With its rough-cut ‘70s stylings, lurching electric guitar riffs, and coarse vocal howls,“Radiation Blues” pays homage to the rock greats that inspired Pigeon Wigs in their formative years, while pausing for reflection on one of the most significant man-made disasters in recent times.
Creating a microcosm of the events of the Chernobyl disaster that shook the world in 1986, vocalist Harry Franklin-Williams explains of the unusual subject matter behind their latest single:
“Lyrically the song is a play-by-play of the Chernobyl disaster. I read accounts of people involved and used that as a way of retelling the story of this awful event through a more easily digestible medium. Hopefully I’ve done the event justice and been respectful to those involved. It’s such a massively intense subject so I think the harder, more classic bluesy rock approach was a good framing device.”
With its aggressive Rolling Stones-esque riff nailed down by guitarist Louis Jugessur, he took it to bandmate Franklin-Williams who worked-in its unsettling lyrical themes around it. Recorded in Music Box and other rehearsal spaces around Cardiff, the finished track was then produced by Tom Rees of Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. Speaking about the recording process Jugessur adds:
“When Harry and I started writing, Exile On Main Street was a big thing for us, that riff was inspired by the track ‘Ventilator Blues’. I mentioned the title to Harry and showed him the riff and he wrote all the lyrics based off the Chernobyl disaster. The recording of it came out in a really fun loose way. We hadn’t really practised it properly, at the session we basically jammed it and all the solos and everything were improvised. We just had a rough structure where things were going to go quiet to loud. It was a fun off the cuff thing where everyone just vibed.”
The new release also follows The Line Of Best Fit, The Independent and Louder Than War-backed recent single “Hold Up!” and emerges as the second track to be taken from Pigeon Wigs’ upcoming mini-album ‘Rock By Numbers’ (due 7 July 2023 via Clwb Music).
Recorded before the band had played a single gig, guitarist Louis Jugessur and lead-singer Harry Franklin-Williams wrote the mini-album in the latter’s living room over the course of a few weeks. He jokes: “We wanted to be able to arrive on the scene fully formed like a baby with a moustache or furniture not from IKEA.”
Produced and mixed by Tom Rees of fellow Cardiff band Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, the new album features the two singles alongside an eclectic range of new tracks including dizzying psych-rock romp “Come Of Age”, breezy ballad “You Play Me” (produced byAndrew Bishop) and climactic closer “Epilogue 6” (produced by Harry Franklin-Williams and CVC’s Elliot Bradfield). Of the upcoming release, Franklin-Williams explains:
“‘Rock By Numbers’ is a reference to paint-by-numbers kits, and the title tells you a little about the mini-album. As you go track-to-track you’re getting a Pigeon Wigs view on some of our favourite artists, genres and people. It’s a love letter to all that music has done for us, full of fuzz and boundless energy.”
Funnelling a vast and varied, yet eerily relatable, array of themes through a psychedelic-pop lens, he adds:
“When it comes to the lyrics themselves the main themes are dysfunctional relationships, loss and finding a light at the end of the tunnel. Most of these songs were written during a turbulent time in my life: both romantic and familial relationships falling apart, watching the death of your heroes and working through that to see the better times ahead. I’m much more objective about all these topics now, but at the time I used these songs to help work through all the feelings I was having in a way that I hope connects with other people.”
* * * *
Newly sprung from the fertile soil of Cardiff’s blossoming music scene, Pigeon Wigs are a five-piece alt-rock band whose riff-laden fuzzy tones and melodic harmonies come crashing together to form a wild beast like no other. Tackling everything from social commentary to dysfunctional relationships and alien abductions, the band was born out of a writing partnership between Harry Franklin-Williams and Louis Jugessur and came to life when the pair “corralled some of Cardiff’s finest to record a new project”.
Having already attracted glowing praise from the likes of BBC Introducing and BBC Radio Wales, Pigeon Wigs have gained glowing reviews from a range of alt-rock contemporaries such as Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and Panic Shack who enthused: “all of Jagger’s love-children couldn’t write a better banger than this.”
The band’s previous single “Hold Up!” attracted attention from the likes of Louder Than War, The Independent and The Rodeo, with the latter praising the track as “phenomenal… funky, dancey, good ol’ fashioned rock’n’roll.”The Line of Best Fit also commended the track for its “swirling melodies, inexorable percussion and the nostalgic rough-cut sounds of alt-rock past”, enthusing“the band is now in full force bringing their vision to life: a hybrid, retro/futuristic, psychedelic-shaded sound.”
With new single “Radiation Blues” arriving hot on the heels of “Hold Up!” as the second track to be taken from Pigeon Wigs’ upcoming mini-album ‘Rock By Numbers’, the group are ready to further solidify their status as true ones-to-watch as they continue their rampage around the South Wales music scene and beyond. Catch the band at the following summer shows:
PIGEON WIGS – UK LIVE DATES
JUNE
24/06/23 – Southampton Heartbreakers (For Breakfast)
28/06/23 – London, The Lexington (CVC)
JULY
22/07/23 – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach – ‘Rock By Numbers’ Launch Show
26/07/23 – Bristol, Crofters Rights
29/07/23 – Kendal Calling Festival
AUGUST
05/08/23 – Newport, Le Pub headline
17/08/23 – Green Man Festival
25/08/23 – Shambala Festival
