by Andy Sykes
wrest are back with a brand new EP as the countdown continues to their biggest ever gigs.
A stunning video offering a first glimpse of the five-track EP Bedtime Rhymes – filmed at Edinburgh’s iconic Writers’ Museum – will be showcased tonight at 9pm.
It includes previously-released single Keep Going plus four new songs, It’s On Me Love, Little Star, Old Times and Florida.
The EP will not be formally released until later in the year with Little Star pencilled in as the next single in September.
It finds the band in contemplative mood as a perfect bookend to critically-acclaimed second album End All The Days before the foursome play the Queens Hall in Edinburgh in November and Glasgow Barrowlands in August next year.
“The EP is like an arc of emotions,” says frontman Stewart Douglas.
“It may be a bit gloomy in parts but also has that thread of hope through it all. It’s a reflection of where I was at the time when I was writing those songs.
“I feel like the EP has allowed a forum for us to explore other ideas and to do things that maybe don't quite sit perfectly on an album.”
It’s classic Wrest with delicate acoustic arrangements and Stephen Whipp’s trademark guitar solos - but with drummer Jonny Tait swapping his sticks for a ukulele during Old Times.
“After two albums and an EP, it was time for Jonny to shine!” Douglas laughs.
The video was recorded at the Writers’ Museum, which celebrates the lives of three giants of Scottish Literature – Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, after an invite from a friend of Douglas’ who works at the venue.
“It tied in perfectly with what we were going for with the EP. So we were really buzzing to actually be invited to go along and it was a great space to record the video in.”
Following a jaunt into Europe next month and a full UK tour in October and November, Douglas will turn his attention to his own masterful writing – that task of penning Wrest’s all important third album.
It is earmarked for some time in 2024 to coincide with their gig at the iconic Glasgow Barrowlands in August of that year.
He will be starting from a blank canvas but stressed it will be an album fit for the magnitude of the 1,900 capacity venue.
“As we sit here there is literally nothing for album three. But I know what I want it to be.”
“2024 is likely to be a less touring intensive year just in terms of pulling together the album and I’m excited to see what the next 12 months has in store for us.”
Link to YouTube Premiere HERE
See Wrest’s full tour dates HERE