LOSER Break The Mould With New EP: 'We Didn’t Wait For Someone Else To Give It To Us’

Writing and recording this EP was unlike any other experience we’ve ever had, not only as a band but as people. It was disjointed, it was exhausting – but it was also exhilarating and fulfilling.

Just before we began recording, two members of the band left. So with a bunch of tours coming up and an EP to record, all of a sudden it was just myself (Craig) and Tim (Guitar/Vocals) left by ourselves to either quit or try and pick up the pieces and just keep going. We chose the latter.

With no idea how we were going to pull it off, we retired to our own backyard studio Restless Noise and just went to work recording and producing the entire thing ourselves, with Tim also mixing it. 

Somehow within the chaos of change, Tim and I found ourselves feeling more resolute than ever before, and the ideas started flowing for unique ways that we could present this music. The whole idea with this EP was to switch up how we've released music in the past.

We've always been a traditional album band, but this new EP felt like a fresh direction for us musically, so we thought it could be fun to try something a little different in the way we presented it. It's not a collection of singles, it's more like a Netflix tv series, where the entire body of work is designed to flow as a whole but is presented piece by piece.

We wanted it to reflect the changes we’d gone through, and releasing this music in a traditional format didn’t seem to feel right. So what we came up with was:

• The entire EP was to be announced all at once, with all songs visible on DSPs but greyed out. 
• Each song will then become available on a predetermined date which will also be shared on announcement day. 
• The announcement day assets will look like a tour poster but instead of venues, they will have the song names and release dates.
• Each song has its own individual front cover taken from the main EP artwork, but these are for socials only.

LOSER EP track covers

• Each song was released 6 weeks apart:

1. Heaven Can Wait (Oct 21)
2. Hold On You (Dec 2)
3. Only One (Jan 13)
4. The More I Know (Feb 24)
5. Sunday (Apr 7)
6. Starting Over (May 19)

• Each song release was accompanied by a limited-edition merch drop:

Heaven Can Wait – Tee Shirt

The More I Know - Socks

Only One - Cap

Hold On You – Longsleeve Tee

Sunday – Baseball Tee

Starting Over – Hoodie

• Everyone who purchases one of these merch items gets a Loser ‘Admit None’ Tour Lanyard for free.
• One randomly distributed tour lanyard will be gold and read ‘Admit Two’ - the owner of this lanyard will receive 2 x Free Tickets to any Loser headline show forever.
   
  LOSER lanyards
• There will be no physical release of this music, other than 10 x Clear Vinyl that will be signed by the band. Never to be repressed.
   LOSER vinyl
• The only way to get one of the 10 vinyl records is to buy a ticket to the Stadium Dreams Tour. Everyone who purchases a ticket will automatically go in the draw to win one of the 10 vinyl albums. The tour will only be 10 dates long and one winner will be announced and presented with their vinyl live on stage at each show. You must be present at the event to win the vinyl. At the time of writing, we’ve done 6 of these shows already, with 4 more to be announced!
• If in future there is enough demand for a physical release, the tracklisting for the physical will include 2 x different songs to the original release. These two extra songs will never go on DSPs and will only be available on this updated physical release.
• Each release was also accompanied by a live video performance of the song with the audio from a live take and not the officially released audio. This was to hopefully give people a reason to watch the video as it offered something new to the officially release audio.
• People who pre-saved the EP were able to access these videos in advance of their official release.
• We also had a calendar invite link live on our website which automatically populated your phone’s calendar with all the release dates and links when clicked and accepted. So on each release day, you would receive a calendar notification with links included.

The idea was to create excitement around each song’s release and also give something back to people who were interested in following along. 

In terms of its success, it’s really hard to gauge from within it. Did we blow up the charts? No. Did we sell out every show? No. Did we have the media in a frenzy trying to talk about our rollout plan? No. But, we became better musicians, better songwriters, better performers, developed a greater connection with our fan base, and, we became a lot more grateful for what we achieved because we did it our own way and didn’t wait for someone else to give it to us.

Looking back It was an extremely rewarding experience that we learnt a lot from. Not just about how to roll something out, but we also learnt a lot about ourselves as people. We were also extremely grateful to be working with a label as amazing as Domestic La La, who not only backed our plan but gave us the freedom, confidence and support to pull it off.

We know that one day we wanna be playing the biggest stages, but right now we’re a band recording it by themselves in their backyard studio and putting in the hard yards as an opener on tours. There’s freedom in acknowledging where you’re at and just letting it be exactly as it is. That freedom is what continues to drive us to be the best band and the best people we can be. Hope you enjoy the EP, see you on the road!

Stadium Dreams On A Bedroom Budget is out now. You can listen to it here.