Tandem Felix Releases Second Album There’s A New Sheriff In Town & Shares Video For New Single ‘The Kitchen’

ALBUM & SINGLE NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM

AHEAD OF ALBUM LAUNCH GIG IN WHELAN’S, DUBLIN ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2023

TANDEM FELIX 2023 TOUR DATES: 

OCTOBER 22: RÓISÍN DUBH, GALWAY (OPENING FOR BRIGID MAE POWER)

OCTOBER 27: CLEERE’S, KILKENNY 

NOVEMBER 17: COUGHLAN’S, CORK 

NOVEMBER 23: WHELAN’S, DUBLIN 

NOVEMBER 25: RECORD ROOM, LIMERICK

Reviews for There’s A New Sheriff In Town:

“David A. Tapley has been a stalwart of Ireland’s indie music scene for some time…His second album is a winning, often charming collection of songs infused by lyrics mired in disillusionment and music that adroitly references acoustic-style Neil Young, the spaced-out experimentalism of Wilco, and the spirited spite of John Grant.”  – Sunday Business Post

As songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Tapley has always been a jack of all trades when it comes to his work as [Tandem Felix], yet the dynamic approach of [There’s A New Sheriff In Town] showcases these talents on a new level.” – Totally Dublin

“For the first listen, I was enticed, for the second I was engrossed, for the third I was enamoured…It’s never going to be hard to support Irish music when artists produce albums like this.”  – The Goo 

Today, Friday, October 20th, 2023, Tandem Felix, the Dublin-based experimental rock project of David A. Tapley, self-releases their second album There’s A New Sheriff In Town. It follows Tandem Felix’s critically acclaimed 2019 debut, Rom-Com, described by Hotpress as “[A] beautiful record that’s compelling in the most subtle ways.”

Along with the release of There’s A New Sheriff In Town, Tandem Felix shares video for ‘The Kitchen’, the third single to be taken from the LP. Amidst its uptempo rock instrumentation with flourishes of pedal steel, chiming keyboard chords and infectious percussion, we hear Tapley wryly sing, “When something’s in the water / And it’s floating around and around / People are talking it up / But I’ve been talking it down.”

Speaking about the lyrical inspiration for ‘The Kitchen’, Tapley explains: “I wanted to write a lyric that would describe a hellscape in someone’s own home. Everything is broken and boiling over. The kitchen is filled with smoke and the chef is asleep at the wheel. The music is messy and folds over on itself in a way that feels right for this context. That sympathy between the lyrical and musical elements are a really important part of this record.”

Directed by Liam Farrell, the video for ‘The Kitchen’ playfully follows a political figure and a horrific but humorous dining experience. Talking about the video’s concept, Farrell says: “For the video, we decided to go with a culinary theme to match the title of the song. We aimed to create a fever dream rendition of a drab and stuffy 1970s restaurant. We follow someone going through an awful ordeal where they get served course after course of inedible slop, but are forced to maintain a veneer of decorum. We wanted to make something funny but also deeply repulsive, and hopefully we’ve found that balance. There’s something about disgusting food that’s grimly fascinating.”

‘THE KITCHEN’:

Of his lyrical approach to There’s A New Sheriff In Town, Tapley says: “When I listen back to Rom-Com, it’s funny to hear how much of an idealistic fool I was. The songs on There’s a New Sheriff in Town are a lot more embittered, more jaded. I wanted to make the songs world-weary. That’s how it came together initially, although lyrically nothing was intentional, so to speak. I tend to save that for the music-side of things instead of the words. The words just happen, or at least, I let them happen.”

He continues, “I think I have a kind of brief for myself everytime I do a musical project,” Tapley considers. “With Rom-Com, I wanted to make the most colourful record possible so there’s lots of poppy sounds, weird sound effects and splashes. It even goes down to the artwork, which is a cartoon. There’s a New Sheriff in Town’s artwork that also reflects the mood of the songs; everything’s gotten a little darker.” 

A bridge between albums is ‘I Don’t Feel Welcome When You Bring Me To Your House’, a sombre country-inflected arrangement on which a resigned Tapley speculates on a disintegrating friendship to a gorgeous central lament of pedal steel before the track dissolves into an evocative hauntological outro which transitions into the introspective ‘Watching TV for The Hell of It’. The album closes with the shape-shifting 7-and-a-half-minute-long ‘Losing Streak’ which melds an emotive combination of impactful percussion in the opening half before the arrangement turns towards a much more intimate and reflective direction with Tapley accompanied by a striking piano melody as he sings, “How did I not see this coming / How did I not make a change / But when you’re on a losing streak everything just stays the same.” A remarkably moving movement on the album, it wraps itself around the listener and unceremoniously leaves you longing for more, and eager for what’s next.

Tonally, the LP is far more expansive and experimental with enveloping rock-focused compositions embellished with a myriad of new textures such as banjo, saxophone and omnichord along with staples of the Tandem Felix sound. The development of Tandem Felix’s captivating melodic structures were enhanced by a number of contributions from guest musicians across the album. Opening track ‘Finger on the Button’ features a spellbinding pedal steel motif courtesy of B.J. Cole, who has played on Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’ and performed with John Cale, R.E.M., Björk and many, many more. Of this collaboration, Tapley notes: “I reached out to one of my heroes, pedal steel aficionado BJ Cole to lend his playing to this song. It’s a weird song harmonically, which was something I struggled with in coming up with ideas. What he sent me left me speechless. A true master at work.”

The variety across There’s A New Sheriff In Town’s palette exemplifies Tapley’s inherent inclination towards intricately incorporating studio-based explorations with rich instrumentation. Written and recorded between 2020 and 2022, this renewed approach which heralded a new direction for Tandem Felix’s sonic sensibilities was introduced with the LP’s first single and title track. This LP welcomes a number of guest contributions such as Ian Romano (Daniel Romano) and Joseph Shabason (Destroyer, The War on Drugs), and the aforementioned B.J. Cole.

Working once again with Stephen Dunne in their Dublin studio Porto Bello, Tapley notes the importance of this “symbiotic working relationship” – which, outside of Tandem Felix, has seen them produce Neil Dexter’s 2022 debut album I’ll Be Ready – by saying, “I need Stephen around to make Tandem Felix music. I need him around for his psychological detail and his ability to picture the songs in his head as finished pieces which is something that I’m not able to do. He’s able to visualise the finished product a lot better than I am and keep steering me towards that image.”

ALBUM TRACK LIST: 

1. Finger on the Button
2. There’s a New Sheriff in Town
3. Sick
4. The Kitchen
5. Message of the Afternoon
6. I Don’t Feel Welcome When You Bring Me To Your House
7. Watching TV for the Hell Of It
8. The Name of the Game
9. The Losing Streak

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