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(9th September) London duo pecq release new single "stronger" and announce an extended version of their recent 'red moon, rare night' EP featuring new remixes courtesy of PVA, LVRA, Wyldest and BAILE - along with further new versions and reinterpretations. pecq headline London's Courtyard Theatre this Wednesday, 11th September.
Fresh from a busy summer of festival appearances at Glastonbury, Truck and Liverpool Sound City, pecq is the brainchild of Jakes and Nikò - touring musicians and producers who have worked with acts including Barry Can't Swim, Arlo Parks and Porij.
New single "stronger" is a three minute blast of bouncy indie dance, pointing to influence from Jamie xx, Kaytranada, Charli xcx and Caribou. A tale of resilience and self-empowerment, disguised as a thunderous break-up anthem, pecq find inspiration elsewhere within unpredictable sonic oddities such as "a broken shower fan in a venue that sounded like a dub siren", "vocals echoing in a Berlin sewer" and "the crackly texture of a bunch of ants attacking a mic".
Speaking more on the release of their new single, vocalist Jakes said:
"‘stronger’ is a break up song with a twist - on the surface about independence from a person but actually starting as a mantra to my own body. I live with a bunch of immune conditions and when I’m down about being super sick I do this silly, sassy pep talk, hyping myself up to fight my body. The lyrics are all the opposite to how it feels but the more I repeat that I’m stronger than this, the more I eventually feel it."
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Referencing the experimental spiralling work of Boards Of Canada along with the meditative songwriting of Sampha and Ultraísta as influences, on their ‘red moon, rare night’ EP pecq move through choppy dance beats, twisting alt-pop melodies and blissful ambient daydreams, lyrically navigating isolation at different stages of life, avoidant behaviour through the lens of queer identity, medical trauma, emigration, relationships, situationships and distance.
Written and produced across numerous different time zones, on the 'red moon, rare night' EP pecq ride the line between electronic and indie - real drums slowly morphing into glitchy samples, classic synth tones and soft piano coming in and out of focus, sounds re-sampled and mangled through DIY studio equipment, tape-machines, spring-reverbs and modern computer processes.
"Normally we write pretty closely together, but for this EP both of us were touring a lot with other projects so it was a super remote process - done in hotel rooms in the middle of the night or in the back of a van driving through the dark," Jakes explains, as they go on to say...
"We were passing sessions and voice notes around for most of the year and it’s been cool to clearly hear each person’s stamp on the session - but honestly nothing got finished until we were both back in the same studio. You can hear those after hours vibes in the music - a lot of it is set at night and the production’s got a darkness and isolation to it."
The original 5 track EP 'red moon, rare night' includes "closer" - a cavernous, glitchy exploration into meditative indie-electronica, the scintillating "in the dark" and the skittering electro-pop of "out loud" - bookended by two pieces of serene ambience, "tell you" & "tell me".
The extended version of 'red moon, rare night' - out 14th November via Upcycled Sounds features new remixes courtesy of PVA, Wyldest, LVRA and BAILE - along with further new versions and reinterpretations from pecq. pecq headline London's Courtyard Theatre this Wednesday, 11th September.
More about pecq
A unique combination of creative approaches and styles, pecq has grown into a project that’s much more than the sum of its parts: Vocalist, producer and songwriter Hannah (Jakes) Jacobs is a classically trained pianist and touring keys player in Arlo Parks & Barry Can't Swim's live bands.
Nicholas (Nikò) O’Brien is the perfect complement to Jakes’ brooding songwriting. A talented producer, multi-instrumentalist, and engineer for the likes of Porij and Cocteau Twins' vocalist Liz Fraser, Nikò's musical roots lie in the psych/prog scene in Le Pecq/Paris (Le Pecq the commune on the outskirts of Paris, from which the band's name is taken) - informing an energetic musical language that pairs his multi-national heritage with a love of sound design and circuit bending.
Formed in 2020 after isolating in their small studio, pecq's output swiftly turned heads, since garnering support from the likes of Jack Saunders, Tara Kumar, Kerrie Cosh and Jess Iszatt at BBC Radio 1, as well, as Sian Eleri who included the duo in Selector Radio One’s to Watch 2024, Matt Wilkinson - Apple Music 1, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 2, BBC Introducing, DJ Mag, CLASH Magazine, Notion, Wonderland Magazine, DIY Magazine, Whynow, Beats Per Minute, DMY and bandcamp Daily editorial, as well as securing an early release on boutique French label Kitsuné Musique.
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