Hello there, thanks for joining us. This is Sodiejker on songwriting. I'm Brian here with Simon,

and with us for episode 292 are two members of one of the UK's most exciting, inventive and original bands.

Since emerging from Brixton's lively windmill scene of the late 2010s, the talented sex debt

have generated three studio albums and a live LP,

and their current offering, the recently released Forever How Long, was their third to reach

the UK top five. We are very happy to welcome singer and bassist Tyler Hyde and floutist

and saxophonist Lewis Evans of Black Country New Road to the show.

Their name taken from a major route that runs through the

West Midlands, our own Simons adopted home, by the way. Black Country New Road formed in Cambridge

in 2018. Prior to that, our guests, along with original lead singer Isaac Wood, violinist,

Georgia Ellery, keyboardist, May Kerchaw and drummer Charlie Wayne had been teenage members

of another band, Nervous Condition.

In their new incarnation, they swiftly developed a loyal following, and in early 2019, having added guitarist Luke Mark to their ranks,

dropped debut single Athens France via Spedy Wonderground, followed later in the year by sunglasses.

They signed a Ninja Tune in late 2020 and their critically acclaimed

post-punk-flavored debut, 2021's For the First Time, reached number four in the UK chart

and earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination to boot. Second album, 2022's Ants from Up There,

arrived almost in tandem with the shock announcement that Isaac Wood had left the band.

Although reeling from the loss of their idiosyncratic frontman and chief lyricist,

the band honoured their live engagements but opted to perform nothing from the previous two albums.

Instead, they put together a fresh batch of songs at very short order to play live,

with Tyler, May and Lewis sharing lead vocal duties.

...