Wakey Wakey Rise & Shine

Announcing their biggest headline show to date at Bristol’s Crofters Rights on 6th July, psychedelic post-punk quintet Wakey Wakey Rise & Shine today (17th June) share blooming psychedelic-pop of second EP teaser ‘Magic Hill’ 

Cantering across the clouds in a haze of woozy synths, hopeful melodies, and exploratory soundscapes, the band’s latest cut veers off from the irascible garage-punk of recent single ‘Backseat Driver’ and wanders into more tranquil, utopian climes. Plumping the relentless grooves of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard with delicate 60s psych-pop harmonies, ‘Magic Hill’ offers a celebration of freedom and natural wonder, its every square inch revelling in a psychedelic euphoria.

Produced at the recording space of beloved Bristol venue The Louisiana with Alfie-Tyson Browne (Langkamer, Katy J Pearson and Saloon Dion), the track zones in on an anonymous free-spirited protagonist wandering in the Welsh countryside, as the band’s lead vocalist/guitarist ‘Smudge’ explains:

“This song is the colours you see in an altered state and about the experience of that particular journey. I wrote this because I watched a video of this Welsh guy probably near to where I’m from. He basically walked his dog up a hill and took some mushrooms from the surrounding field and it looked like he was having a good time. ‘Magic Hill” is now for him."

More about Wakey Wakey Rise & Shine :

Slowly assembled together after years of “life's wonderful lived experiences” - at college, at Green Man festival, on Gumtree adverts, at gigs - Wakey Wakey Rise & Shine eventually emerged in Bristol in 2020. Influenced by the likes of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Snapped Ankles, and the New Wave trailblazers DEVO and B-52s, the band came to define their sound: frilly psychedelic melodies fused with the fuzzed-up fury of high-octane post-punk, all powered by an embrace of all things silly and irreverent. “fun and mischievous ways of expressing yourself within art is probably an artist's greatest weapon”, explains Seamus, “Collectively we enjoy being a bit silly with our ideas and keeping the writing process interesting and playful.”

Accordingly, from its chaotic, song-structures careening from one style to next, right down to its whimsical subject matter, ‘A Good Way To Get Yourself Killed EP’ presents an ever-playful 4 song set of chaotic and colourful surprise. Inspired by various behaviours and irks observed in their Bristol hometown, elliptic Graffiti sightings (‘BJJ MMA TFF. BK 1’), videos found online of old welsh men walking tripping on magic mushrooms (“Magic Hill), and sustainable transport (“E-Scooters”) are the main concerns in Wakey Wakey Rise & Shine’s ebullient fuzz-pedalled world.

Coming off the back of recent shows with Ellie Bleach, Canned Pineapple and The Pleasure Dome, the band signed to Bristol Independent label Velvet Echoes and shared first EP teaser ‘Backseat Driver’ earlier this month to the backing from John Kennedy (Radio X), Rough Trade Counter Culture, Acute Pop and Post-Brexit Pop. Celebrating the arrival of their forthcoming EP, Wakey Wakey Rise & Shine ready themselves for their biggest headline show to date at Bristol’s Crofters Rights on 6th July.