Porridge Radio return with their lead single ‘Back to the Radio’ from their forthcoming third album Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky. Having transformed themselves from DIY underground favourites to a Mercury-nominated act on the back of 2020’s celebrated Every Bad, the band have also announced their biggest-ever headline tour. Frontperson Dana Margolin’s earnest and sleeve-tugging honesty were established on Every Bad as one the band’s biggest calling cards, and the new album takes that further still; the emphasis on Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky is to take the band’s sound to a new sonic dimension.
The album opener is also lead single ‘Back to the Radio’, which Dana describes as a “..huge introductory hello or a big ceremonial goodbye.” It’s a rousing call to be taken seriously with passionate and emotive language dominating the sparse guitar and keyboard, creating a more overarching impact. The tension that builds from the opening intro is enhanced by the video, that was filmed in one-take by Dana’s sister Ella Margolin. Watch below.
Margolin went into more detail about the origins of the song:
“I wrote it at the end of 2019 when we were gearing up for the release of Every Bad and I felt like a lot of things were coming that I wasn’t sure I knew how to handle. The song grew out of a feeling of intense loneliness and being unprepared for what everybody was promising me was about to happen – and a strong desire to escape without knowing what I wanted to escape to. To me there’s a huge feeling of catharsis in this song, of letting go and letting it sweep you away.”
Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky is released on May 20th via Secretly Canadian and Porridge Radio embark on a short in-store tour before the summer festivals; an autumn tour has also now been confirmed. Dates are:
May (In-store shows)
20th – Piccadilly Records, Manchester
22nd – Brudenell Social Club (Crash Records), Leeds
24th – Rough Trade East, London
25th – Resident, Brighton
26th – Rough Trade, Bristol
26th-29th – Spring Gathering Festival, Derbyshire
27th-28th – Sea Change Festival, Totnes
July
15 – Doune The Rabbit Hole Festival, Cardross Estate
21-24 – Blue Dot Festival, Cheshire
September
1-4 – End of the Road Festival, Wiltshire
October
20 – Foundry, Sheffield
21 – The 1865, Southampton
22 – Phoenix, Exeter
24 – Metronome, Nottingham
25 – Trinity, Bristol
26 – Junction, Cambridge
28 – Saint Luke’s, Glasgow
29 – Academy 2, Manchester
30 – Irish Centre, Leeds
November
01 – The Old Market, Brighton
02 – The Old Market, Brighton
03 – O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London