Penelope Isles – Thinking Seat
Penelope Isles, the Brighton-based sibling duo of Jack and Lily Wolter, are back with “Thinking Seat”, the lead single from “3”, their third album, due September 25 on Bella Union. Five years have passed since “Which Way to Happy” and three since their last live show. In between, Lily spent six months in Sri Lanka and Indonesia stepping back from music; Jack toured as guitarist for CMAT. Both released solo albums, Lily as My Precious Bunny and Jack as Cubzoa. “3” is the sound of them finding each other again.
The album was written on a month-long surf trip in Lagos, Portugal, then recorded a year later, live to tape over ten days at Black Bay Studio on the Isle of Lewis, twenty miles from the nearest shop, in a refurbished fish factory perched on a sheltered harbour. Engineers Pete and Cal held the room, and drummer Joe Taylor (Anna B Savage, Iona Zajac) joined as a full third member, making this the first Penelope Isles record as a three-piece and the first they’ve tracked outside their home studio. They kept binoculars by the window to watch for white eagles and dolphins.
“Thinking Seat” is about the mental loop of touring: the thousands of hours in the splitter van, overthinking, remembering, planning, spiralling, trying to find a parking space. Shimmering guitars, sibling harmonies, a track that’s bright on the surface and anxious underneath. The detail that makes it is a phrase buried in the lyric: “U.G.A.K.I”, standing for “you guys are killing it”, a catchphrase the band coined for when touring felt particularly broke, dirty and ridiculous, as a way of injecting some lightness into the uphill struggle. That it made it into a song rather than staying a private joke says something about what kind of record “3” is going to be. The video was self-directed and shot on a thirty-pound camcorder from CEX. I’d expect nothing less.
Tour Dates:
Europe:
- Oct. 21 / Falmouth, UK / The Cornish Bank
- Oct. 24 / St. Davids, UK / Boia Festival
- Oct. 25 / St. Davids, UK / Boia Festival
- Oct. 27 / Manchester, UK / YES
- Oct. 29 / Leeds, UK / Hyde Park Book Club
- Oct. 30 / London, UK / The Lexington
- Oct. 31 / Brighton, UK / The Hope & Ruin (afternoon show)
- Nov. 7 / The Hague, Netherlands / Crossing Border Festival
- Nov. 8 / Berlin, Germany / Neue Zukunft
- Nov. 9 / Hamburg, Germany / Hebebühne
- Nov. 11 / Paris, France / Supersonic
