Royston Langdon's Solo Project 'Chains' Out Today (10/29)
Chains EP Featuring Singles “Halfway Home” and “Creepy Crawly”
Available Now on Cd and Digitally
Vinyl Edition Coming Early 2022
Currently on North American Tour with the Psychedelic Furs
Click here to order Chains EP
Click here to watch official music video for lead single “Halfway Home”
Click here to download/stream second single “Creepy Crawly”
Click here to download cover art (seen above) and artist photos
Los Angeles, CA (October 29, 2021)─Chains, the second solo project from vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Royston Langdon (former lead singer for the British rock band Spacehog), is out today (10/29) on CD and digitally (with a vinyl edition due out early next year) via BFD/The Orchard.
Langdon’s new six-track Chains EP features all-new compositions, including lead single “Halfway Home” (currently on Spotify’s Rockin’ Vibes playlist featuring the best in alt, folk, and indie rock) and second single “Creepy Crawly,” as well as covers of songs from David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Recorded in Brooklyn, NY, Langdon enlisted Bryce Goggin (The Lemonheads, Trey Anastasio, Antony and the Johnsons, The Apples in Stereo) and Adam Sachs to produce and engineer Chains. Langdon handled the songwriting on the four original tracks (along with Matt Hackett on the self-titled track) and played all the instruments heard on the EP, with the exception of “Chains” and “Creepy Crawly” featuring drummer Parker Kindred (Jeff Buckley, Black Beatle) and “Halfway Home” featuring Sachs on drums.
Goggin and Langdon have known each other since Langdon's early days in New York, when he interned at the recording studio where Goggin was head engineer, eventually the two became friends, and Goggin would go onto produce the first Spacehog single "In The Meantime" and Langdon’s debut solo project Everything’s Dandy (released May of 2018).
Initial praise for the new EP includes Loudwire (10/4), who shares, “...Langdon gives us this undeniably infectious new song ‘Halfway Home’...Turn it up and enjoy the stomp-clap shuffle while playing this on repeat.” Adds PopMatters (10/27), “...Chains injects a much-needed boost into Langdon’s sound. If Everything’s Dandy reminded people that he could still write songs, Chains lets everyone know that Langdon can still sculpt big sounds and even rock out when he wants to... Langdon possesses the rare gift of applying a glam varnish to small, personable songs while somehow not drowning them in theatrics. The more you listen to Chains, the more you realize that his sense of restraint is just as strong as his voice. And just as Spacehog’s early hit was a breath of fresh air for us all, the kitsch factor of Chains provides a welcome distraction from our collective, troublesome reality...On a macroscopic level, Chains is fun.”
Regarding Chains, Langdon shares, “I’ve often found it difficult for me to move on in my life and in my work. At times, I’ve chosen seemingly reliable mechanisms of avoidance, rather than face the more difficult confrontation and change required. This practice has in turn, created its own sort of trauma loops, which include repeating the same old patterns over and over, eventually leading to the destruction and recycling of relationships, and leaving me scared to get close. During this destruction and confusion, I notice similarities to the world around me and the world online, where we try to create a new and better version of the world for ourselves -- one in which we can merely scroll and in doing so, immediately recognize certain patterns in others, eventually leading to our development of an entirely new sense or instinct to help us better navigate our reality. Sometimes, I catch myself zoned in on the idea of this pretend, online version of reality because it’s more beautiful and better than my actual present reality (with all its frailties), which I’m afraid of.
This inspired the self-titled track ‘Chains,’ where I use a metaphor for the world’s rich building McMansion after McMansion, row after row, in hopes of creating a new version of ‘a better life.’ In being so desperate and willing to go to any lengths to avoid their own fears, by creating a fake of a fake, they manufacture a ‘today’ which is just another version of what they had yesterday, and never another tomorrow.”
In support of the EP, Langdon is currently on a 25-date U.S. tour with The Psychedelic Furs, which includes stops in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Orlando, and New York before wrapping up on November 21st in Concord, NH. List of remaining tour dates is below. For more info and tickets, visit RoystonLangdon.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music.
