‘Rise’ forms part of his new EP ‘I Thought We’d Be Happy Here’ – a collection of spacious, electronic, piano-led vocal pop tracks, mixed by Tim Rowkins (Mura Masa, Maribou State, Two Door Cinema Club, Rina Sawayama). It encapsulates his desperation in our digital future; a world in which we have everything we want, but little of what we actually need.
His sounds were born out of weeknights spent immersed in electronic music in the depths of a club in London’s Mayfair district, meditative two-wheeled early-hours commutes through the heart of England’s capital city, and the sounds surrounding the home he shares with his partner in Brixton. All of this is distilled through his love of NAO, Portugal the Man, Mura Masa, Nils Frahm, Ben Britten and Radiohead, and composed on an ancient upright piano.
This is the first new music in five years from Nicholas Alexander of Screaming Maldini, who achieved a #3 album in Japan’s alternative iTunes chart in 2014 (nestled between Jake Bugg and Vampire Weekend) toured Europe, the UK and Japan, soundtracked the BBC’s coverage of International Women’s Football, as well as some awkward moments on Channel 4’s Made In Chelsea. He has since gone on to produce records from the UK’s up-and-coming feminist powerhouse Before Breakfast, and 6Music darlings, Dead Slow Hoot, and he composed the theme tune to ITV’s Survival of the Fittest in 2018.