Basement announce first album in over eight years, WIRED

WIRED marks Basement's return to Run For Cover Records following the release of their 2018 album Beside Myself on a major label, and a resulting hiatus as they looked to recalibrate their creative interests. Their upcoming fifth record captures their reflection, with "WIRED" and "Broken By Design" arriving as the first glimpses of a work described as their "most decisive artistic statement yet".

Speaking on the title track, vocalist Andrew Fisher explains: “‘WIRED’ is about how sometimes it feels that we are set up to feel and behave in certain ways beyond our control. That no matter how hard you try to hide it, eventually it will come out - either by choice or by force. This song was almost lost - a few of us were into it, but it sort of lost traction for a bit. Then one day it cropped back up and we put it at the forefront of our minds and it ended up being one of my favourite songs to perform and record.”

Discussing "Broken By Design", he continues: “‘Broken By Design’ is about giving something your absolute best and realising it’s destined to fail. Getting to the other side of the situation, looking back and deciding to do everything differently and feeling grateful for the opportunity to grow. We’ve all done a lot of work on getting better at talking to each other as friends and as band mates. Sometimes that's an easy distinction - or rather, not a distinction at all. Other times, the lines are blurred and we lose track of who we are and why we do this. When I’m singing, ‘let’s go back to the start’ I mean to when we did this purely for fun. For an excuse to see each other, to travel, to be creative, to express ourselves through music. We all feel so lucky to be in a position to still get to do this and this album and this song in particular, is us trying to go back to how it should be.”

The twelve songs on WIRED were written over a period of years before they hit the studio, enlisting the help of producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Mannequin Pussy) to bring them to final form. Discussing the sound of the album, which is noted as "a bold swing that people will either love or hate", guitarist Henery notes: "I never thought Basement could sound like this. But in my head, it's what I've always wanted Basement to sound like."

WIRED artwork

WIRED tracklist

"Time Waster"
"WIRED"
"Deadweight"
"Broken By Design"
"Pick Up The Pieces"
"Embrace"
"Sever"
"The Way I Feel"
"Satisfy"
"Head Alight"
"Longshot"
"Summer’s End"