The Academic are pleased to announce details of a new EP. The ‘Community Spirit EP’ will be released on the 9th July through Capitol Records.
To coincide with its announcement, the band are also excited to share a first taste of the EP. ‘Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)’ is streaming now and a thumping return for a band absolutely straining at the leash to take their sky-scraping indie pop anthems out on the road and into the ears of their ever-expanding fanbase.
The ‘Community Spirit EP’ was written, recorded and produced by the band through lockdown and if the past fourteen months put their touring plans on ice just as serious momentum started to gather outside of Ireland, The Academic have dusted themselves down and are ready to go again.
Vocalist Craig Fitzgerald: “’Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)’ is one of the first songs I remember writing back when I was a teenager. It was the first time that lyrics had come very easy to me. It’s written about the fear of not getting out of your hometown and amounting to anything. Thanks to the lockdown, I had plenty of time on my hands, but nothing to write about, so I started looking through all my old notebooks and found this song fully written. I had a gut feeling that it might come to life now with a few more years of living behind me since it was originally written.”
Whilst Kaiser Chiefs’ Nick Hodgson produced last year’s ‘Anything Could Happen EP’, Craig himself swung behind the metaphorical glass to take control of production on the ‘Community Spirit EP’. “I’d spend a lot of time during lockdown working on my production chops, trying to get the most out of the little equipment I had. The band put their faith in me to take a stab at producing this. Whilst it’s definitely super DIY, it’s been a cool experience and helped us realise we can make music on our own.”
It’s perhaps too early to suggest that a new band has a signature sound, but The Academic seem incapable of writing anything less than golden, infectious guitar-fuelled indie pop. It’s bold, heart-thumping, cinematic disco music for indie kids, that instantly recalls some of the better guitar bands that lit up the early 2000s, but brings it sharply into focus with the energy of four young Irish lads bursting at the seams to introduce themselves properly to audiences across the globe. They’re already deemed hometown heroes, but as ‘Kids…’ suggests, whilst Mullinger and Ireland might have opened their arms to The Academic first, there are towns, cities, states and countries still eagerly awaiting that first embrace.
Listening to ‘Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)’, you wouldn’t know it was pieced together by a band in their own bedrooms. Exuding confidence in a shower of melody, it’s a big song by a potentially big, big new band.
