Leaving you this weekend dear reader with news that ‘Bleeding on the Soundtrack’ has been announced as the name of the new album from William the Conqueror, set for release on 15th February in the UK via Loose. It’s the second album from the band following 2017’s ‘Proud Disturber of the Peace’. Both form parts of a trilogy of autobiographical records capturing different periods in Joseph’s life. Whilst the debut celebrated a free and easy childhood spent in idyllic Cornwall (where Joseph now once again resides), the new record is a darker more disturbed foray into adolescence then adulthood: “A tale of addiction, divorce and crossroads.”
The trilogy idea was inspired by Hermann Hesse’s book My Belief which housed three separate essays on innocence, disillusionment and faith with Bleeding on the Soundtrack undoubtedly representing the disillusionment period. Whilst personal song-writing has always been part of Joseph’s music from his beginnings as a solo singer-songwriter signed to Atlantic Records, separating from his own name and identity to form a three-piece (alongside Harry Harding on drums and Naomi Homes on bass) has allowed Joseph a space and distance to delve deeper – as Joseph explains: “That’s what Bleeding on the Soundtrack is – it’s not leaving anything out, digging deep to try and cleanse myself of it all.”
You can listen to the album teaser track ‘The Curse of Friends’ below which is described by frontman Ruarri Joseph as a song about “a leopard trying to change its spots”. Aptly the track features Ethan Johns, who produced the album, on guitar adding what Joseph refers to as “sick slide all over the track.” Have a good one.
