Fire Track: Ride – “Monaco”

Ride releases “Monaco,” the latest offering from their forthcoming seventh studio album, Interplay, out 29th March via Wichita Recordings / PIAS. The track follows the previously released BBC Radio 6 Music A-listed “Peace Sign” and, most recently, “Last Frontier.”

For new track “Monaco,” frontman Mark Gardener’s powerful lyrics are matched by an icy, throbbing synth-rock intensity that reflects the urgency of their subject, as he explains: “The backing track came from the earlier Ox4 Sound sessions we did and we gave it a demo name of ‘Monaco’ as we were naming these jams and ideas we were pulling together as place names. One evening, during the recording sessions at Ox4 Sound, the guys had all left the building and I was there with just producer Richie Kennedy and an engineer. I had been writing some words about how I was feeling that everybody was being smashed in the current economic climate with the rise of energy bills and all else; to the point that it just seems now that we’re having to live to work instead of working to live. The song is a reflection on this feeling of how we’re all being smashed to pieces and under pressure constantly financially. It’s a kind of call to arms against this whilst we still have strength to fight against it. ‘Monaco’ then stayed as the ironic title as the song is totally against the madness of the few who live in their artificial, detached rich bubbles in Monaco.”

Interplay is Ride’s third album since reforming in 2014, having now been together longer in their current second phase than their original iteration as 90’s shoegaze pioneers. It will follow 2017’s Weather Diaries and 2019’s This Is Not A Safe Place, which re-lit the Ride spark, both pleasing old diehards and introducing one of the most forward-thinking guitar bands of their generation to a whole new audience. Produced by the band with Richie Kennedy and mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer, it connects all the dots from their career, taking the frenzied guitar attacks, hypnotic grooves, and dreamy melodic hooks of their early work and setting it to a more expansive sonic template, inspired by 80’s pop gems like Tears For Fears, Talk Talk and early U2.

Thematically, it pairs classic Ride lyrical hallmarks such as escapism, dreams, and the dissatisfaction of modern life with a sense of resilience and perseverance that come from imploding, then reforming and finding a way forward to their second peak, as Andy explains: “This album has taken a long time to make, and has seen the band go through a lot of ups and downs; maybe the most of any Ride album. But it has seen us come through the process as a band in a good place, feeling able to shake off the past, and ready to celebrate the combined musical talents that brought us together in the first place.”

Made up of guitarist/vocalists Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, alongside drummer Laurence “Loz” Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt, Ride were formed in Oxford in 1988; four friends rooted in art-school aesthetics who combined 60s guitar-pop sensibilities with avalanches of noise and driving rhythms. It was a recalibration of indie-rock that would come to be defined as ‘shoegaze’ and with their seminal 1990 debut Nowhere came a run of critical and commercial success that eventually hit the skids in 1996, with intra-band turmoil prompting them to call it a day.

They reformed in 2014, finding a global scene full of bands indebted to Ride and their peers (Tame Impala, Beach House et al), and after a successful tour went into the studio with legendary producer Erol Alkan to create the critically acclaimed Weather Diaries and follow up This Is Not A Safe Place. Now in 2024, shoegaze is one of music’s fastest-growing genres, having picked up a new wave of Gen-Z fans via TikTok, with artists such as DIIV and bdrmm converting millions of views into impressive streaming numbers and ticket sales. A quarter of a century since originally forming and with a new generation discovering their music, Interplay finds Ride hitting new creative heights and stronger than ever.

Upcoming Tour Dates
5/11 – Boston, MA @ Big Night Live
5/13 – Montreal, QB @ Theatre Fairmount
5/14 – Toronto, ON @ Concert Hall
5/15 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
5/16 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
5/17 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
5/19 – Denver, Colorado @ Gothic Theater
5/22 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
5/23 – Portland, OR @ Mission Theater
5/25 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox

9/2 – Belfast, UK @ Limelight
9/3 – Dublin, Ireland @ Olympia
9/4 – Cork, Ireland @ Cyprus Avenue
9/6 – Sheffield, UK @ Leadmill
9/7 – Newcastle, UK @ Boilershop
9/8 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG 3 TV Studio
9/10 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory
9/12 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus
9/13 – Manchester, UK @ New Century
9/14 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
9/16 – Falmouth, UK @ Princess Pavilions
9/17 – Portsmouth, UK @ Guildhall
9/18 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk
9/20 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
9/21 – Wolverhampton, UK @ Wulfrun Halls
9/22 – Cambridge, UK @ Junction