Brighton’s PROJECTOR Channel Hikikomori Energy On New Single ‘Migraine’
Stream and share - https://bfan.link/migrainecontempt
Reveal Details of New Album Contempt Released 3rd October 2025 via Alcopop! Records
Preorder - https://ilovealcopop.co.uk/collections/projector
August 2025 Festival Appearances + October 2025 UK/EU Tour Dates On Sale Now
Tickets - https://linktr.ee/ProjectorOfficial
Brighton trio PROJECTOR are pleased to return today with misanthropic new single ‘Migraine’, set for release on 27th August 2025 via all good digital service providers.
On the surface what may seem another meaty slice of propellant alt-rock from the trio, the band actually attribute the single’s driving tempo and experimental, noise-leaning instrumentation to their newly-shared immersion in electronic music on the road.
“Our drummer Cal listens to a lot of drum and bass and techno, and when we’re on tour driving late at night, the playlist comes out to keep us awake,” says bassist Lucy of the sonic influence. “You can hear it in Cal’s playing and I think it’s reached me by osmosis, trying to sound like a synth and drum machine rather than a band. It seems like the deeper we get into this band, the less time we spend playing our instruments properly. Edward can barely play guitar anymore. They’re all just vehicles for noise.”
Lyrically, ‘Migraine’ explores an increasingly common theme: a retreat from modern society, and a move towards introversion and introspection. The phenomenon is characterised in modern Japan in its most extreme form as “hikikomori”, where many young adults now become unable to work or attend school for many years.
“Over the past few years I have become divorced from polite society, rarely interacting with the wider world by choice,” says guitarist Edward. “As such, I have become quite unsocialised and find having to interact with normal people tiring and confusing. Why have they got such mean little eyes? Why do they all have writing on their shirts? Anyway, that’s what the song is all about.”
The track is the latest to be taken from their second album, Contempt, which will be released on 3rd October 2025 via new label home Alcopop! Records, with the band also revealing the artwork and tracklist for the album today.
Recorded and produced by Ben Hampson (DITZ, Lambrini Girls) and mastered by Katie Tavini, the new album follows on from the critical success of their 2024 debut NOW WHEN WE TALK IT’S VIOLENCE (Venn Records).
Early singles ‘The Sham! The Sham! The Sham!’, ‘Collision’, and ‘It Surely Has Been Hell’ were released earlier this year, picking up support from BBC 6music, Radio X, BBC introducing, Amazing Radio, The Line of Best Fit, Get In Her Ears and more.
The forthcoming new album is the sound of PROJECTOR accepting their status as provocateurs, and revelling in it. “In some ways, Contempt is us consolidating and accepting what we are: aggressive and stupid and weird, as well as carefully devoted to melody and harmony,” says bassist and vocalist Lucy. “We’ve always been aware of the dissonance in us and our music. Probably like most cynical musicians we love beautiful things but can’t really enjoy them without tearing them apart.”
Kicking off their live year supporting Canadian rock heavyweights Cleopatrick back in March, the band are midway through a short run of August 2025 festival appearances, with a run of UK/France October 2025 headline tour dates also on sale now (see below for listings).
New album Contempt is released 3rd October 2025 via Alcopop! Records
Live Dates:
29/08 - Mirabilis Festival (FR)
30/08 - Guinguette Sonore Festival (FR)
08/10 – Reims // La Cartonnerie (FR)
09/10 – Rennes // L’Antipode (FR)
10/10 – Paris // Point Éphémère (FR)
11/10 – Lille // L’Aeronef (FR)
13/10 – Birmingham // Sunflower Lounge (UK)
14/10 – Sheffield // Hallamshire Hotel (UK)
15/10 – Manchester // 33 Oldham St (UK)
16/10 – Bristol // The Louisiana (UK)
17/10 – London // The Lower Third (UK)
Tickets: https://linktr.ee/ProjectorOfficial
Contempt album tracklist:
1. The Sham! The Sham! The Sham!
2. Collision
4. Migraine
5. Phantom Limb
6. O Well
7. S.O.M.O.D.
8. Hope Springs Eternal
9. It's True
10. Communion
11. Happy to be Here
12. Who Loves You, Baby?
Projector online:
https://linktr.ee/ProjectorOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/projectorprojector
More info:
Since they formed in 2018, Brighton’s PROJECTOR have stubbornly gone their own way. Bringing angular industrial drum machines to hook laden alt-rock, and lush melody to frenzied post-punk, the band have never hesitated to prioritise sonic breadth and an experimental attitude to pop. It’s this confidence in craft that have lead them to tour Europe with rock giants Cleopatrick while simultaneously haunting the airplay of BBC Radio 6’s left field Steve Lamacq and Amy Lamé shows.
PROJECTOR deal in nuance of expression and the true insanity and grit of modern life, psyche and politics (although they don’t like to talk about lyrics.) With the same attitude to recording, PROJECTOR have kept a firm grip over their creative output by producing and recording themselves for the last few years.
PROJECTOR’s debut album ‘NOW WHEN WE TALK IT’S VIOLENCE’ moves effortlessly between artful derangement, aggression and the pop hooks that have regularly seen the band gatecrash the mainstream rock scene. At times it’s drenched in the dark, industrial brutalism of Joy Division, at others it’s a spectacular of hyperactive, Squid-flavoured rant-pop. The album features climaxes that stagger into acid-soaked country, warped with drum machines and lush harmonies, before leaping into blisteringly paranoid Incesticide-era grunge, topped with melting Lana Del Rey-flavour choruses.
Above all, the band’s tightly wound intensity drives the album with the strange fervour of early Pixies that reflects the energy of their live show. PROJECTOR celebrated their debut with a UK and EU tour, starting February 2024.
Their March 2025 single finds the band at their most unhinged yet. A riotous blend of razor-sharp guitars, dissonant harmonies, and a propulsive rhythm section, ‘The Sham! The Sham! The Sham!’ channels the frenzied energy of their live performances into a controlled explosion of raw emotion and chaos.
Guitarist and singer Edward explains: “The Sham The Sham The Sham is a triptych depicting three characters, each of whom hold themselves in the highest regard and each of whom share a common contempt for their fellow man. This distaste is reflected in the music, a crass atonal amalgam of disparate genres and unpleasant clanking. Described by returning producer Ben Hampson as sounding like “a fight in a big metal bin”. The contempt is even extended to the listener. The lyrics written solely for the enjoyment of the writer, replete with references to Greek mythology, French cinema and other more bodily subjects.”
