Toy Car are Liverpool-based alt-indie/post-punk rockers who first saw attention gaining support from BBC Introducing. With a growing reputation in the live sector and tastemaker scene, they have become ones to watch as they refuse to crack under the pressure of expectation and potential.
The five-piece have just released a new single entitled ‘Rat Race’. Opening with high-octane chaos, with drums and electric guitar chords both rushing into the next bar. The listener is then dropped into a pool of pure energy, with distorted guitar rhythms and screaming lead melodies, being driven forward with pumping drums and grooving bass lines. The vocals are almost accusatory, with a distinct blend of post-punk and brit-pop combining the spoken with the sung, giving the track a bitter anger that charges through the music. What the band create is an atmosphere beyond stadium filling, expanding the track far beyond its individual parts.
They add,“A phrase I had when writing this track was ‘to be a perfect citizen’. It has themes of the system and society as a whole but doesn’t exactly blame anyone, only observing modern life.
The structure of the track is very simple, having all the meat (language) in the verses and releasing the tension in the instrumental parts with a breakdown towards the end. I felt by doing this added some sort of town crier effect , this was further reinforced by the harmonics during the instrumental parts.
Both tracks were recorded at the same time in Leeds based studios Bam Bam (Daisy Brain, Far Caspian, Eades). Debaser, a song by the pixies, was the first reference song, I wanted to make the song have some life and have people grooving at our shows.”
‘Rat Race’ is out now, give it a listen:
