Artist: Fightmilk
Title: No Souvenirs
Format: digital single
Cat#: Fika104SG2
Release date: 20th August 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify
Acclaimed indie foursome, Fightmilk announce their long-awaited third album. Entitled ‘No Souvenirs’, it’s a riotous combination of riffage, pop hooks, angst, heartfelt emotions, wit and wisdom crashed out with infectious, gleeful abandon, and will finally escape the studio on November 15 2024.
Three years in the making, the 12-track album is preceded by its second single and title track ‘No Souvenirs’, released 20 August 2024, when the album will also be available for pre-order.
A poignant, stirring and personal paean to coping with losing a loved one, the new single is a big-hearted quasi-epic, deftly navigating the fine line between remembering and moving on.
Vocalist Lily says: “This is a song about surviving a loved one’s death and what you do with the leftovers. In 2013 a close friend of mine died and it messed me up for a really long time. It took ten years to write about it in a way that felt right, because I kept trying to articulate him and couldn't get it down on paper.
“So instead this song is about that balancing act of honouring a life whilst also trying to hold onto little bits of it. I kept everything - notes, letters, texts, even a packet of instant flan mix he sent me once as a weird joke - but at the back of my mind is the knowledge that it's just stuff that I've given power. Souvenirs lose their meaning over time. The memory of him is really the only important thing.
“It's a sad song about death but I wanted it to sound huge and final, like I'm putting something to bed.”
Guitarist Alex observed: “It might be the best song we’ve ever written. It’s definitely Lily’s best set of lyrics. The second we finished it, there was no question the album was going to be built with that song at its foundation.”
Following swiftly on from the success of the album’s well-received first single ‘Summer Bodies, Fightmilk are increasing the tempo as they build toward the album release which is to be marked with a headline show at London’s Paper Dress Vintage and a full tour to follow, as they enjoy having signed to Fika Recordings (Mammoth Penguins, Fortitude Valley) and new kids on the block INH Records.
Having relished in the visceral pleasure of playing together and live on stage again post Covid, the new sound reflects that joy, the abandonment in doing what you love and the catharsis of doing so. Moving on with their third album and embracing a more intuitive and collaborative style of writing, the band have embraced their influences and gone with their instincts.
The new single demonstrates how well they have achieved those ambitions, and how making a screaming racket in front of people can be both elemental and fun, sensitive and muscular within the span of moments.
“As a songwriter, I’ve disciplined myself to keep to ‘first thought best thought’ more, and not overwork lyrics and melodies into the ground,” says Lily “We’re more secure in keeping weird shit in and not adding or cutting things because it feels like we’re supposed to.”
With international acclaim from the likes of STEREOGUM, Kerrang! Magazine, The Quietus, DIY Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan and The Line Of Best Fit already under their belts, and having sold out headline gigs across the UK, in addition to sharing stages with bands such as Art Brut, Yawners and Problem Patterns, Fightmilk look set to build on their reputation as one of the DIY scene’s best loved bands in the run-up to their much-anticipated third album.
New single ‘No Souvenirs’ is released 20th August 2024 via Fika Recordings/INH Records
Fightmilk is Lily, Alex, Healey and Nick - a London-based four-piece who write sweaty, loud, shouty pop songs. Formed in the beer gardens of South London in 2015, the band quickly drew attention with their debut album Not With That Attitude (Reckless Yes, 2018) - singled out by Drowned In Sound for its “package of massive, Godzilla-heft hooks” and “crack–like melodies.” Gaining support from 6Music and Radio X, the band swiftly hopped in the van to play shows with the likes of Art Brut, Desperate Journalist and Nova Twins, as well as touring Germany.
Not letting a seismic global clusterfuck stand in their way, the band released their second LP Contender in 2021 via Reckless Yes. Described as “a joyous riot from start to finish” by Kerrang, it was an album with something to prove, adding stacked harmonies, analog drum machines and even heftier riffs to the band’s arsenal, while still remaining decidedly true to the band’s spiky indiepop sound. As soon as they were released from lockdown they began a near relentless gigging schedule, taking in multiple trips around the UK, support slots with Johnny Foreigner, mclusky and Problem Patterns, plus a sold-out 2022 headline slot at Norway’s Indiefjord Festival, where a sweat-soaked Fightmilk crowdsurfed their way offstage at midnight only to find it was still light outside.
The band’s eighth year in action has seen them writing and recording their third album, to be released in late 2024 on Fika Recordings & INH Records. Fightmilk have turned the distortion up and the indiepop down with rougher and rawer songs about body image, death, and being fired from bridesmaid duty.