Squid have shared their latest single ‘Building 650’ and announced a string of UK headline shows for 2025.
The art-rock band are preparing to release their third studio album ‘Cowards’ via Warp Records on February 7 (pre-order here) and have already shared the lead single ‘Crispy Skin’.
Now, they have released a second single, the bright and colourful ‘Building 650’, which frontman Ollie Judge has said was inspired “by our first ever trip to Japan”. Check out the video, directed by Felix Geen, Daisuke Hasegawa and Kuya Tatsujo, here:
“We played the Summersonic festival in 2022, luckily we were booked to play 2 days after the COVID travel ban had been lifted, because of this we felt like some of the only tourists in Tokyo,” Judge explained.
“On the plane I read In The Miso Soup by Ryu Murikami and watched Lost in Translation out of excitement and later decided to write lyrics about being an outsider visiting Japan, including a very particular type of loneliness one can feel visiting a country that is so different from their own. This loneliness feels exaggerated in Tokyo, on the surface it’s hectic and full of people but when you listen, it’s eerily quiet.”
According to a press release, ‘Cowards’ will explore “nine stories where protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy – with the band exploring the divide between right and wrong.” It sees the band continue to push their musical boundaries, exploring folk, kosmische, psychedelia, jazz and electronics.
In addition, the band have announced a string of UK headline dates to take place from February to April this year, kicking off at Liverpool’s Invisible Wind Factory on February 17 and wrapping at London’s Roundhouse on April 26. See the full list of dates below and find your tickets here.
Squid’s 2025 UK live dates are:
FEBRUARY
17 – Liverpool, Invisible Wind Factory
18 – Manchester, O2 Ritz
19 – Glasgow, Old Fruitmarket
21 – Newcastle, NSU Domain
22 – Sheffield, Leadmill
24 – Cambridge, Junction 1
25 – Norwich, The Adrian Flux Waterfront
27 – Oxford, O2 Academy
28 – Southampton, Engine Rooms
MARCH
1 – Margate, Lido
2 – Brighton, Chalk
4 – Birmingham, XOYO
5 – Bristol, Beacon
APRIL
26 – London, Roundhouse
‘Cowards’ was recorded at Church Studios in Crouch End with Mercury Prize-winning producer Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. It also comes produced by Dan Carey, who also recorded the band’s first two albums.
Mixed in Seattle and mastered in New York, contributions to the record also come from Danish experimental songsmith Clarissa Connelly, Tony Njoku (composer, pianist and singer), Rosa Brook from punk group Pozi, Zands Duggan (percussion), and Jonny Greenwood collaborators the Ruisi Quartet for violin, viola and cello.
It has been named by NME as one of the most anticipated album releases of 2025.
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