Wall of Sound PR

Following an exceptional 2019, lo-fi punk/shoegaze duo CULTDREAMS are kicking off 2020 in style, proudly announcing The Piano Sessions EP set for release on 13th February 2020 via Big Scary Monsters.

Featuring a handful of tracks taken from their recently released ambitious second album Things That Hurt (out now on Big Scary Monsters), these lovingly arranged, downtempo piano reworks of some of the band’s favourite tracks from the record are a must-have for fans.

The first track to be released from the EP is a sensational new version of ‘Don’t Let Them Tell You Otherwise’, the duo’s most incisive work to date, examining what it’s like to struggle with gender and body dysmorphic disorder.

Commenting on the track, Livingstone says: “DLTTYO is about someone struggling with gender and body dysmorphic disorder. It’s for anyone who’s spent their life with it affecting every decision they made, whilst struggling to navigate their way through a world where gender is seen as black and white. Trying to work through the cycle of it every day without people around you getting involved and putting pressure on who you should and shouldn’t be, how you should and shouldn’t look, and following that the relief that can come from getting a little bit closer to getting the help you need. It’s probably one of the frankest and maybe one of the hardest songs I’ve ever written, and I’m really glad we chose this for one of the piano sessions.”

Of the concept for the EP as a whole, Livingstone continues: “It’s been on my mind for the last year or so, but wasn’t something I’d managed to do. I’ve played the piano since I was 4, but haven’t lived anywhere with one so I never get to play. Our producer Bob Cooper moved into a new studio with a grand piano, and as soon as I saw the news I had to go in and do a few Cultdreams songs.”

“Originally we were going to do this as a live session, but then I came back from a tour with Nervus stupidly unwell and showed up to the session with no voice, so The Piano Sessions ended up being split between London and Leeds. I recorded the piano with Bob, and went down to London a week later, still sick, with barely any singing voice, and recorded the vocals with my good friend Simon Small (Apologies I Have None).”

“We wanted to keep these sessions as raw and minimal as possible, just me and a piano. These three songs lyrically all tie into each other, and we felt like it would be a different way for people to hear the stories within the songs.”

The news comes ahead of their biggest ever UK headline tour dates this February 2020, with the band also recently announcing that Kermes will be joining them as main support at all dates except for Brighton (see below for listings). Tickets are on sale now from: https://www.cultdreams.co.uk/

This latest release and string of live dates follows hot on the heels of their success on extensive November 2019 tour dates with Milk Teeth and Nervus in support of the pair’s second album Things That Hurt, released earlier this year via Big Scary Monsters Records.

Their bombastic new sound has seen Cultdreams crucially building on early support for cult debut release Seafoam, buoyed up on a raft of increasingly-high-profile critical praise from O2 Music, The iNewspaper, Kerrang! Magazine, Total Guitar, Alternative Press, CLASH, PRS M For Music Magazine, The 405, UPSET, Punktastic, Dead Press, Already Heard and a huge swathe of blogs, many of whom hailed Things That Hurt as a generation-defining “album of the year” from a band who had most triumphantly arrived.

The album’s lead single ‘We Never Rest’ is also out now and features Katie Dvorak and David F. Bello of The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, and saw the band breaking through at radio for the first time, with heavy airplay support from BBC Radio One, Radio X, Amazing Radio, and Apple Music.

The Piano Sessions EP is released 13th February 2020 via Big Scary Monsters

The Piano Sessions EP tracklist:

1. Born An Underdog, Still Living One
2. Don’t Let Them Tell You Otherwise
3. Flowers On Their Graves

CULTDREAMS live dates:

21.02.20 – Manchester – YES ^
22.02.20 – Leeds – Hyde Park Book Club ^
23.02.20 – Glasgow – Poetry Club ^
24.02.20 – Birmingham – The Sunflower Lounge ^
25.02.20 – Bristol – Exchange Basement * ^
26.02.20 – London – Boston Music Room ^
27.02.20 – Brighton – The Prince Albert

^ support from Kermes
* co-headline with Chris Farren