Aberdeen’s Cold Years have shared the first taster of their debut album release.
The new track comes ahead of the band’s forthcoming Glasgow headliner at King Tut’s on August 3rd.
Speaking of the track, frontman Ross Gordon explained: “With ‘Breathe’ it was about putting everything I’d felt over the past couple of years on to paper. I went through a hard time during ‘Northern Blue’, I didn’t care about anything other than what was in the next glass. I was questioning why I even wrote music anymore. This song came just at the right time and as a band it really forged what we wanted to do with this (forthcoming) record. It was completely collaborative, a fresh start, a fresh canvas, and it rejuvenated us. I fell in love with writing music again. I was laying out everything on the table and taking a gamble.”
To celebrate the single’s release, we caught up with Ross to discover five tracks that influenced ‘Breathe’.
Queens of the Stone Age – Go With The Flow
I think this track is an obvious comparison. It’s got so much drive to it, it’s just incredible. It’s probably the coolest song ever written and it just keeps you hanging on the entire time. The way the piano haunts the back of it is something we kind of unintentionally did with ‘Breathe’ and it wasn’t until after we were like “holy crap!” it’s kinda what they did, but not at the same time. That song is so simple but it’s so effective and I think that’s 100% something we took as a pointer on this song.
Frightened Rabbit – Holy
I love this song unconditionally. It’s so raw and the lyrics are so real. They describe addiction and problems you face with your own demons and I think that transcends through ‘Breathe’. I wasn’t scared to say what I really wanted to. There’s no censorship on feelings on this record! I love the way its sort of lo-fi and we took some of that on the production on ‘Breathe’. I miss that band every single day.
Green Day – Uptight
I love this song from ‘Nimrod’ [Green Day’s fifth album]. I think the guitar tones on that record are some of the best recorded. It’s so punchy and I really wanted to replicate that sound tonally. Neil [Producer] was so onboard with this and we pushed the guitars to the absolute limit on this song. They sound massive. I also doubled up a lot of the vocal, something I’d never done before and it worked so well. Same with the harmonies, they were ambitious – same with that record.
The Killers – Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
We are all huge fans of this band, and this was the first record where we weren’t afraid to experiment with organs, piano and synths. The Killers pioneered that sound and I think we took a lot from them. The way Brandon’s voice soars over distorted guitars and synths and massive crashing drums stuck with me. A lot of the bridge section of ‘Breathe’ pays homage to that band and that sound.
Brian Fallon – Forget Me Not
This song taught me a lot both lyrically and musically. It taught me not to be scared to talk about love and I think that’s really important on this record especially ‘Breathe’. Secondly, all the Motown handclaps and 60’s instrumentation are something I’ve loved since childhood. We put some claps in the bridge because it just felt like it added a bit of soul to the song. His voice is incredible and I think ‘Sleepwalkers’ [Brian’s second album] is one of his best records to date.
You can stream Cold Years’ new single ‘Breathe’ below: