way to many stories on Reddit, but my little cousin, who stars in the video, absolutely loved it. He was running around in all the glass and shit, finding props to use for the shoot. To be honest, most of the footage from that location wasn’t even planned, we just let him do his thing and Chris caught some of it on camera.”
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Your debut album, Chew, is released next month. How does that feel?
“Yeah, Chew is finally coming out next month, what a fucking relief. We recorded it around 14 months ago, so it’s been a frustrating process just waiting. We wanted to play different songs from the album live, to see how they would be received in that environment, but we didn’t wanna give to much away too early. So yeah, looking forward to playing new songs live.”
What’s the album about?
“Chew isn’t really about one topic in particular, it’s not a concept album or anything like that, it’s just an album of songs that we’ve collectively written since moving to Brighton about issues we’ve come across either with ourselves or others around us from the past to present.”
What do you hope people take from the single, the album and your music in general?
“I think music is meant to trigger a certain emotion, be it positive or negative, and that’s how people connect to it and that’s why people enjoy it. So, I guess even though our songs aren’t necessarily written in an overt way, I hope that people relate to an occasional lyric, or just interpret it however they want and find their own meaning in it. And even if people don’t give a shit about the lyrics, and just enjoy the general vibe and it makes them feel good, then that’s cool too.”
Muskets’ debut album Chew will be released on October 20th via No Sleep Records, and is available for pre-order now.
