Birmingham/Black Country alternative indie/psych duo CUT GLASS KINGS announce their new single ‘Big Dreams’ released via Run On Records/Modern Sky UK on 15th Jan 2025.   ‘Big Dreams’ is the next milestone for the band ahead of the release of their sophomore album ‘From A Distant Place’ set for release on 21st Feb.  ‘Big Dreams’ as with their previous singles lifted from album #2 (‘Flying Saucer’, ‘Gift Horse’, ‘Thick As Thieves’ and ‘At The Borderline’) was produced by James Skelly of THE CORAL.  Focus date for ‘Big Dreams’ is slated for 7th Feb - 28th Feb (TBC)

 

CUT GLASS KINGS formed in 2014 by childhood friends Paul Cross and Greg McMurray.  The band started as a recording project with their early homemade recordings catching the attention of James Skelly who signed them to Skeleton Key Records label. Their debut EP was released in 2017 with their sound being described as "fuzzed out" and "thunderous".  2019’s "Shadow of Your Love" lifted from their debut LP now has over 5 million streams on Spotify.   

 

After a pandemic pause, CUT GLASS KINGS are set to return to active duties with their second album FROM A DISTANT PLACE.  The new material owes a lot to 1980’s technology and carpentry skills, with their new album forged in a wooden basement studio on a second hand reel to reel recorder. Pandemic-enforced isolation proved helpful to hone their new direction; drummer Greg says “For this album we started broadening what we were listening to. I remember early on we were listening to a lot of T-Rex’s ‘Electric Warrior’, earlier Ty Segall stuff, James put us onto the Eels album ‘Hombre Lobo’ which definitely had an influence on us. We were also listening to John Grant’s ‘Outer Space’ a lot.”

 

Necessity and low-tech were also the mothers of invention for this new record, with Greg explaining; “During the pandemic we bought a Tascam 388 and built a studio from scratch in Paul’s cellar. We wanted to try recording directly to tape. Eventually we sent a load of recordings to James Skelly. He really liked them”.  And with that new passion came a revitalised zest, Greg adds; ‘Having some time away from playing our old songs, and the world going mad for a while in lockdown made it feel like we were starting again. It helped change our own perception of what the band is, and what this album could be. Like we’d killed off an alter ego or something”.

 

Says Greg on the new single, ‘Big Dreams’, “I vividly remember the moment Paul showed me the idea, I think you always remember those moments with the really good songs. He wasn’t sure it would suit us at first. Sounded a bit Fontaines dc. Everything about the recording was so wrong it was right. Paul played drums on the chorus and I couldn’t recreate what he’d done. We tried to re-record the song but it didn’t work. ‘I’ve got big dreams in my head’ - really simple lyrics but maybe my favourite on the album in a way. It felt fitting that it should be the first line of the album.”

 

CUT GLASS KINGS are vocalist and guitarist Paul Cross and drummer, Greg McMurray.  ‘At The Borderline’ was recorded at the band’s home studio and was produced by James Skelly.  

 

Airplay: Jack Saunders, BBC Radio 1; Amy Lamé, Chris Hawkins, BBC Radio 6 Music; BBC Introducing West Midlands & Warwickshire: XS Manchester - Playlisting;  B - Playlisting - Amazing Radio, Rodney Bingenheimer - SiriusXM.  Spotify: All New Rock, Highway To Yell. 

 

darren@thelostagency.co.uk  tom@thelostagency.co.uk | www.thelostagency.co.uk | @thelostagencypr  

 

 

   

​