Culture / Music

Middle Kids’ second album ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ is coming to the airwaves in March

Australian favourites, Middle Kids have at last revealed news of their boldly-titled second album Today We’re The Greatest. And it's coming to us sooner than expected, on March 19.

In celebration of the album news, Middle Kids have sent a new single out into the airwaves. It's called Questions, a new bop that shows us the key themes from the new album: vulnerability, introspection and hope.

"Making this album has been a significant moment for us as a band. We have been more explorative with our sound and more vulnerable with our souls. That’s our hope as we continue to make songs, to go deeper into the music and deeper into our search for truth," said the band of their second album.

 

 

Alongside the latest album announcement, Middle Kids have shared plans for an East coast Australian tour throughout May. The band will perform at three of the country's concert spaces: Brisbane's QPAC, Melbourne Recital Centre and Sydney's City Recital Hall.

We caught up with Middle Kids to ask all about their inspirations and what they want audiences to feel from their music.

 

Tell us about Today We’re The Greatest

The songs are really shaped around the melodies on this album and so the instrumentation really serves each moment, trying to enhance the fragility or power in a song with every instrument and sound.

There’s a lot of celebration on this record and there’s a lot of lament. Old ghosts hanging around all the while trying to have hope for the future. We put interesting recordings from life in there like Sunny’s heartbeat through the sonogram when he was in my belly and rain and birdsongs from a wet Sydney’s summer day. There’s also a lot of raw vocals from the studio of us all singing our lungs out around a microphone holding hands.

 

What was your inspiration?

A core idea that has been an influence for this album is relationships and how as humans we are to live in relationship with each other, time, nature and ourselves. If we are not good stewards of these relationships we experience pain and loss.

So then I think we draw inspiration very naturally from people and experiences and the world around us. If you endeavour to live in the present you inevitably are changed and influenced by your life and then there is a beautiful flow from that into music and whatever you put your hand to.

Musically some artists that influenced me in making this album were The National, Broken Social Scene, Death Cab for Cutie, Big Thief, Radiohead, and The 1975.

 

What do you want your audience to take away from your music?

I hope that it is meaningful to some people and that it allows us to play shows to those people. I hope that it expresses our musicality more deeply. I want our music to make people feel seen. Like in the tiny little places that hide away in our hearts, I want them to be seen there. These songs are a call to live in reality; broken and hopeful.

 

What's next for you?

We’ve got an Australian tour in May which we are very excited for. We have tentative plans to tour overseas but holding that very loosely obviously. So then writing for the next album. Scouting out new places to go fishing for songs, the NSW coastline always seems to be brimming with them.

 

Today We’re The Greatest is Middle Kids' follow up to their 2018 triple j Award-winning, debut album Lost Friends. And it was this debut record that earned the Sydney-based rock trio international acclaim and support slots with the likes of Bloc Party, War on Drugs and Cold War Kids.

Watch the official video for new track Questions below.

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