bdrmm – John on the Ceiling

Today, November 12th, bdrmm’s new track “John on the Ceiling” shows they have completely flipped the script. If you expect their usual shoegaze sound, you’re in for a surprise.

“When something ends and another starts, you lure yourself into a false sense of security that the mistakes made won’t happen again”, says Ryan Smith, diving into what the song’s about. It’s that familiar feeling of being stuck in a loop, making the same mistakes despite swearing you won’t.

The band’s been itching to break free from their shoegaze box for a while now. As Ryan puts it: “I felt very constrained writing a certain type of music to fit the genre we were known for, but something lifted and I felt more free to create what I want”. And boy, did they create something different – they’ve gone full electronic on us, pulling tricks from dance music to ambient vibes.

They brought in their go-to producer Alex Greaves and got some cool features from Sydney Minsky Sargeant of Working Men’s Club and Olivesque from Nightbus.

“John on the Ceiling” is the first single from their upcoming third album “Microtonic”, dropping February 28th, 2025 on Mogwai’s Rock Action label. It’s quite the jump from last year’s “I Don’t Know”, but in the best way possible. If you’re wondering how it’ll sound live, you can catch them on their UK/European tour kicking off next March 2025.

Sometimes the best stuff happens when bands stop caring about what they’re “supposed” to sound like and just do what feels right. That’s undoubtedly what bdrmm’s done here, and it’s pretty damn refreshing.