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Jun 07, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Cedric Oberlin

This Is the Kit, the Paris-based project led by British-born singer/songwriter Kate Stables, are releasing a new Gruff Rhys-produced album, Careful of Your Keepers, this Friday via Rough Trade. Now they have shared its third single, “Stuck in a Room.” They have also shared a video of the band performing the song live last month at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, England, which is an outdoor theater on the side of a cliff overlooking the sea at the very southern tip of England. Listen and watch below, followed by This Is the Kit’s upcoming tour dates.

Stables had this to say about the new song in a press release: “It’s not so much about being stuck in a literal room (although I suppose it is a bit) but more about getting stuck in the imaginary restrictive rooms we create for ourselves. The behavioral patterns that aren’t always very helpful to us. The loops we go round and round in. The way we deal with what other people expect of us. That sort of thing.”

Previously This Is the Kit shared the album’s first single, “Inside Outside,” via a music video. “Inside Outside” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “More Change,” via an amusing music video. The song featured backing vocals by Rhys and was one of our Songs of the Week. This Is the Kit also announced some new North American tour dates.

Careful of Your Keepers follows 2020’s Off Off On, also released via Rough Trade, and 2017’s breakthrough record, Moonshine Freeze, which was their first album for the label. Staples also had a stint performing with The National and sang guest vocals on their 2019 album I Am Easy to Find.

The band also features Rozi Plain (bass/vocals), Neil Smith (guitar), and Jamie Whitby-Coles (drums).

“The album was nearly called Goodbye Bite. And in a way it still is,” said Stables in a previous press release. “I went for Careful of Your Keepers in the end. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album, a song that for me holds the general feeling of the album as a whole. The fragility of things. Of situations. Of relationships. Of humans. What we do to look after each other and ourselves. The passing of time and what that does to us, and how we live our lives going forward.”

Rhys is the Welsh frontman of Super Furry Animals and also an accomplished solo artist. In February he released the soundtrack for the film The Almond and the Seahorse, also via Rough Trade. Stables said his role was being a “tonesetter.”

“I’ve always loved the idea of working with him somehow, and when this album started getting planned, I realized that maybe this was my chance to reach out and see if he was up for working together,” Stables explained. “And he was! As if that wasn’t enough, he was also up for doing a bit of singing on the record, which totally blew my mind and made my year. His way with harmony and melody and the tone and quality of his voice is a totally killer combo.”

Rhys had this to say: “They are so ridiculously talented—and every member is a great producer in their own right—so it was just a matter of trying to capture the magic they make when playing live together. Their playing is by default so thoughtful and complimentary in terms of respect to each other’s parts and to the integrity of the songs themselves that it creates a beautiful foundation of often cosmic interplay that’s always in aid of Kate’s voice and vision as a songwriter.”

Read our 2017 interview with This Is the Kit.

This Is The Kit 2023 Tour Dates:

06/16/23 - Kent, UK - Black Deer Festival
07/16/23 - Hertfordshire, UK - Folk By The Oak
07/27/23 - Warwick, UK - Warwick Folk Festival
07/29/23 - North Yorkshire, UK - Deer Shed Festival
09/20/23 - Antwerp, BE - De Roma
09/21/23 - Amsterdam, NL - THT/Tolhuistuin
09/22/23 - Nijmegen, NL - Doornroosje
09/23/23 - Hamburg, DE - Reeperbahn Festival
09/24/23 - Copenhagen, DK - Hotel Cecil
09/26/23 - Berlin, DE - Frannz Club
09/27/23 - Leipzig, DE - Connewitz
09/29/23 - Munich, DE - Milla
09/30/23 - Zürich, CH - Bogen F
10/01/23 - Lyon, FR - Epicerie Moderne
10/03/23 - Lille, FR - Aeronef
10/05/23 - Reims, FR - Cartonnerie
10/06/23 - Paris, FR - Trabendo
10/11/23 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
10/12/23 - Boston, MA - Cafe 939 Berklee College of Music
10/13/23 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
10/14/23 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd
10/17/23 - Toronto, Canada - The Drake Hotel
10/19/23 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
10/20/23 - Milwaukee, WI - The Back Room at Colectivo Coffee
10/21/23 - Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club
10/24/23 - Denver, CO - Globe Hall
10/26/23 - Boise, ID - Neurolux
10/27/23 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
10/28/23 - Seattle, WA - Woodlawn Hall
10/29/2023 - Vancouver, WA - Wise Hall
11/01/23 - Grass Valley, CA - The Center for the Arts
11/02/23 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
11/04/23 - Pasadena, CA - South Pasadena Masonic
11/08/23 - Worthing, UK - Assembly Hall
11/09/23 - Cambridge, UK - Junction
11/10/23 - Reading, UK - St. Laurence Church
11/11/23 - Cardiff, UK - Tram Shed
11/12/23 - Birmingham, UK - Glee Club
11/14/23 - Bangor, UK - Neuadd Ogwen
11/16/23 - Cork, IRE - Cyprus Avenue
11/17/23 - Galway, IRE - Roisin Dubh
11/18/23 - Dublin, IRE - National Concert Hall
11/19/23 - Belfast, UK - Mandela Hall
11/21/23 - Edinburgh, UK - Summerhall
11/22/23 - Gateshead, UK - Sage
11/23/23 - Leeds, UK - Irish Centre
11/24/23 - Manchester, UK - Academy 2
11/25/23 - London, UK - Barbican
02/03/24 - Bristol UK - Bristol Beacon

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