We Speak Tours
IT MAN to open for BRIX SMITH on UK tour dates!
In a moving tribute new band IT MAN made a statement on their social media ahead of the release of debut single ‘White Heat’, which reads as follows,
“After much thought and consideration, we have decided that we will no longer perform or release music as The Jacques. Since the formation of the band 8 years ago, our line-up has changed, sometimes amicably but also in ways beyond our control. Four years ago, we lost our best friend and bassist Will. We had just completed our debut album ‘The Four Five Three’ after spending our early 20s living and touring together. These are precious memories of ours and we are grateful for all of the friendship, support and love we have received over the years. We are currently finishing an album that we feel marks a departure from our previous musical direction. It is for that reason that we have agreed to be known by a different name moving forward. Thank you all for your continued support. Love, Finn, Elliot, Harry & Dexter a.k.a It Man”
And so it was, born of the ashes of one band who tasted early success touring with The Libertines, playing Glastonbury and SXSW, as championed by BBC and signing with a major label, the story unfolds in a new and thrilling way as 2023 sees the birth of IT MAN as they get ready to dominate UK and European shores with a series of heavy hitting new wave Britpop n rock releases scheduled including a new album later this year.
New member Dexter Dougan on the bass has brought healing and a whole new sense of purpose for these talented musicians as demonstrated on ‘White Heat’ their debut single, and a satirical romp through the fictional psyche of a young, middle-class 20th century couple fantasising about explosives, casual gambling and being some kind of street gangster.
Lead singer Finn O’Brien slurs out, “I’m trying, I’m trying not to think about it, cause its only there when I think about it”. All the while the guitars do a symbolic sleight of hand manoeuvre busily transporting the listener to some far off beach in the tropics, whilst nodding cheekily towards the spectre of neurosis that lurks just beneath the consumerist glitz of modern life.
‘White Heat’ was recorded by the legendary The Strokes producer Gordon Raphael and produced & mixed by another producer giant Dan Swift.
Oh and if you’re wondering why It Man, well it’s the title of a John Cooper Clarke poem/song which struck a chord with all members of the band.
‘White Heat’ is out now on all platforms via the band’s own label, Sore Records and It Man will be on the road from May as support for TALK SHOW, BRIX SMITH and MENADES
23rd May / Bristol / Strange Brew w/ BRIX SMITH
24th May / Manchester / Yes w/ BRIX SMITH
28th May / London / Lower Third w/ BRIX SMITH
8th June / Newcastle / Cluny 1 w/ BRIX SMITH
15th June / Stroud / Subscription Rooms w/ BRIX SMITH
16th June / Portsmouth / Wedgewood Rooms w/ BRIX SMITH
18th June / London / AMP w/ MENADES
19th June / Brighton / Prince Albert w/ MENADES
Blue Foundation return with ‘Harsh Love’, a haunting, intimate new track added to their latest album ‘Close to the Knife’. Featuring the ethereal vocals of Helena Gao, the song captures the ache of emotional dissonance, the quiet collapse between two people trying to love through damage.
Written during the same sessions that birthed ‘Close to the Knife’, ‘Harsh Love’ carries the same emotional weight: minimal yet lush, driven by ambient textures, fractured rhythms, and lyrical honesty. Helena Gao’s voice weaves through the track like a distant memory, fragile, questioning, unresolved.
“I guess I took it out on you,” the song begins, disarmed and direct. It’s a confession, not an apology. The kind of truth you whisper in the dark when everything else has already come undone.
In the words of Blue Foundation’s Tobias Wilner:
“It’s about the moment where you realize love has turned into something else, something harder, colder. But still, you’re reaching. You’re trying to hold on. Helena understood that from the inside.”
Helena Gao also appears on ‘Ecstasy in Space’ and ‘Voyage to the Stars’, but ‘Harsh Love’ stands apart in its stark emotional clarity. Sparse production, slow-burn synths, and whispered harmonies unfold like smoke. It’s not a song about closure. It’s a song about what happens when there isn’t any.
The track features atmospheric guitar textures by Xie Yugang of Wang Wen and Jonas Munk (Manual, Causa Sui), whose layered work expands the sonic space, stretching tension into something strangely beautiful. Together, their guitars give ‘Harsh Love’ its cinematic weight, floating just above the wreckage.
More songs will be added to ‘Close to the Knife’ in the coming months, each one an extension of the same world: fractured, beautiful, and brutally honest.
The band have also announced a new tour for later this year, including a London date at Oslo, Hackney on October 17th.
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