Lead vocalist Jonathan Higgs takes a break from finalising their latest video (“It’s all one shot, so there isn’t much to do!”) to discuss the forthcoming record. “It’s got a fairly simple concept; it’s about a fictional world wherein all of society is consumed with the building of a giant mountain,” he explains. “The only problem is they have to dig a big hole in order to build it, and they have to live in the hole. I wanted something monolithic and simple to hang the album around, an easy but strong metaphor that can be applied to a number of things.”
A potent metaphor, while the narrative presents a dystopian universe, the album is not without its lighter moments. As Jonathan puts it, “It’s not as anxious as some of our earlier albums. Yes, I worry about the future and also the present, but I don’t think I’m alone in that. ‘Mountainhead’ has quite a few moments of revelry and fun, somewhat divorced from reality, perhaps. I never want to make a record that’s one tone, and my life has been fun and happy recently, so there is less negativity coming out of me in the music. I’d say a lot of our records are more like warnings than despair.”
Their lead single, ‘Cold Reactor’, serves as a doorway into this alternate universe, exploring the human cost and the complexities of digital communication. “Isolation and communicating through symbols and screens is talked about a lot,” Higgs notes. A portrayal of the modern digital age, where a performative projection of emotion replaces genuine human interaction, it turns out the subject matter is quite literal. “The term “cold reactor” is how I’m describing a user of social media or digital communication rather than a nuclear power station. One who types a crying laughing emoji but does not laugh.”
