MARTYRS release new Halloween Dream EP - out now and the 5th in a series of 10 releases
Track list:
1. Delta Rain
2. October Kind
3. The Man Don’t Give A Fuck (Super Furry Animals Cover)
4. Midnight Mass
5. The Man Don’t Give A Fuck (Instrumental)
The Halloween Dream EP finds the Welsh genre-agnostics further expanding their uncategorised sound, launching from a base of drum machine beats and sequenced synths into the realms of the acoustic indie rock anthem and beyond.
Lead track Delta Rain is a swooning slice of atmospheric electronica, propelled by a juddering bassline and augmented with gossamer guitar. An anthemic ode to anywhere that feels like home, singer Michael describes it as “a love song dedicated to a place rather than a person.”
October Kind is an elusive, intricate labyrinth of piano and guitar jangle, where tightly harmonised vocals are draped across an ever shifting musical landscape. Conjuring an otherworldly atmosphere, the band call it “a catalogue of Autumnal memories and the intangible feelings they inspire.”
The EP is rounded out by a warped cover (the band’s first) of Super Furry Animals’ 1998 cult favourite The Man Don’t Give A Fuck. Twisting the original into new shape, the duo finds a new sense of aggression and intensity in contrast to moments of sublime serenity. “Gruff Rhys called this an all-purpose protest song” says multi-instumentalist Jon, “and there’s plenty to protest right now.”
Also included on the Bandcamp exclusive version of the release are Midnight Mass, a brand new demo for an epic spoken-word post-rock tune, and a striking instrumental version of The Man Don’t Give A Fuck.
A suite of videos to accompany the tracks, all created in-house, will drop over the coming weeks, with the Halloween-themed October Kind home movie clip available now
Learn more about Martyrs and the Halloween Dream EP…
The Halloween Dream EP was written, recorded, mixed and produced at home by childhood friends and longtime collaborators Jon (music) and Michael (words). Their purposeful DIY ethic, inspired by bands they sound nothing like, has so far spawned two albums (2022’s Un Diavolo In Casa and 2024’s Luminism) as well as a recent run of four
standalone singles which they plan to extend to a series of ten. “We thought we’d release ten singles in about a year but we’re almost a year in and only at the halfway point. Deciding to make EPs instead of singles and making videos for every song has probably slowed us down a touch.”
Both Delta Rain and October Kind represent a departure for the band. Musically it’s the first time an acoustic guitar has taken a prominent role and lyrically it’s a step away from the narratives and character studies that usually shape their songs.
Michael: “There’s something about the sound of an acoustic guitar that makes me want to write more personally, and at the same time more impressionistically. These songs are more vibes-based than I would have expected from us.”
“Delta Rain is about striving to recapture a very specific feeling when you arrive in a new city, or a new country and it instantly feels like home. I wrote the words and filmed parts of the video in Barcelona
because it’s that place for me, personally. I feel a sort of homesickness for it when I’m anywhere else.”
Jon: “Delta is probably the most immersive thing we’ve done. It started with me getting a new acoustic guitar and layering it in different ways — mics, DI, pickups — until it had this crisp but lush texture cutting across warm analogue synths and a huge bass bed. The drums are the opposite: lo-fi, tape-saturated, almost like a vinyl sample. Add in bells, choral vocals, heavy reverb — you’re inside the song, not receiving it.”
Michael: “On October Kind I’m trying to paint the intangibles of Autumn; How the quality of light, the contrast of cold and warmth, the colours changing around you, can evoke not only nostalgia but also a sense of belonging. Halloween is a genuinely magical time, I can’t get
enough of the aesthetics of the supernatural and I wanted to express my love for it both through the song and the video. The video is a found footage journey through Halloween celebrations starting in the 1920s and ending in the modern era. I kinda fell in love with some of these
strangers in the film, and it struck me that people celebrating together a century ago looks surprisingly similar to people celebrating now. There’s something unifying in that.”
Jon: “October Kind came out of big acoustic folk strums that landed in 7/8, which felt natural for once. So I threw the chorus into 5/4. The post chorus always reminds me of Super Furry Animals, which led to us covering them next.”
Michael: “The cover of The Man Don’t Give A Fuck was Jon’s idea. We’re both lifelong fans of Super Furry Animals, we take a lot of inspiration from them, and the fact that this track is partly them, partly Steely Dan (who are another big influence) and that it’s a multi-purpose protest song, it just suited us really well. We don’t get angry in our songs often, and this gave us licence. It’s obviously a time for protest and a time to be angry.”
Jon: “I leaned on Run the Jewels’ Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) for the repeated “they don’t give a fuck” line — more an instrument than a lyric. The choruses are intentionally overloaded — over a hundred tracks, so what you hear changes with headphones, speakers, or even phone. That chaos felt right. The breakdown with drums, acoustics and church bells has this ominous weight, and it closes with a UK wrestling crowd chanting about an irrelevant political party. It just fit.”
Speaking on their process Michael says “We’re choosing to make music that needs to be listened to, it’s dense, it’s detailed, it’s specifically not lifestyle or background music. That may seem contrary in our
current culture but we’re very comfortable being algorithm-unfriendly and asking listeners for their attention. Because we barely use social media we’re reliant on independent radio, blogs and word-of-mouth to have our music heard. It means we’re in a very small, very particular niche but we’re happy there. We don’t expect or strive for anything other than to make our art and have a few people connect with it, if we’re lucky.”
https://linktr.ee/martyrsmusic
