Coach Party

“Coach Party really should be on your festival must-see list this summer” - DIY

“indie’s new heroes” - Dork

“catchy hooks, relatable lyrics and a buzz that keeps you yearning” - The Line Of Best Fit

“primed to explode” - CLASH

“Poppy, witty and experimental” - The Observer ‘One To Watch’

“scuzzy and undeniably catchy” - The FADER

“wild-eyed flair … stylishly blends punk rock and new wave” - i

“a new, exciting band with the power to orchestrate mosh pits all over the country” - Gigwise

Coach Party have today announced their hotly-anticipated debut album KILLJOY for release on 8 September via Chess Club Records. The Isle of Wight foursome have also shared their new single ‘All I Wanna Do Is Hate’; premiering with BBC Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, the single also sees the band star on their first digital cover with Dork Magazine. 

Furthermore, Coach Party have today announced a run of winter EU headline shows to accompany their UK dates in September and October as well as three huge support shows with rock icons Queens Of The Stone Age this summer. Tickets for all Coach Party shows are available HERE.

Coach Party figurehead Jess Eastwood says that ‘All I Wanna Do Is Hate’ is about: “Acting out against people who are trying to help, but you're not ready for that and choose to do the opposite of the advce you're given. This song is just about being incredibly angry, for what, is up to whoever is listening; but sometimes you need to go against everyone to learn a valuable lesson. Maybe you’ll write a cool angry song about it.”i

The KILLJOY album announcement follows February release ‘Micro Aggression’ (“[a] fiery anti-banter anthem” - The Observer), which was added to the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist following a premiere from Steve Lamacq and further airplay from Amy Lamé at the station. Clara Amfo, Jack Saunders and Gemma Bradley all championed at BBC Radio 1 which led to the single featuring on the daytime playlist as BBC Introducing Tune of the Week. support came from John Kennedy at Radio X and Danielle Perry at Absolute. The band’s ferocious feminist anthem ‘FLAG’ also received press plaudits from the likes of The Observer and was added to the A-List at BBC Radio 6 Music in 2021. While Coach Party have previously been invited into the BBC Maida Vale studios to record a live session for Radio 1’s Future Artists show.

KILLJOY represents the culmination of four years of constant graft including three EPs (2020’s Party Food, 2021’s After Party and last year’s Nothing Is Real) and a subsequent slew of tours supporting Wet Leg, The Amazons, We Are Scientists and more. In 2022 alone, the band played 120 live shows including a mind-boggling night at the 97,000-capacity Stade de France supporting Indochine. Growing closer, discovering their own unique interpersonal alchemy and leaning into the live side of their sound have become the keys to Coach Party’s kingdom. Building on the more indie roots of their first material (Jess cites The Big Moon, Alvvays and Snail Mail among their early influences), as the quartet’s shows have become more rowdy, so have their new songs responded in tandem.

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“KILLJOY was the only name that all four of us didn’t wanna fight each other over,” laughs Coach Party’s vocalist and bassist Jess Eastwood of the playfully nihilistic manifesto that titles their debut album, set for release on September 8th via acclaimed indie label Chess Club Records. It’s a mission statement that encapsulates the attitude at the heart of the band - completed by guitarists Steph Norris and Joe Perry, and drummer and producer Guy Page - who’ve spent the time since 2019 debut single ‘Oh, Lola!’ documenting life’s trials and tribulations in increasingly incendiary fashion. Sure, you could get bogged down in dissecting the whys and wherefores, or you could just suck it up and understand that, in Jess’ words, “people are just dicks sometimes, and that’s the moral of the story!”

Behind the scenes, meanwhile, the four friends have been hard at it for even longer. Meeting naturally, as everyone in the Isle of Wight’s tiny music scene eventually does, even from the earliest days of Coach Party back in 2017, the quartet would hop on the ferry and play wherever would take them to get experience and broaden their horizons beyond the island. 

If sonically, the record marks Coach Party’s heaviest body of work to date - particularly on the short, sharp, 90-second shock of ‘Parasite’ - then the quartet are still finding a sense of playful fun within the fervour. They might be drawn to the more fucked-off spectrum of feelings, but KILLJOY - ironically - is far from a downer. In a world that often forces you to smooth off your edges, Coach Party are a spiky, sparky antidote to any of that.