Lucky Number Music

Walt Disco have today released their brand new single “Jocelyn”, the third track to emerge from their forthcoming second album The Warping, out June 14th, following on from their ‘cynical disco banger’ “You Make Me Feel So Dumb” and their wistful comeback single “Pearl”. Watch the dream-like music video below.

“Jocelyn” is a tender meditation on childhood, identity and the parent-child connection. Taking the form of a dreamlike conversation between co-songwriter and singer Jocelyn Si and their mother, “Jocelyn” digs into the isolation of hiding a part of yourself and the euphoria of allowing it to shine through. The track, says its namesake, is “about recognising the version of yourself that you love. And it’s not always easy to have that be the one that faces the world.”

“Lyrically it’s a dreamlike internal conversation between my mother and I, from small talk to mannerisms I’ve had since childhood. Such conversations come to mind when you change your name and gender; but it doesn’t erase these memories. I hope to live in a world where parents can allow themselves to understand the upset they may feel when a child makes this decision but can love and support them all the same ”

The band adds; “Everyone has a side of themselves that at some point, or maybe always, they feel they need to keep hidden away. This track explores the isolation of hiding a part of yourself and the euphoria of the times when you can let it out. The despairing lyrical matter of the verses opens into the joyous choruses, it’s meant to feel transformative to represent the idea of leaving your shame in the past and finding the strength to start anew.”

The band also announced a November headline tour of the UK and Europe with dates including Glasgow’s SWG3 Warehouse and London’s Bush Hall – all dates and ticket links on their website.

Glasgow’s Walt Disco have today announced their second album The Warping, out June 14th and available to pre-order now. Alongside the album announce the band have released new single “You Make Me Feel So Dumb” – the album’s “cynical disco banger”, inspired by the social burnout suffered from networking while on tour, accompanied by a wonderful tongue-in-cheek video that sees the band tearing up a stuffy corporate mixer event, which you can watch below. The new track is the second release to be drawn from the new album, following January single “Pearl”.

Written on both sides of the Atlantic, from Los Angeles and Austin to Glasgow and London, The Warping is a significant step forward from a band who have already seen strong success with debut album Unlearning. On The Warping, deft lyricism takes in deeply personal issues and writes them large, transposing feelings of envy, fear, joy and hope out of individual experiences. Yearning for another self is a recurring dream on The Warping, as they explore gender dysphoria and envy with radical honesty, accepting them as two tangled threads in the same experience.

Taking the cinematic glam of their debut and pushing it further, the band brought in classically trained orchestral musicians. Sonically, the horns, woodwind and swelling string sections lend an entirely new level to the Walt Disco sound – one that feels both fantastically organic and technically accomplished. While the foundations were laid during pre-album recording sessions at Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music’s studio the songs themselves largely come together in collaboration. The Warping was co-produced by the band and Chris McCrory, with engineering from The Vale studios’ Chris D’Adda, and the instrumentation is almost entirely analogue.

Speaking about the new album the band explain “With The Warping we explore themes of change, growth and dealing with the complex struggles that feature in anyone’s life. It feels like our most biographical body of work yet, listening to it now is like looking at a snapshot of a moment in time for us as people and as a band. This album is a roadmap of our vulnerabilities in a way, but it feels good to be so honest with our music and lay everything on the table with both our lyrics and arrangements. That acceptance of one’s emotions and honesty with oneself is what we’d hope people can take away from listening to The Warping.”

Glasgow’s Walt Disco today release brand new single “Pearl”, their first original music since their 2022 debut album Unlearning.

The dreamlike, eagerly awaited track was written and recorded between Glasgow and its namesake Pearl Street Co-Op in Austin, Texas where the band first worked on the track while at SXSW. “Pearl” is accompanied by a stunning video that sees the band perform inside a music box, shot in Paisley Methodist Central Hall.

“This song dwells on the homesickness and general disconnect from regular life that can come from being in a touring band.” explains songwriter Jack Martin. “The demands of being a musician can put both literal and figurative distance between you and other people in your life. Your touring bubble starts to feel like the only people you can truly relate to, and this can start to feel quite lonely and alienating. In the chorus of this song, I cast my eye forward in time and consider where the consequences of this lifestyle will leave me, while also accepting that this is the life I’ve chosen and I know it’s what I’m meant to do. The song is built around the keyboard part which I first showed the band on the piano at Pearl Street Coop while we were at SXSW.”

Next week, the band will embark on a marathon 2 month UK and European tour in support of electronic pop pioneers OMD, and play Mighty Hoopla festival this summer, with many more headline and festival shows to be announced shortly. All dates and tickets on their website.

Glasgow’s Walt Disco today release the second in a series of covers of their favourite artists, due to form the Always Sickening EP out November 25th, a brooding reimagining of the 1980 Stephanie Mills R&B classic “Never Knew Love Like This Before“. The EP also includes covers of Aldous Harding, The Japanese House, The Associates and Dusty Springfield. This month, the band embarked on their first run of US headline shows before returning to the UK for further dates, including a show tonight at London’s Heaven with label-mates HMLTD.

Singer Jocelyn Potter on ‘Never Knew Love This Before’; “I think this might be my favourite cover from our wee EP, singing it was a delight and I think you can hear how much fun I was having. We had so much fun studying and taking apart the music, it was absolutely fascinating and we were really in awe of its mastery. Turning the improvised vocal runs into a choral part at the end felt amazing and I love listening to what we ended up with. It’s a honour to sing one of the greatest love songs ever written, that perfectly sums up the all consuming nature of loving someone with every inch of your being”

Following the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Unlearning, Walt Disco today announce a series of covers of their favourite artists, due to form the Always Sickening EP out November 25th. The first cover, released today, is a thundering, gothic take on the Dusty Springfield classic “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me“. The EP also includes covers of Aldous Harding, The Japanese House, The Associates and Stephanie Mills.

Walt Disco on the EP; “We chose each song for their intrinsic charm and motherly guiding quality. We see this in the confident proclamation in ‘Never Knew Love Like This Before’, the thankless devotion of ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’, the shady commentary on the bourgeois in ‘Club Country’ by our heroes The Associates, the tenderness of ‘Saw You in a Dream’, and the bizarre world of Aldous Harding’s ‘The Barrel’. Each song has a strong sense of emotion and self, which we strive for in our own music. We had a lot of fun working on these covers, both in forming our own interpretations and in recording it ourselves in our wee studio.”

Walt Disco on covering “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me”: “Whilst deciding on which songs to cover for this EP, as soon as this tune entered the conversation, we knew we had to do it. Recording our take on that massive and marvellously dramatic intro was one of the most exciting moments we’ve had recording together. The emotion of this song really connects with us too. This message of love and understanding that, although it may ultimately be unreciprocated, you’re still willing to take any small piece of this person they can spare for you. It’s incredibly poignant, and we feel we’ve preserved that feeling while putting our own edge on this classic.”

Unlearning is out now, and is currently nominated for the AIM Independent Album of the Year award and the SAY Award (Scottish Album of the Year).