Stalwart Irish post-rock outfit And So I Watch You From Afar have announced their seventh full-length album, Megafauna, set for release on August 9, 2024 via Berlin's Pelagic Records and Velocity Records in the U.S.
Pre-order it here.
A tribute to the two places the collective call home, their beloved Portrush on the Irish North Coast and the beating heart that is Belfast, Megafauna is headstrong exploration and heartfelt appreciation with all the intuition, intimacy and humor of four firm friends approaching their 20th year as a band and a nod to the Irish roots that simultaneously ground and propel them forward.
Like so many other bands and creatives throughout the pandemic, ASIWYFA found themselves suddenly stationary, with any plans outside of their immediate vicinity put on indefinite hold. However, where this might have seen other acts falter, ASIWYFA took comfort in their communal bond and, as soon as they were able, began writing a record that quickly became a love letter to the communities they call home.
The intent behind Megafauna is clear from the outset. Two guitars, bass, and drums all recorded in a week erupt into effervescent life in an endorphin rush of collaboration and togetherness after the physical and psychological wilderness of isolation.
The album's lead single "Do Mór" is a preposterously playful collision of light-hearted guitar hooks, effortless jazz syncopation, and the triumphant return of ASIWYFA's inimitable wall-of-sound distortion. Serves as an anthem for the whole album and for a band of friends reunited and reinvigorated too; proudly wearing their distinct juxtaposition of joyous euphoria and jarring musical confrontation on their sleeves. Also listen Below.
Megafauna is the band's first new music since 2022's critically-acclaimed Jettison,an ambitious multi-media ensemble piece packed full of experimentation and collaboration. Jokingly referring to Jettison as their mature record’, the band framed the writing of Megafauna around the their long-running mantra of "DO THE SCARY THING," which sees ASIWYFA constantly hurtling towards newness, towards progress, evolution and the unknown. Whilst the new record is ASIWYFA taking on a more familiar, traditional form; in this post-Jettison, post-pandemic world, Megafauna is a deafening and defiant statement of intent from the band's propulsive core — a clarion call for the communities that shape them, a resplendent celebration of togetherness over separation.
And So I Watch You From Afar's Rory Friers says the following about the album: "Megafauna is essentially a distilled moniker for our peers; all of the friends and characters that we've grown up with who've made us and our homes what they are today. Lockdown was an intensely introspective and reflective process, which put the comfort of community at the forefront of our minds throughout the writing process."
