Ben Cook has announced not one, but two new albums as Young Guv. With his power-pop project, the No Warning and former Fucked Up member will first share GUV III on March 11 via Run For Cover Records/Hand Drawn Dracula, ahead of GUV IV arriving later in 2022.
Following 2019's GUV I and GUV II, Cook's GUV III and GUV IV were written in the New Mexico wilderness, where he and his bandmates had decamped to after COVID-19 restrictions derailed a tour.
In New Mexico, Cook and the band lived in an Earthship, a dwelling built from natural and recycled materials. "It was beautiful," Cook shares of their temporary home in a statement. "We were at the foot of the Taos Mountain, part of the Sangre de Cristo range, one of the seven sacred mountain ranges in the world. I swam in the Rio Grande every day. The memory is surreal."
When it came to the process that led to his latest batch of songs, he adds, "I lost control of the routine that I thrive in. I worked on songs more randomly, only when I felt like it. I was hard on myself for not writing enough. Truthfully, I don't even remember doing most of it. I was removed from the process, in a way, somehow alienated from my own creativity."
The finished songs are said to swing between "Laurel Canyon jangle to British Invasion blues-pop to AM-radio Americana to the mildly sleazy electro pop that is something of a signature," making up what Cook calls "a document of my two years away from the world. My healing."
He adds, "Through real work in therapy over a long period, as well as spending many months isolated and alone, I have started to finally access my true self little by little, and it's reflected in this music."
"Lo Lo Lonely" is the first song to arrive from GUV III, and you can take in its overdriven riffs alongside a music video below. This month, Cook will tour the US with Narrow Head, ahead of touring Europe in 2022. Further details can be found here.
For a Bandcamp Friday earlier this year, Cook also released compilation DEMOS I & II.
GUV III:
1. Couldn't Leave You If I Tried
2. It's Only Dancing
3. Lo Lo Lonely
4. Only Wanna See U Tonite
5. Good Time
6. Take Up All My Time
7. But I Ain't Got U
8. Same Old Fool
9. She Don't Cry For Anyone
10. Scam Likely
11. April of My Life
Pre-order GUV III.
Following 2019's GUV I and GUV II, Cook's GUV III and GUV IV were written in the New Mexico wilderness, where he and his bandmates had decamped to after COVID-19 restrictions derailed a tour.
In New Mexico, Cook and the band lived in an Earthship, a dwelling built from natural and recycled materials. "It was beautiful," Cook shares of their temporary home in a statement. "We were at the foot of the Taos Mountain, part of the Sangre de Cristo range, one of the seven sacred mountain ranges in the world. I swam in the Rio Grande every day. The memory is surreal."
When it came to the process that led to his latest batch of songs, he adds, "I lost control of the routine that I thrive in. I worked on songs more randomly, only when I felt like it. I was hard on myself for not writing enough. Truthfully, I don't even remember doing most of it. I was removed from the process, in a way, somehow alienated from my own creativity."
The finished songs are said to swing between "Laurel Canyon jangle to British Invasion blues-pop to AM-radio Americana to the mildly sleazy electro pop that is something of a signature," making up what Cook calls "a document of my two years away from the world. My healing."
He adds, "Through real work in therapy over a long period, as well as spending many months isolated and alone, I have started to finally access my true self little by little, and it's reflected in this music."
"Lo Lo Lonely" is the first song to arrive from GUV III, and you can take in its overdriven riffs alongside a music video below. This month, Cook will tour the US with Narrow Head, ahead of touring Europe in 2022. Further details can be found here.
For a Bandcamp Friday earlier this year, Cook also released compilation DEMOS I & II.
GUV III:
1. Couldn't Leave You If I Tried
2. It's Only Dancing
3. Lo Lo Lonely
4. Only Wanna See U Tonite
5. Good Time
6. Take Up All My Time
7. But I Ain't Got U
8. Same Old Fool
9. She Don't Cry For Anyone
10. Scam Likely
11. April of My Life
Pre-order GUV III.