Tired Lion welcome a new era with new single, With or Without

Last year was a big one for Perth locals breaking into the mainstream, whether it was Stella Donnelly giving us powerful messages on rape culture and victim blaming above delicate moments of acoustic brilliance, or acts like Tired Lion, who with their debut album Dumb Days, followed up a huge 2016 with an even bigger 2017 that saw the grunge-esque lords firmly mark their place on the national music map. The time post-Dumb Days has been marked with turbulence and change for Tired Lion, notably the departure of guitarist/songwriter/founding member Matt Tanner, which as frontwoman Sophie Hopes explains, really threw a spanner in the works. "My state of mind took a little bit of a weird turn. For a while I thought about quitting the band, I thought about starting a new band, and I thought about moving to my hometown, Mildura, to work at a gem store called Woodsies, which I loved as a kid," she says. "In the end, I decided I’d keep Tired Lion alive with the dudes."

With or Without, Tired Lion's first single since Dumb Days and a charging return to glory that makes us wish they never left, is essentially the band reflecting on life following this turbulent twelve months, and it sees them come out on top. It features Hopes in the front-and-centre, her bright hooks shining above a driving, guitar-backed instrumental that packs the thick, 90s grunge-esque punch of their past work with the sleek polished feeling that feels like a new era, something we're totally about. "I suppose the song is essentially about moving on. It’s a juxtaposition of two feelings, being totally confident and extremely vulnerable at the same time. Thinking, ‘fuck yeah I’ve got this,’ one moment and then, ‘oh hang on, I might need some help with this,’ the next."

The single was produced by Violent Soho frontman Luke Boerdam, who as Hopes explains to triple j, is a bit of a freak when it comes to his music-making expertise. "He just gets me, and I don't need to beat around the bush. I just say exactly what I wanna do and he's like 'yep, I know how to make it sound like this'," she says. Catch them at Falls Festival 2018/2019 – more details, tickets and the full line-up HERE.

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