With their first taste of new music for 2024, Melbourne/Naarm four piece Press Club independently release Champagne & Nikes.
The track, which premiered on UK’s Radio 1 Rock Show, came to life as a scratchy, bass guitar-only voice memo. Sonically, the band revived the buzz saw guitar tones, moving bass lines and driving drums of their debut LP ‘Late Teens’. A song that is about an intrinsically chaotic moment of mayhem. Lyrically it recounts a moment where Natalie and Iain were buying Guinness (the song’s prenatal working title) for the band’s album recording sessions.
Lead singer Natalie Foster recalls the experience, “If I tried to tell you the story of this person’s interaction with the person behind the counter, you’d think I was recounting something from a dream. It was so outlandish and erratic I could barely believe it was happening in front of me”.
As his mania grew wilder the queue for beer grew longer and longer, to a zenith where the spectacle had an impatient audience of thirty, thirsty people. Natalie instantly started writing down lyrics about this vibrant lad’s behaviour in the moment, and by the time the pair were back at the studio, the skeleton of Champagne & Nikes was fully fleshed.
Champagne & Nikes was recorded at the band’s own studio in Footscray with guitarist Greg Rietwyk on production and mixing, before the track was mastered by Kris Crummett (Closure In Moscow, Dune Rats, Currents).
“When we set out writing Champagne & Nikes we wanted to create something that had a similar energy and feeling to some of the songs we wrote when we first started writing together for Late Teens. I think we nailed that intent. It was pretty fun to just blow the barn doors open and get back to the bare essentials of what I think Press Club is.” Press Club bassist Iain MacRae says.
Press Club have just returned from a month of touring across the UK and Europe. Their fifth tour across Europe, the run included festival spots at 2000 Trees in the UK, Noisehausen Festival in Germany as well as Zwarte Cross and Valkhof Festivals in The Netherlands. Jumping on support for Spanish Love Songs at two sold out shows in London the tour also included sold out headline shows in Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Dresden.
At home on the road, Press Club have returned to Australia to support Grinspoon on an eye watering 45 date national Australian tour which kicked off last month and runs through to December.
The music video for Champagne & Nikes was conceptualised by the band’s long time collaborator, Nick Manuell. The video highlights Melbourne’s brutalist architecture, some of which has recently been heritage listed. It follows Natalie as she re-incarnates the haphazard nature of the song’s muse.
Press Club are Natalie Foster (vocals, guitar), Greg Rietwyk (guitar), Iain MacRae (bass) and Frank Lees (drums). The band’s latest album ‘Endless Motion’ debuted at #3 on the AIR Independent Label chart, landed Album of the Week at Double J and was nominated for Best Independent Punk Album at the AIR (Australian Independent Record Labels Association) Awards.
Champagne & Nikes IS OUT NOW – LISTEN HERE
With thanks to Little Giant Agency
