Glaswegian duo Comfort announce new single
Today, inimitable Glasgow sibling duo Comfort return with the announcement of their highly anticipated new album “What’s Bad Enough”, and a new video and single titled “Real Woman”. The new album is due out 5th May via FatCat Records.
The new album comes on the heels of the band’s genre-defying FatCat debut “All Fears, Fully Formed” EP, which came out last year and saw the duo further push the envelope of the uncompromising beat-driven sound. Having developed their sound through years of intensive writing and performing in spaces aligned with Glasgow's queer/punk scene, the band's infectious energy and raw messages have seen them earn early plaudits at press both on record and for the sheer power of their live shows, having played alongside the likes of Armand Hammer, Goat Girl and Protomartyr.
Recorded with Tony Doogan (Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub) at Castle of Doom studios in Glasgow, the lead single “Real Woman” is an uplifting and unashamedly confident track about frontwoman Natalie’s existence as a transwoman. Melding glitchy electronics and propulsive off-kilter beats with angular leftfield hip-hop vocals, the new single musically picks up where their latest EP left off, whilst continuing to explore deep-rooted systemic social issues and reductive ideologies around sexuality and identity.
“Real Woman” is an empowering track about the Transgender community and rising above intolerance, with lyrics such as “your prejudice is not my problem”, and “I’ve never had so much interest in what’s between my legs. I don’t blame them at all, I think I’m fit as well”. The track also sees the duo calling out the likes of J.K. Rowling. In the accompanying video which is filmed across Glasgow, Natalie at one point lifts her shirt to reveal nipple pasties of the author's face, whilst singing “I’m as real as Rowling.”
Speaking on the single, Natalie says: “As I have gotten older and learnt to love myself, transphobic views have less power over me. I have begun to find them laughable in their ignorance. I want this song to capture the elation you feel when you rise above the people who hate you, when you leave them to writhe in the mire of their own short-sightedness. Transgender people have always been here, and we always will be, we are inevitable, resisting us does nothing but hold everyone back. It can be easy to create art which is bleak when you are insistently alienated, but I wanted this song to be playful and fun, because I am all these things, despite everything.”
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “REAL WOMAN” HERE:
‘Comfort’ is a word that implies safety, convention, its connotations are parental, soft and neutral. For a band whose music and live performance is deeply original, emotional and challenging, the innocuous band name is an initial challenge to expectations. Sibling duo Natalie and Sean re-located to Glasgow with the intention of forming a band that resisted traditions.
Comfort’s set up consists of Sean on drums and Natalie as magnetic frontwoman, backed by wildly oscillating software synths to create music that is direct and engaging. Rejecting industry standards regarding how a song is supposed to be written and produced, the confrontational vulnerability inherent in their music reaches for a personal, yet queer liberation within a constrictive society.
Starting with electronics, their instinctive creative process is guided by feeling and a rejection of formal composition. As siblings, Natalie and Sean’s deep understanding and unwavering trust of one another allows them to push each other beyond self-imposed thresholds. Through consistently recording their writing process, they build upon their initial reactions to ideas forming structures out of improvisation to create an organic and flow-like state to their music. Lyrically Natalie is inspired by her lived experience of a near perpetual injustice, the assertion that all art is essentially political runs through their work.
Their debut album, "Not Passing", was released in 2019. Following this, the band have continued to develop their sound via DIY shows, touring across the UK and Europe. In 2021, the band signed with Fat Cat Records following the submission of an unsolicited demo. This resulted in the opportunity to record with Tony Doogan at Castle of Doom studios in Glasgow. Over sessions spanning 3 weeks, the band co-produced enough material to create an EP “All Fears, Fully Formed”, which was released via FatCat Records in 2022, as well as their forthcoming LP. Combining sparse industrial soundscapes with pulsating beats, and avant-garde, hook-filled electronics, “What’s Bad Enough” is a consummate snapshot of their undefinable yet danceable output, which at times calls to mind the output of the Anticon collective. Accompanied by self-produced music videos, both projects are a snapshot of a group disengaged from genre specifics.
Comfort are defiantly queer in a social landscape which proves to be fertile ground for transphobic backlash. They have reinterpreted the ethos of punk music for the 21st century sending a clear message that they hold no interest in finding a middle ground with bigotry. Tracks across the album touch on themes from the inherent prejudice throughout our culture (“Never Been Ignorant”) and the pressure to conform as a queer person (“Cowardice In Numbers”), through to the unhinged nature of capitalism (“Normal Till It’s Not”) and the damaging ideologies surrounding grind culture (“Billionaire Potential”).
In an industry where playlists are king, and aesthetic rules, Comfort are unconcerned with fitting in. As the validity of trans identities is consistently in question, Comfort create music demanding freedom not tolerance
“What’s Bad Enough” is due out 5th May via FatCat Records - Pre-order HERE
