Math-rockers Alpha Male Tea Party will release Infinity Stare on December 4 via Big Scary Monsters. The surprise album was borne out of loss, grief and acceptance, and also pays tribute to the trio’s close friend Cleft guitarist Dan Wild-Beesley who died in 2018.
“Grief as a feeling is a huge part of what made the record what it is,” says guitarist Tom Peters. “Collectively, we all experienced that at the same time, Dan was a huge aspect of our band. Dan was a driving force, he was often the one who would suggest we go off on a tour together, he was the guy who was steering things. He was my best friend and even from beyond the grave, he's influencing my fucking decision-making.”
The album follows on from 2017's Health and, despite its serious theme, the 10 (mostly) instrumental tracks do carry an air of optimism. As Peters explains, “It’s fun with caveats. It would have been disingenuous for this album to be as openly positive as our previous records, I don't think we would have been as happy writing that. Not to say that we've all become miserable cranks, but I think writing stuff that's got a bit more emotional depth to it has become a more rewarding thing for us to do now.”
He adds, “It's the first album we've done where I truly feel like it's actually translated who I am as a person into a record, which I haven't really felt like that on albums before. I've always felt like there's been some compromises. Not that I think our more major key moments are just throwaway sentiments, but I don't think that tonality delivers the complexity of human emotion.
“If music doesn't communicate what you're feeling, then I don't really know what the point of it is. What's the point in music if you can't hear the humanity in it?”
Alpha Male Tea Party have a UK headline tour planned in April plus festival slots at ArcTanGent and Portals later in 2021.
Listen to Bonfire Disaster Movie below.
