Today, LIFE share upcoming single ‘Wild Grasses’.
Taken from their forthcoming new album ABSTRACT / NATURAL, arriving June 19th via EMI North label partner Launchpad+. The release comes with news of additional live dates as the Hull alternative outfit add two performances at Brighton festival The Great Escape to their upcoming shows.
Written in the Lake District, album opener and new single ‘Wild Grasses’ showcases the Hull four piece at their most uplifting. Bursting with energy and radiating joy via its euphoric synth lines, strummed acoustic guitars and rapturous group vocals, the track’s references to geography and landscape reflect the location it was written while also widely echoing the overall sense of adventure omnipresent across the forthcoming album.
‘Wild Grasses’ serves as the latest instalment to be taken from LIFE’s eagerly-awaited fourth album ABSTRACT / NATURAL; arguably the band’s most ambitious and expansive work to date. The album began life not in a rehearsal room, but on the pages of a poetry book Mez had been writing during his many adventures in the outdoors; a collection of musings on landscape, nature, love, acceptance and letting go. Hearing melodies embedded in his words, Mez began presenting fragments to the band as “wonky lullabies”, turning the hills, ridges and landmarks he witnessed into characters: Hen Comb, Pavey Arc, Sergeant Man, The Grey Friar and The Dollywaggon. From there, bandmates Stewart Baxter, Lydia Palmeira and Mick Sanders shaped the music around these narratives, instinctively weaving them into vivid arrangements that collectively present a fully-realised universe.
Speaking on the track, Mez says: “Wild Grasses was the first song the band wrote from the new album. In many ways it laid the foundation for the whole record in terms of what we were aiming for sonically, as well as being a starting point for the storytelling from a lyrical point of view. Thematically there’s definitely a continuation of the ideas running through the first single ‘The Dollywaggon’, the overall theme is about journey, belonging, adventure and acceptance. There are a lot of geographical land references in the song’s lyrics for example fells, dodds, munros and trigs. I think the music itself is pretty joyous and euphoric, like the feeling of being sat around a campfire with like-minded folk. I wrote the lyrics to this song whilst doing a stint in the Lake District.”
Furthermore, LIFEhave unveiled that they will be playing to shows at Brighton’s The Great Escape festival this week. They will be playing on Thursday 14th May, 10:15pm for Northern House showcase at the WaterBear MusicBar on Manchester Street and on Friday 15th May, 9:15pm at Players on Kings Road Arches.
ABSTRACT / NATURAL artwork
Art direction by Hinterland Creative
Emblem: Mick Sanders, Photo: Sophie Lethem, Design: Marianne Bell
‘ABSTRACT / NATURAL’
out 19th June 2026 via EMI North Records label partner Launchpad+
- Wild Grasses
- The Dollywaggon
- Turning In
- Thistles Kiss
- Mermaid Feet
- My Yan
- Drinking Games
- Sun In Nancy
- Buried Giant
- Morning Fog
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Upcoming live dates:
Thursday 14th May – Brighton, The Great Escape
Friday 15th May – Brighton, The Great Escape
Tuesday 23rd June – Brighton, Resident (instore)
Wednesday 24th June – London, Rough Trade East (instore)
Thursday 25th June – Liverpool, Jacaranda (instore)
Friday 26th June – Leeds, Jumbo Records (instore)
Friday 24th-Sunday 26th July – Deer Shed Festival, North Yorkshire
Thursday 1st October – Newcastle, The Grove
Friday 2nd October – Lincoln, Southside
Saturday 3rd October – Hebden Bridge, Trades Club
Tuesday 6th October – London, Moth Club
Wednesday 7th October – Southampton, The Joiners
Thursday 8th October – Bristol, Strange Brew
Friday 9th October – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club