Scottish Alt Songwriter QUITTER Announces New Album 'Monument Road' Released 22nd September 2023 via Heavenly Creature + Gold Mold Records
“This will stay with you…it will bury deep into your thoughts and feelings" - Podcart
"Gentle and lovely underneath the grumble and mumble" - Song, By Toad
Scottish Alt Songwriter QUITTER Announces New Album Monument Road
Released 22nd September 2023 via Heavenly Creature + Gold Mold Records
Watch The Video For Lead Single ‘Penny Drop’ Released 28th June 2023
Watch - https://youtu.be/uzv3rniqpZ0
Stream and share - https://tr.ee/aZyBLPf0qY
Select Scottish Live Dates + Glasgow Album Launch Show On Sale Now
Tickets - http://linktr.ee/quittermusic
Based between Stirling and Glasgow, Scottish alt singer-songwriter Quitter (aka Kenny Bates) is delighted to announce his new album Monument Road, which will be released on 22nd September 2023 via independent labels Heavenly Creature and Gold Mold Records.
Quitter will be playing a handful of select Scottish live dates over the summer, including a special album launch show at Glad Cafe, Glasgow on 22nd September 2023.
The first taste of the new album comes in the form of lead single ‘Penny Drop’ which is released on 28th June 2023 via all good streaming services, and is accompanied by an official music video directed by Bates.
Commenting on the visuals for the new single, Bates says: “The video for ‘Penny Drop’ pays homage to a pre-occupation of mine: toy film cameras. It’s shot entirely on 35mm colour and black/white film, using a Lomography ‘Action Sampler’ point-and-shoot toy camera and edited into mini animations of my day to day life living in and being late for things in the city.”
Setting his confessional storytelling within a noisy, progressive-yet-emotive musical landscape, Bates’ music is heavily flavoured by ‘90s US indie, emo, noise rock and lo-fi recording practices in a battle of what he calls “yuck vs yum”—a quick listen will yield distinct influence from the likes of American Football, Pavement, Slint, David Pajo, Conor Oberst, and Songs: Ohia, amongst others.
“A road is a pretty tried-and-tested allegory for life,” says Bates of the new album, “and for me, when I entered my thirties I started feeling the accumulation of memories and time more acutely, and how your life’s great conversations/nights/mornings/mistakes/flukes/discoveries/people/places are what gives you that sense of time and brings you to this point exactly.”
“I feel like we build monuments to these things along the road of life, and sort of walk up and down in their shadow. I’ve tried to represent the monuments I’ve built, here in this set of songs—some standing tall, others long half-built, many of them regularly revisited. All lovingly set in line either side of this road.”
Over the course of Monument Road, some songs lean affectionately on lo-fi sensibilities—carefully layered drum machines, percussion mic’d in hallways, vocals and guitars driven through 4-track cassette machines. These tracks sit alongside live band recordings made in a half-burnt-down old manor house in Stirling, soaking up the atmosphere in the performances. The thread that ties them all together is one of tactile, real sounds, made by real people in real rooms, and left largely unadulterated, the hope being that the listener feels present in the songs with Bates.
Monument Road follows on from Bates’ 2021 EP Good Things Come To You, 2018 self-titled album Quitter, and 2016 debut EP Commuter Town, which drew underground acclaim for their notable quality. Bates has also previously toured France, Germany and the UK with Quitter and will be announcing further live dates and album details over the coming months.
Quitter’s new album Monument Road is released 22nd September 2023 via Heavenly Creature / Gold Mold Records
Upcoming live dates:
22.07.23 - Common Records Summer Party - Springburn, Glasgow (solo)
23.08.23 - Sad Song Club - Sketchy Beats Cafe, Edinburgh (solo)
01.09.23 - The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen
15.09.23 - The Twa Tams, Perth
21.09.23 - The Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh
22.09.23 - Glad Cafe, Glasgow (album launch show)
30.09.23 - Mediterranea, Stirling
