Porridge Radio Release New Album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me

18th October

Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me is a coming-of-age moment inspired by burnout, the music industry, heartbreak, and band leader Margolin’s own increasing immersion in her craft as an artist. Across the album, Margolin’s ruthlessly self-interrogating writing style is matched by some of the band’s most affecting music to date, patiently building and tragically intense.

After relentlessly touring in support of Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky, the beginning of 2023 was a period of reflection and knotty questions about identity, creativity, and family. Margolin wanted to work out a way forward – how do you retain creativity without harming yourself in the process? At the same time, after recovering from the burnout, a relationship ended. “A lot of this album is about a more frenetic and desperate kind of love,” says Margolin. “It is about completely losing my sense of self in one relationship, and the deep residue of insecurity and pain that lingered and clouded a new relationship.”

Produced by Dom Monks, longtime engineer for Big Thief and Laura Marling, Clouds was recorded in Frome at the beginning of 2024 in an environment where Margolin could fully express herself. The band – Margolin (guitar, vocals), Georgie Stott (keyboards, backing vocals), Sam Yardley (drums, keyboards), and Dan Hutchins (bass) – worked more closely than ever on sculpting the album, and for once, they were all able to record in the same room as the producer. “We’ve always been known as a band who do something very particular and very emotionally intense live, and Dom (Monks) knew how to get that feeling across.”

Following the recording sessions, the band was invited to debut this new material, including ‘Sick of the Blues’, at a special performance at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Conceptually led by Dana with her sister, director Ella Margolin, and set designer Ellie Wintour, the ambitious set was inspired by the work of sculptors Alexander Calder and Constantin Brâncui, complete with a gravelled stage, willowy pillars hanging from the ceilings, and mime artists moving around the stage with various props.

Porridge Radio performing at Le Centre PompidouMargolin reflects on Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me with the enthusiasm of a real creative breakthrough. “It feels like the first time we’ve made something. It captured something about our friendship as a band and the way that we have learnt to play together.” Margolin continues, “It’s taught me so much. Following your gut to the nth point, trusting your friends and their loyalty, trusting yourself to be able to fight with people properly and still come back together. How I want to live is how I want to make records, because making records is my life because my work is my play is my job is my life. It all ties together in this thing, and there are ways to do this that might not kill me.”

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