An Interview With The New America!
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Bristol based noise-rock band The New America returned today with their latest, and probably best single yet, ‘Hong Kong Free Press‘! We decided this was a better time than any to catch up with them to find out more about the band, their brand new single and the future!
📷 Rupert Gammond
Hi there! Firstly, so that our readers can know a bit more about you, please introduce The New America:
We are The New America, we’re a four-piece noise rock band from Bristol. We mean you no harm and we mean you no foul. Each of us have a lot to say and this band is our attempt to say it loud, proud, punky, and funky. For a more standard list of references: Shame, Mission of Burma, Iceage, Fugazi, Interpol, Tropical Fuck Storm, and Fela Kuti.
You’re about to release your next single ‘Hong Kong Free Press’! For anyone who’s yet to hear it, how would you describe the track?
It goes a bit like this at the start: Buh buh bah, buh bah buh bahhh buh bah bahhhh. Then the guitar goes denene duh duh duh denene deeeenene.
In a lot of ways HKFP is one of our more straight-ahead rock and roll tracks, but it’s also probably the catchiest and most lyrically focused. Someone told us it sounded like The Killers and we were not pleased with that…
As the title suggests, the song is about the ongoing resistance to the Chinese crackdown on political liberties in Hong Kong. While the song was originally written in the summer of 2019 with Hong Kong in mind, it has been quite disheartening to see the message of the track become relevant in more and more places.
How come/why were you compelled to write a song on this subject?
Watching the protests unfold in such great scale in Hong Kong in 2019 felt like a really bad omen. Like we said, as similar crackdowns, coups, and incursions have happened elsewhere it has felt more and more relevant. Especially in light of the protests that ended with clashes with the police in Bristol last night, the song feels relevant in a way that we really would rather it not be.
What was the initial spark that encouraged you to start creating music as a band?
Oh you know, a bottle of wine, a nice dinner some candles, one thing led to another….
When gigs return, if you could tour the world alongside two other bands/artists, who would it be?
Jpegmafia and Herbie Hancock. We’d all play at the same time.
Finally, what’s in store for The New America in the future?
Well we have a whole lot of new music that we’ve written during the pandemic ready to be recorded alongside the next single we have all recorded. In addition we’re lucky in that Bristol still has a really thriving scene, even with how hard the pandemic has been on independent venues and promoters. We’re really excited to get back out there so we can see bands like Erotic Secrets of Pompeii, Belishas, Kick Boy, Radiators, and Sapphire Blues.
Our next gig is at The Golden Lion in Bristol on July 3rd, but stay tuned because we have more in the works.
We’d like to thank The New America for their time! Their brand new single ‘Hong Kong New Press’ is out today and you can listen to the track below. You can also keep up with the band on social media via the following links:
| Facebook | Instagram | Spotify |
