I’m pleased to announce that my new album Situation was released on 24 July 2026. A music video for Mental Noise and the short film accompanying Tiny Plane are both available to watch online.

This album is the soundtrack of a human being processing heavy things – and these roots in basic humanity are echoed in it being a record entirely free of any AI influence at all. In the miserable age of robots regurgitating yesterday’s dinner and trying to convince us that it’s art, every single creative decision, recorded sound, production preference, video concept, 35mm photograph – and emphatically-phrased list – associated with this album is proudly untouched by that rubbish. Crackly, vintage equipment was used throughout the recording, with its grouchy imperfections and primitive shortcomings celebrated rather than being erased or sterilised.

This is my first full-length release in nearly a decade. But it’s an album I’ve needed to make following a challenging few years. It’s been a bumpy ride. My brain doesn’t like me sometimes. Lessons have been learned the very hard way. But one of the positives from it all is that I’ve had to write music to keep my head above water. It’s not been an option.

More than a few of the resulting instrumentals are gritty. Though some are quite playful too. There’s an eight-minute folk-rock marathon about an old Scottish aircraft. There are two drum kits, 20 kazoos and a circus tuba in the same track. I got to work with musical hero Billy Sheehan. I attempted to play metal. The resulting music is even more diverse than what I’ve done before. It’s more extreme. Sometimes loud; sometimes quiet. Volatile. Intense. Layered. Destructive. Uncomfortably honest.

But whilst keeping the old-school aesthetic to which I always stay true (records to me just sounded better back then) this album was also realised through the miracle of everybody having their own studios and giant files being sharable at the click of a mouse. With this, I was able to collaborate with over 30 different players from all over the world to bring the music to life – only a couple of whom I was sat in the room with. There are musicians from Malaysia, Argentina, Colombia, Slovenia, Israel, Ukraine...and everywhere in between. Situation is a global creation.

Mastering was handled by legendary Swedish engineer Björn Engelmann. Known for his rich analogue sound and dynamic approach to the process, he was recently nominated for multiple Grammy Awards for his work on the new ABBA album – to add to his bountiful other career accolades. Sitting alongside him in Stockholm as he added the finishing touches to these songs was beyond an honour.