Ultra Q share new single “Handheld”
Praise for Ultra Q:
"Ultra Q are a band I'm feeling particularly excited about and on this, they show us exactly what they're made of and how they can influence the future of Indie Rock." - Jack Saunders, BBC Radio 1
“It's a frantic, fun and fantastical start to this new chapter on their fascinating musical journey.“ - Rock Sound
California-based four-piece Ultra Q release their new single and video ‘Handheld’ today (via Royal Mountain Records), taken from their upcoming EP Get Yourself A Friend dropping 19th November via Royal Mountain Records. Pre-order HERE.
Fronted by Jakob Armstrong, the youngest son of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, and features brothers Enzo and Chris Malaspina, as well as Kevin Judd.
‘Handheld’ is short, frantic, and a perfect example of what Ultra Q do best. The Inception-esque new video was directed by Hassan (Curtis Waters, UMI, Yung Gravy) and pays homage to 90s skateboarding culture complete with fish-eye lens shots and old-school camcorder visuals as the band races around the city.
Watch the video for ‘Handheld’ HERE.
Written a few years back by Armstrong, the song was revisited with the full band while in the studio this year. Knowing they wanted to incorporate Enzo’s guitar work on the verse, the band shaped the song, with Chris playing the electronic breakbeat on their live kit and Kevin nailing the final touches on bass. Of ‘Handheld’, Armstrong shares “Our producer / engineer Martin Cooke described this as the best example of what our band does. Attempted pop songs with some funky stuff. Everything comes together on this one to bring one of the more tight, and neatly packaged Ultra Q songs. It's short, it's frantic, and I’m very proud of it.”
‘Handheld’ is the second song release from upcoming EP Get Yourself A Friend, following their single ‘Bowman’ (video here) released earlier this month which was written by Armstrong and Enzo along with Stefan Babcock of PUP, who helped finish off the track. The song received praise from NME, Kerrang, BBC Radio 1, Rough Trade, Rock Sound, The Forty-Five, and more.
Click HERE to pre-order Get Yourself A Friend
Out 19th November via Royal Mountain Records
Debut EP - Get Yourself A Friend - Pre-order HERE
Tracklisting
1. Pupkin
2. It’s Permanent
3.Bowman
4. Straight Jacket
5. Handheld
6. Get Yourself A Friend
About Ultra Q:
Not to add to the deluge of artistic clichés brought on by the Global Event Which Shall Not Be Named, but spending more or less a year in the house offers plenty of time for reflection, reevaluation, and revision. Though there was a lot to process already in those months, it was an opportune time to try and get your shit together, whatever that may mean for you. For Jakob Armstrong—in addition to many other things like the rest of us—part of it meant fine-tuning a collection of songs first recorded in late 2019. A prolonged process leading to five of the seven songs on Get Yourself a Friend retooled into their better-than-even final form.
Jakob Armstrong—youngest son of Green Day frontman Billie Joe—began playing guitar at seven years old and honed his craft privately until about sixteen, playing in bands in and around Oakland after meeting friends with like-minded tastes in music. Soon enough, with the memories of Ultraman action figures fighting in his mind, he and a group of friends he cultivated from those years playing around and pouring over records, formed Ultra Q (its name inspired by an Ultraman prequel series).
Opening double-shot ‘Pupkin’ and ‘It’s Permanent’ soar to the heights of Ultra Q’s powers in much different ways; the former a black-clad romp through a rainy graveyard, the former pushing straight to the clouds with its soaring chorus. ‘Straight Jacket’ veers pleasantly close to the jangle-pop of the Go-Betweens. ‘Bowman’ features guitars like cats getting into a scratch-fight while an astoundingly metronomic drumbeat is played live rather than punched out on a beat pad. Closing the EP is its title track, an affecting end credits anthem full of nostalgia and a twinge of regret.
As a whole, Get Yourself a Friend marks the synthesis of a songwriter’s vision and his band’s ability, forged through an invisible existential threat and an ever-changing world, eager to show what they’ve found while we were all inside
Produced by Martin Cooke (Of Monsters And Men, Death Cab For Cutie, Destroy Boys, etc), Get Yourself A Friend will be Ultra Q’s third EP release; their previous two, In a Cave in a Video Game and We’re Starting To Get Along, saw the band gain praise from the likes of Rolling Stone and Vice.