London-based acoustic folk duo Burr Island unveiled another offering, ‘Later, on March 29th, 2024 via Left Foot Records. The track follows the recent release of their fifth single, ‘Our Home’. The band, comprised of best friends Tom England & Oskar Porter, has received praise from industry giants like Robert Plant and Noel Gallagher. With 250,000 streams across all platforms for their first four releases and their debut album on the way in 2024, the future looks promising for the Burr Island boys. After recording at Kundalini Studios in Devon with Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene, The Specials), their first four singles garnered support from BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 2, BBC Introducing and Radio X, to name but a few**.** The pair have toured as support for numerous acts like Ocean Colour Scene, playing at iconic venues such as Hammersmith Eventim Apollo & Barrowlands Ballroom. They also played to a sold out audience at Union Chapel, supporting Paul Weller as well as two sell out London headline shows.
Both band members trained as actors – however, during the Covid-19 lockdowns, the industry ground to a halt. The two would meet up and write music on the Jurassic Coast, and it was there that Burr Island came into being. Taking their inspiration from the works of Lennon/McCartney, Paul Simon, Crosby Stills & Nash, Nick Drake, The Beach Boys and Cat Stevens, the duo have been compared to other indie folk luminaries of our day, such as Fleet Foxes, Flyte and Kings of Convenience.
‘Later’ is a delicate song teeming with potent imagery. Its lyrics, sung in diaphanous harmony by the duo, tenderly explore the bittersweet clarity that the end of life offers us, meditating on what really matters in our short time on this earth. The words are carried by a gently picked guitar, moseying through the song like a small brook as an array of strings, courtesy of Jess Cox – sweet, ornate, and warbling – bathe the soft track in vivid emotion.
Burr Island divulged: “‘Later, you will understand how truly good these times have been’ is faintly scrawled at the bottom corner of a large abstract piece of art hanging up in the building that Oskar used to live in. So faint, you could easily miss it. We’re glad Oskar didn’t, as those words unravelled into the song you hear today. ’Later’ is about being in the last moments of one’s life, when ‘twilight is paper thin’, and to look back at a life unlived.”
Oskar elaborated_: “Around the same time I stumbled upon the hidden lyrics in the artwork, a friend of mine told me a personal story which I was incredibly struck by and that inspired us to write the rest of the song. When he was just eleven, his father had come home early from work, complaining of having chest pains. Hours later he had tragically died of a heart attack. What did he do in the last moments of his life? He started to confess. He confessed he had acted harshly and been cruel to people. I’ve often heard when one is at the end of their life, they can experience moments of true clarity, as if they are truly seeing for the first time. Hopefully this little song can be a reminder to us all to not wait until the moment of death to realise ‘how truly good these times have been’.”_
Burr Island – Upcoming Shows:
6 June – London – St Pancras Old Church (headline show)
Burr Island – UK Tour 2024 supporting The Blow Monkeys:
8 April – Junction 2 – Cambridge, United Kingdom
9 April – The Apex – Bury St. Edmunds, United Kingdom
10 April – Wylam Brewery Tap – Newcastle-upon-tyne, United Kingdom
12 April – Network – Sheffield, United Kingdom
-Official bio
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