Nice Biscuit

Following the success of their recent singles, "Fade Away", "The Star" and "Rain", Brisbane/Meanjin psych rockers Nice Biscuit are ready to share the final single "Love That Takes You Up" from their forthcoming sophomore album, SOS — out October 4th via Bad Vibrations.

Easily the most positive, uplifting and dancey track from Nice Biscuit’s upcoming album, "Love That Takes You Up" is all about “blissing out in all the love that surrounds us in this world.” This feeling is evoked beautifully through the song’s disco-groove bassline, jangly jazz guitars, arpeggiated synthesisers, and rich and ethereal vocal harmonies of Billie Star and Grace Cuell. Listening to the song, it brings out pure optimism and eliminates our worries about the state of the world; thanks to the power of love.

"Love That Takes You Up" is about stopping to notice that love and kindness is everywhere — in the sky, in the earth, within our bodies — imagining this love as a tangible force that can guide and shape us. It’s also about loving your friends and helping each other in the face of hard times. The band explains their vision; “we imagine love as a tangible being that is flying around and guiding us.”

Like the rest of the new record SOS, "Love That Takes You Up" was written and recorded at Swan Pond Studios in the hills of South East Queensland. It started as a jam when the band members were mucking around, before Kurt Melvin came up with the pulsating bass line and Jesse Cavendish (guitarist) started singing the vocal hook; “it’s the love that takes you up.” The band was instantly excited as they said; “it was an infectious melody and filled us with joy. When Grace and Billie came up with the harmony, we all couldn’t stop smiling and playing it over and over.”

"Love That Takes You Up" comes with yet another stunning and cinematic music video, this time directed by Dom Sullivan and Nice Biscuit’s very own Grace Cuell, with visual effects by Dougal Morrison. Filmed in one jam-packed day across many picturesque natural locations in Bundjalung country, the video evokes the feeling of love being all around and guiding us.

With frontwomen Billie and Grace symbolising giant halves of one heart (crafted by Billie’s mum), the two lost souls carry around their half of a broken heart searching for something unknown. Through exploring sand dunes, rugged cliffs and calm creeks they finally find each other and the two halves fit together perfectly, like magic. Billie explains; "It’s kind of like a giant BFF necklace. It’s about our friendship — we are soulmates who finally found each other and make each other feel like magic.”

Following the acclaim of their 2018 debut LP Digital Mountain and 2021 EPs Create Simulate and Passing Over, Nice Biscuit’s eagerly-awaited second album, SOS is set for release on October 4th via Bad Vibrations in the UK/Europe and Greenway Records/Reverberation Appreciation Society (USA). Written and recorded during 2022-23 at Swan Pond Studios (QLD) and mixed by Mildlife’s Jim Rindfleish, the nine track album embodies the fuzzy groove-laden psych that Nice Biscuit is renowned for, while introducing new danceable feels influenced by their love of disco, jazz fusion and world music.

With the beautifully hypnotic and soothing vocals of front women, Billie Star and Grace Cuell, SOS is about finding calm and balance in our chaotic world. While writing the album, the band often discussed the weight and compounding of the various crises of the world, thus each song is a different response to these turbulent times. The band explains: “Sometimes we feel hopeful and grateful, pessimistic and desolate, mournful and angry, sometimes we feel that love can solve it all and sometimes we just become overwhelmed and apathetic about everything.”

The album was written over one year as the band enjoyed multiple long weekends out at Swan Pond Studios with their friend, Alistair Richardson (The Cairos, Clea). After road-testing a few of the new songs on tour in Europe in 2023, Nice Biscuit went back to Swan Pond Studios to record the album over a 6-month period. It is the final album with the band’s original guitarist and producer, Jess Ferronato, who recorded all the instruments on the record, while Richardson tracked all the vocals.

Unlike their debut album and EPs, for SOS the band decided to split up the recording sessions into two groups — bass, guitar, drums (the boys: Nick Cavendish, Jess Ferronato, Kurt Melvin) and vocals and percussion (the girls: Star and Cuell). The band explains of the recording process: “The boys laid down the foundations of the songs on the weekend prior and then Billie and Grace would head out to add vocals and write lyrics. Often we would not have the lyrics or melodies finished before going out there, which allowed more focus and energy to be poured into the instrumentation and vocals. It fostered greater creativity and space by doing it separately and felt like a fun back and forth between the two groups, being excited to share what we have created. Then in the weeks after we got together and added more synth and percussion parts.”

Since their inception. Nice Biscuit have been carving out a vibrant sound of their own influenced by krautrock, garage and modern psych. They layer and transcend the classic psychedelic hallmarks of fuzzy guitars and repetitive rhythms with the mesmerising performance and ethereal vocals of co-front women Star and Cuell, who sing in constant harmony and give Nice Biscuit its distinct voice. Live on stage, they also create and design the band’s outfits which draw you further into a world of their making. With layers of swirling harmonies, precise instrumentation and striking visuals, Nice Biscuit has garnered a reputation for captivating live shows and immersive songwriting.  

Over the years they have won coverted support slots with King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Wet Leg, Altın Gün, The Murlocs, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Jen Cloher, Allah Las plus festival slots at VIVID Sydney Festival, The Long Sunset, Jungle Love, A Festival Called Panama, King Gizzard’s Timeland Festival, Splendour in The Grass and more. Nice Biscuit has also toured internationally in the UK and Europe landing festival spots at The Great Escape (where they were listed on NME’s ‘10 new bands to watch’), Wide Awake Festival (UK), Supersonic (FRA), Liverpool City Sounds (UK), Portsmouth Psych Fest (UK) and performed headline shows across the UK and EU.