This Is The Kit, the group led by Paris-based bandleader Kate Stables, have announced their new album, ‘Careful of Your Keepers‘, produced by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals). To be released on June 9th, 2023, via Rough Trade Records, the announcement comes with a new single ‘Inside Outside’ and an accompanying video directed by Hannah Owen that features Stables and a pair of dancers (Ella Sophoclides & Nya Bardouille) capturing the song’s ebullient charm. Stables explained the song’s reflective lyrics:
“What makes things happen? How much choice do we have? Electricity and chemistry that is out of our control? Chewing. Choosing. Internal forces or external ones? Do we just behave the way people expect us to behave?
Or do they pre-empt what’s happening? Before it’s happened? Because they can see it in us before we know it ourselves? Big change that has been brewing for longer than we realise. Were we just ignoring it? Was it so deeply buried? Or did we see it all along but chose to ignore it? How much does anything change? Or is it just the way we see it that changes?”
Guiding the ship through changing seas is producer Rhys. Stables described his role as being a “tonesetter,” watchful and attentive to the band dynamics while making sure to always follow a hunch for where a new sound could find its place in the recording. “I’ve always loved the idea of working with him somehow, and when this album started getting planned, I realized that maybe this was my chance to reach out and see if he was up for working together,” Stables explains. “And he was! As if that wasn’t enough, he was also up for doing a bit of singing on the record, which totally blew my mind and made my year. His way with harmony and melody and the tone and quality of his voice is a totally killer combo.”
“They are so ridiculously talented–and every member is a great producer in their own right–so it was just a matter of trying to capture the magic they make when playing live together,” Rhys says of the recording process. “Their playing is by default so thoughtful and complimentary in terms of respect to each other’s parts and to the integrity of the songs themselves that it creates a beautiful foundation of often cosmic interplay that’s always in aid of Kate’s voice and vision as a songwriter.”
Careful Of Your Keepers will be available on dark green vinyl variant exclusive to indie record stores, an eco-coloured vinyl exclusive to the webstore, and standard black vinyl and CD; pre-order now here: https://thisisthekit.ffm.to/carefulofyourkeepers
Careful of Your Keepers Track Listing
- Goodbye Bite
- Inside Outside
- Take You To Sleep
- More Change
- This is When The Sky Gets Big
- Scabby Head and Legs
- Careful of Your Keepers
- Doomed Or More Doomed
- Stuck in a Room
- Dibs
UK / Euro / Festival dates below
19 May Minack Theatre, Matinee Show, Portcurno, UK
19 May Minack Theatre, Evening Show, Portcurno, UK – SOLD OUT
16 Jun Black Deer Festival, Kent, UK
16 Jul Folk By The Oak, Hertfordshire, UK
27 Jul Warwick Folk Festival, Warwick, UK
29 Jul Deer Shed Festival, North Yorkshire, UK
UK TOUR
08 Nov Assembly Hall, Worthing, UK
09 Nov Junction, Cambridge, UK
10 Nov St. Laurence Church, Reading, UK
11 Nov Tram Shed, Cardiff, UK
12 Nov Glee Club, Birmingham, UK
14 Nov Neuadd Ogwen, Bangor, UK
16 Nov Cyprus Avenue, Cork, IRE
17 Nov Roisin Dubh, Galway, IRE
18 Nov National Concert Hall, Dublin, IRE
19 Nov Mandela Hall, Belfast, UK
21 Nov Summerhall, Edinburgh, UK
22 Nov Sage, Gateshead, UK
23 Nov Irish Centre, Leeds, UK
24 Nov Academy 2, Manchester, UK
25 Nov Barbican, London, UK
2024
03 Feb Bristol Beacon, Bristol UK