Tracklist:
1. Halfway Home
2. Chains
3. Nazi Girlfriend
4. Creepy Crawly
5. Ashes to Ashes
6. Love is a Gift
2021 U.S. tour dates with The Psychedelic Furs:
October 29: Clearwater, FL @ Bilheimer Capitol Theatre
October 30: Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live Orlando
October 31: Saint Augustine Shores, FL @ Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
November 2: Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
November 3: Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
November 6: Rockville, MD @ Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center
November 5: York, PA @ Appell Center for the Performing Arts
November 7: Tarrytown, NY @ Tarrytown Music Hall
November 9: New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
November 10: Phoenixville, PA @ Colonial Theatre
November 12: Atlantic City, NJ @ Hard Rock Cafe
November 13: New York, NY @ Apollo Theater
November 14: Beverly, MA @ The Cabot
November 16: Northampton, MA @ Academy of Music
November 17: Montclair, NJ @ The Wellmont Theater
November 19: Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
November 20: Albany, NY @ Empire Live
November 21: Concord, NH @ Capitol Center For The Arts
About Royston Langdon:
Originally from Leeds, England, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Royston Langdon (born May 1, 1972) has been a performer for as long as he can remember, getting his start playing music in the U.K., and is most noted for his time as lead singer, bassist, and principal songwriter in the British rock band Spacehog. The quartet (featuring Royston on vocals/bass and his brother Antony on guitar, joined by drummer Jonny Cragg and guitarist Richard Steel) formed in New York City in 1994 and eventually attracted the attention of Sire Records' president, Seymour Stein, whose label would release the bands critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut album, Resident Alien, in the fall of 1995. The album went gold on the Billboard charts and spawned the hit single “In the Meantime,” shooting the band to fame almost instantly. The undeniably catchy single could be heard on alternative and rock radio everywhere, eventually peaking atop Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and the U.K. Rock Chart, while reaching the top 50 on singles charts in Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. Over the course of 10 years, Spacehog released four studio albums (and a live record), toured with the likes of Oasis, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Black Crowes, before breaking up in 2014. Says AllMusic, “Spacehog mixed glam rock influences, including David Bowie and T. Rex, into their wall-of-distorted-guitars sound, a combination that helped the band make a dent in the late-'90s alternative rock scene.”
Since then, Langdon has worked on the industry side of music, using his own experiences to help up-and-coming artists. Yet, he’s remained a musician at heart and on May 4, 2018, Langdon independently released his solo debut, titled Everything's Dandy, under the moniker LEEDS (a nod to his U.K. hometown). Premiering on Billboard, the introspective 9-track LP (featuring singles “Someone” and “What Became of the People”) has a futuristic pop sound with a down-home barnyard feel. The album finds Langdon baring his soul in trying to do the best he can to have honest relationships with all the people in his life, while reflecting on his time spent in New York, the city he called home for 25 years. Recorded in Brooklyn in the fall of 2017, Langdon enlisted Bryce Goggin (The Lemonheads, Trey Anastasio, Antony and the Johnsons, The Apples in Stereo) to produce and engineer Everything's Dandy; the two have known each other since Langdon's early days in New York, when he interned at the recording studio where Goggin was head engineer, eventually striking up a friendship, and later Goggin would go onto produce the first Spacehog single "In The Meantime." While Langdon played many of the instruments himself on Everything's Dandy, he enlisted a few longtime friends to play on select cuts, including drummer Parker Kindred (Jeff Buckley), multi-instrumentalist Timo Ellis (Yoko Ono, Joan As Police Woman), and GRAMMY®-nominated saxophonist, flautist, and clarinetist Jay Rodriguez (Prince). The song "Your Day Will Come" was co-written by Langdon and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, and the second single, "What Became of the People," is a songwriting collaboration between Langdon and his brother Antony. Langdon supported Everything's Dandy on the road with multiple tours in the U.S. and U.K. between 2018-2019.
Praise for Everything’s Dandy, includes BlackBook’s Adam Pollock, who shared: “The new album showcases Langdon’s robust tenor on nine piano-and-acoustic-guitar-based melodramatic modern pop songs, that will fit quite nicely alongside early Bowie and Queen in your late-night playlist. ‘What Became of the People’…is a delightful and propulsive mid-tempo rocker…that reminds us of Royston’s soaring vocal range.” Adds Popmatters’ Jedd Beaudoin, ““There is something undeniably English afoot in these grooves. Elements of ‘What Became of the People’ recall John Lennon's early solo work: Spare rhythms, simple piano and guitar figures that allow the song's emotional truths to come to the fore. In other moments, one senses drops of Bowie, especially on his fine, overlooked 1999 effort Hours, lurking in the DNA.” Available on vinyl and digitally, fans can find Everything's Dandy on Langdon’s official website, Spotify, and Apple Music.
About BFD/The Orchard:
Formed in 2013, Bob Frank Distribution (BFD) is a boutique independent distributor with a global sub-distribution arrangement with The Orchard. BFD currently represents over fifty companies/artists and is a division of Bob Frank Entertainment, formed in 2012 by longtime entertainment business executive and entrepreneur Bob Frank. For more info, visit BobFrankEnt.com.
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