🎧 Approved: Sweeping Promises

Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug met at college in Arkansas in 2008 and have been starting bands together ever since; by their own count, at least half a dozen before this one. 

Sweeping Promises is the one that stuck: angular post-punk built on a self-devised single-mic recording technique, Mondal’s classically trained voice bouncing off compact basslines and chipper analogue synths. They’re now based in a house in Lawrence, Kansas, that doubles as a recording studio and a stopover for touring bands, which feels about right for a band this spiritually DIY.

New single ‘Cocoon’ has been kicking around their live set for years, written originally just to pad out shows when they only had ten songs to their name, and it’s now been reworked for their forthcoming third album ‘You Say I Romanticize’. 

“We wanted to develop this track in a disarming and dead-simple way for the ‘live sound’ mentality of YSIR”, the band explain, describing the song’s evolution through several versions in their home studio. The video splices real footage of the band playing Kansas shows with a sculptural cocoon that gradually closes in on Mondal.

‘You Say I Romanticize’ is out 14 Aug via Sub Pop. If ‘Cocoon’ is what they’re doing with the leftovers, the album’s worth real attention.

🎧 Watch the video for ‘Cocoon’ below