London 5-piece ‘Tapir!‘, consisting of singer/guitarist Ike Gray, guitarist Tom Rogers-Coltman, bassist Ronnie Longfellow, keyboardist Will McCrossan and cornet/synth player Emily Hubbard, will be new to most, although you may have seen them frolicking on grassy knolls in paper-mache creature-heads.
Their first EP, ‘Act 1 (The Pilgrim)’, is released this Friday, 16th September, with two more EPs to follow before compiling them into a complete album in early 2023 titled The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain. It tells the story of ‘Pilgrim’, a creature embarking on an adventure through a fictional universe made up of green hills and mysterious red beings, unearthing its history and meeting all sorts of other characters along the way.
Drawing inspiration from the likes of Harry Nilsson and Richard Dawson, one of the band’s biggest inspirations is California-based Kyle Field (Little Wings), best known for his loose, melodic arrangements and catchy songwriting which has garnered him something of a cult following. The band have persuaded Field to be a narrator on sections of a monologue stretching across their debut album’s 3 interlude tracks which introduce each Act EP.
To celebrate the launch of ‘Act 1 (The Pilgrim)’ the band has organised an EP launch show at The George Tavern on September 23rd (tickets)when they will be joined by friends Oscar Browne, Ted Mair (The Golden Dregs) and Clara Mann (7476 Records). The stage will be transformed into a microcosm of the narrative world in which Tapir! will perform their album in full.
Their latest single, Swallow, is released this Friday, 16th September:
The band worked closely with producer Yuri Shibuichi of Honeyglaze in both his home studio and the Domino Records studio in Brixton for most of the album.
EP launch show at The George Tavern on September 23rd, 2022 (tickets)