The Queen's Head

“It’s a suicide note written for the radio” explains The Queen’s Head’s Joel Douglass of their new single ‘Today.’ “Well intended, but sharply manipulative.”

The deviant song explanation will be no surprise to fans and media alike who discovered The Queen’s Head on early singles and 2022’s debut EP Haunt (Speedy Wunderground), or via one of their buzzy live sets, most recently played at their residency at London’s infamous venue, the Windmill, Brixton. The latter is an impressively long list: BBC Radio 1 (Jack Saunders live interview for Next Wave and plays on the Indie Show), BBC 6 Music (with fans in John Robinson, Steve Lamacq and Amy Lame), Amazing Radio, BBC Introducing, Dork, NME, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, The New Cue, Evening Standard (among many others, as well as countless Spotify playlist inclusions).

The Queen’s Head, formed of childhood friends and co-frontmen / songwriters Joel Douglass (also on guitar) and Tom Butler (also on bass) alongside Eleanna Amias (synth), Robbie Cottom (keys) and George Thompson (drums) have a fixation on exploring in-between sonic spaces. The result is an idiosyncratic sound that traverses pop, post-punk, post-rock, new-wave, disco, and spoken word. Its dancey and synthy with a masterful blend of hyper-pop melodies against grandiose use of harmony and above all, intriguing narratives in the lyrics, part conceptual, part personal, which anchor it all.

New single Today was initially inspired by a real-life letter, from Tom to Joel, entitled ‘To a Fallen Friend.’ “In it I detailed the sense of betrayal I felt at the hands of his depression, and the selfish act of withdrawal which is so often a symptom of that terrible disease” explains Tom.  The song is the apex of The Queen’s Head’s new EP Titanic (following on 8^th July), which tells the story of the two frontmen Tom and Joel and their respective relationships to suicide. It explores sensitive subjects candidly - debilitating depression, failure to oneself, failure to others, the loss of loved ones – yet envelopes the listener in a story which is heartbreaking but ultimately captivating. The Titanic EP retains the theatric, genre-melding abilities of The Queen’s Head’s early releases but with a darker influence in the likes of Death Grips, Talking Heads, 100gecs and Wagner. It dares you to keep nodding you head and tapping your toes whilst you explore the deepest recesses of your psyche. The results are enigmatic, unsettling, cathartic but, overall, infectious.

The video for ‘Today’ was filmed by the band, edited by Tom Butler and produced by Joel Douglas alongside Andy Savours and is described by Tom as “A saccharine, but summative, introduction to the Titanic EP.” It’s a collage of melancholic thoughts and notepad scribbled ideas encompassing a bromance or perhaps romance, a coming-of-age indie film aesthetic, melancholy, a twist, a walk into the sunset.   

“I think we achieved the brief I set out, a video melancholic by its form and befitting of ‘Today’ explains Tom. “My character reminisces about a seaside trip with Joel, seen through a dreamy montage of friendship captured on camcorder. In the present, in an apartment stressed in the brown and orange austerity of the 70s, my character sits in contemplation, haunted by a Joel-shaped figure, stark by its relative fidelity. A story of heartbreak and betrayal is revealed, exploring basic tension of the song - the disjunct between a loving friendship and a darker reality.”