Holy Popes Share “Pencils” & Announce Debut Self Titled Album

Bristol’s post garage punk trio Holy Popes have announced that their debut self titled album will be released on 27th January 2023 via Man Demolish Records, the three-piece will also be playing a special album release show in Bristol at The Golden Lion on release day in celebration. To round out the news, the band have also revealed a mind-bending video for their new single, Pencils. Another jarring, staccato spear of angry post garage punk from the trio, Pencils is about the complexities of the male experience within relationships, and how patriarchal masculinity won’t allow men to express multi-faceted layers of emotion.

“This repression often leads to toxic behaviours in relationships, and can easily progress into emotional or physical abuse. By rejecting patriarchal masculinity, we can not only help to end misogyny and sexism, but also provide kindness and compassion to ourselves and the men around us. Music is so intertwined with the personal it’s hard not to write about your own life experiences. Love, loss and breakups are such common themes, seemingly without end. So many songs about relationships are written from the male gaze, and if you unpick them ever so slightly, there is a heavy layer of misogyny. Coercion, manipulation and even stalking are painted in a positive light, whilst on the other side, you have blame and self pity. We can all be influenced by popular culture, and the way we, as men, frame relationships and women in general within music, is at the very least, problematic.” (vocalist & guitarist Dominic Knight (The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster))

The track is the second to be taken from the forthcoming self-titled album, following on from their visceral anti-capitalist debut single, DBT, which showcased the band’s twitching, erratic take on post-garage punk for the first time.