Cardiff, Wales, UK-based quintet Red Telephone features two sets of brothers, alongside the first full-time drummer in their history. Their debut, a double A-side vinyl was released by Welsh cult label Popty-Ping and received praise from Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq.
Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Cardiff-based quintet’s full-length debut, last year’s Hollowing Out, which saw them firmly establishing a blend of psych rock and darkwave, received attention from Clash Magazine, Under The Radar and others, as well as airplay from BBC 6 Music.
The Welsh band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Delay The New Day is slated for a January 31, 2025 release. The album reportedly sees the quintet building upon their melodic blend of psych and darkwave while also drawing from cinematic influences.
Delay The New Day’s last pre-release single “Sentimental Dreaming” is an arena friendly tune anchored around a propulsive, hypnotic bass line, driving four-on-the-floor, glistening synth arpeggios, ad a brooding bridge paired with incredibly catchy hooks, a rousingly anthemic chorus. Seemingly drawing from Simple Minds, MGMT and 80s post punk, “Sentimental Dreaming” can trace its origins back to a 14 minute acoustic guitar session originally intended to fix the chorus of a different song, but quickly became one of the first songs the band worked on for the album.
The song eventually went through several iterations. including a foray into Robyn-inspired pop before finding its final version in a spontaneous late-night studio session. “We started listening back to practice recordings of all the different versions we’d attempted and there was this one phone recording with this really rhythmic, catchy bassline by Dom,” the band’s Declan recalls. “We were basically recording it ten minutes later on the fly and didn’t leave the studio until about 2am. There was definitely some late-in-the-day chaos as we scrambled to get it over the line, but it added a different energy & even brought about one of Kieran’s favourite guitar parts on the album, which he put down off the cuff going into the outro almost in some jaded desperation to get it done.”
Thematically, the song focuses on the trials and tribulations of contemporary artists, touching upon the gaping chasm between romanticized versions of creative pursuits and the bitterly harsh realities of chasing one’s artistic dreams, including the exhausting juggling act of day jobs and creativity, the bombardment of conflicting advice on achieving success and more. The song subtly touches on the self-doubt, unease, paranoia and determination that it takes to make it in any creative field — especially music. But it also touches on refusing to compromise on one’s artistic vision, and the mentality needed to keep creating for the right reasons.
“There’s obviously this idealistic sentimentality in dreaming – it almost sounds like a sweet, harmless thing to do – but it’s deceptively powerful, because it can send us down paths that end up dictating not only behaviour but entire periods of our lives and ways of living,” Dom says.
Cardiff, Wales, UK-based quintet Red Telephone features two sets of brothers, alongside the first full-time drummer in their history. Their debut, a double A-side vinyl was released by Welsh cult label Popty-Ping and received praise from Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq.
Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Cardiff-based quintet’s full-length debut, last year’s Hollowing Out, which saw them firmly establishing a blend of psych rock and darkwave, received attention from Clash Magazine, Under The Radar and others, as well as airplay from BBC 6 Music.
The Welsh band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Delay The New Day is slated for a January 31, 2025 release. The album reportedly sees the quintet building upon their melodic blend of psych and darkwave while also drawing from cinematic influences.
Delay The New Day’s last pre-release single “Sentimental Dreaming” is an arena friendly tune anchored around a propulsive, hypnotic bass line, driving four-on-the-floor, glistening synth arpeggios, ad a brooding bridge paired with incredibly catchy hooks, a rousingly anthemic chorus. Seemingly drawing from Simple Minds, MGMT and 80s post punk, “Sentimental Dreaming” can trace its origins back to a 14 minute acoustic guitar session originally intended to fix the chorus of a different song, but quickly became one of the first songs the band worked on for the album.
The song eventually went through several iterations. including a foray into Robyn-inspired pop before finding its final version in a spontaneous late-night studio session. “We started listening back to practice recordings of all the different versions we’d attempted and there was this one phone recording with this really rhythmic, catchy bassline by Dom,” the band’s Declan recalls. “We were basically recording it ten minutes later on the fly and didn’t leave the studio until about 2am. There was definitely some late-in-the-day chaos as we scrambled to get it over the line, but it added a different energy & even brought about one of Kieran’s favourite guitar parts on the album, which he put down off the cuff going into the outro almost in some jaded desperation to get it done.”
Thematically, the song focuses on the trials and tribulations of contemporary artists, touching upon the gaping chasm between romanticized versions of creative pursuits and the bitterly harsh realities of chasing one’s artistic dreams, including the exhausting juggling act of day jobs and creativity, the bombardment of conflicting advice on achieving success and more. The song subtly touches on the self-doubt, unease, paranoia and determination that it takes to make it in any creative field — especially music. But it also touches on refusing to compromise on one’s artistic vision, and the mentality needed to keep creating for the right reasons.
“There’s obviously this idealistic sentimentality in dreaming – it almost sounds like a sweet, harmless thing to do – but it’s deceptively powerful, because it can send us down paths that end up dictating not only behaviour but entire periods of our lives and ways of living,” Dom says.
