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Mar 18, 2025 By Issa Nasatir Photography by Photo by El Harwick

London-based eight-piece caroline are back with their first single and video in three years and a new UK tour to boot. “Total Euphoria” is out now via Rough Trade. See the video and the band’s UK tour dates below.

This is their first release since “peak chroma,” a claire rousay cover they released in late October of 2022, after their self-titled debut in February of that year.

In a press release, caroline collectively explained the origins of “Total Euphoria,” saying: “The first iteration of this song was played as a three (Mike, Casper, and Jasper) in 2020 while we were writing our first album. It was a similar style to the guitars in the back half of ‘Natural Death’ (from their first album)—off-kilter/syncopated—but played much wonkier and messier, and then with a broken rock beat kind of erupting at different moments. It somehow didn’t quite fit with the music we were writing/recording at the time but there was a kernel in there of something we felt we would want to explore later.”

The waves of build-ups and dissipations capture the title of the new single perfectly, and the inspiration for their newly infused electronic elements can be traced back to the influence of claire rousay and the cover they first experimented with.

The video, directed by Injury Reserve’s Parker Corey, displays a longing for disconnection and rural life, lamenting the slog and stress of living in urban settings.

“Eventually it became one of many things that we’ve happened upon that felt good to play for 20 mins straight,” says the group. “This one felt especially good as it was very consistently ‘loud’ and full on which was maybe a bit unusual for us at the time, and also everyone was playing these three different rhythms simultaneously which made it feel endlessly cyclical. Jasper then took the main chords and wrote a load of really nice top line stuff for singing, then we put together all the other parts with the rest of the band and finalised a structure. We realized the golden potential of how good it sounded with Jasper and Magda singing in unison also as a style, and they wrote some extra vocals and harmonies together.”

caroline’s founding members—Casper Hughes, Jasper Llewellyn, and Mike O’Malley—began playing together in 2017 after meeting at university in Manchester. The band continued to expand, eventually becoming an eight-piece completed by trumpeter and bassist Freddy Wordsworth, violinists Magdalena McLean and Oliver Hamilton, percussionist Hugh Aynsley, and flute, clarinet, and saxophone player Alex McKenzie.

caroline is embarking on an eight-date UK tour beginning April 6th at Rewire Festival and continuing in early June.

caroline UK Tour Dates:

Sun, 6th April –The Hague, Rewire Festival

Sat, 31st May– Bristol, Trinity

Sun, 1st June – Falmouth, KCM Church

Tue, 3rd June – London, Islington Assembly Hall

Wed, 4th June – Cardiff, The Gate

Fri, 6th June – Manchester, Band On The Wall

Sat, 7th June – Glasgow, St Lukes

Sun, 8th June – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club

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