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Apr 13, 2022 By Mark Redfern Photography by Steve Gullick

British post-rock band TRAAMS have announced a new album, personal best, and shared a new song from it, “The Light at Night,” which features Joe Casey of Protomartyr and was shared via a video directed by Lee Kiernan of IDLES and Charlotte Gosch. Personal best is due out July 22 via FatCat. Check out “The Light at Night” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Personal best includes “Sleeper,” a new song TRAAMS shared in February that was one of our Songs of the Week.

TRAAMS are Stu Hopkins (vocals, guitar), Leigh Padley (bass, vocals), and Adam Stock (drums, synths).

In a press release, Hopkins had this to say about the new single: “On ‘The Light at Night, we were very lucky to get to work with Joe Casey of Protomartyr. It goes without saying that we’re all massive fans of his band, we were lucky enough to tour together a few years ago and became friends. After trying and failing to lay down a verse I was happy with I tried my luck and messaged Joe. Like a true pro he had the takes recorded and back to us in a flash, he loves a deadline apparently.”

Casey had this to add: “Last year, like many people, I was doing absolutely nothing and desperately wanted to do anything. Luckily for me, that anything arrived in the form of a TRAAMS tune. Asking Stu for a little guidance after an initial ‘do whatever you want’ he explicated on the song’s origins and suggested I ‘rant like a televangelist.’ Stu must be a keen student of my output. Anyway, I trundled out to Ypsilanti to Derek Stanton’s new home studio and dutifully laid down some primo ranting and yawps. What am I going on about on this one? Beats me. And I wrote it! I’m just happy to be using my (shockingly adenoidal) voice again after such a long hiatus and being a small part of whatever TRAAMS have cooking up.”

Personal best is the band’s first full-length in seven years, since 2015’s Modern Dancing.

“I couldn’t really write, and I didn’t have the motivation to do anything musical. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pick up a guitar for two years,” Hopkins says of the long gap between albums. “I was waiting for that feeling to come back.”

In 2020, TRAAMS shared the songs “The Greyhound” (which was one of our Songs of the Week) and “Intercontinental Radio Waves” (also one of our Songs of the Week). Neither is featured on the new album and both were leftover TRAAMS songs Hopkins finished.

“They had been left as instrumental demos with no vocal takes, and to be honest they were beginning to drive me a little mad,” Hopkins explains. “I needed them finished and out of my head.”

At the end of 2019 the trio reconvened to begin work on new music and they began recording in 2020 when pandemic lockdown restrictions in the UK began to ease.

“I like the fact that it touches on old ideas and new ideas, created in this weird middle period of our lives when we were locked down and didn’t know when we’d get on stage again,” bassist Leigh Padley says. “We focused more on the writing than we had done before.”

Hopkins adds: “Lockdown heightened how much we realized we needed to do this, after so many years inactive. We realized that TRAAMS was something we all really needed.”

personal best Tracklist:

1. Sirens
2. Dry
3. Breathe feat. Softlizard
4. The Light At Night feat. Joe Casey
5. Sleeper feat. Soffie Viemose
6. Shields
7. Hallie
8. Comedown feat. Softlizard

TRAAMS 2022 UK Tour Dates:

APR

14 – Portsmouth, The Loft
15 – Prince Albert, Brighton +
16 – Islington Assembly Hall, London +
17 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds +
29 – The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge +
30 – Stag & Dagger, Edinburgh

MAY

1 – Stag & Dagger, Glasgow

JUL

10 - Bruges, BE, Cactus Fesitval

OCT

12 - Brighton, Patterns*
13 - London, The Garage*
14 - Bristol, Strange Brew*
15 - Birmingham, Future Days*
27 - Groningen, NL, Vera
28 - Deventer, NL, Burgerweeshuis
29 - Amsterdam, NL, London Calling

NOV

11 - Manchester, YES (Basement)*
12 - Leeds, Brudenell Social Club*

+ supporting Protomartyr
* support from Public Body

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