Piroshka Announce New Album

Piroshka’s stunning second album Love Drips And Gathers, which builds on the acclaim of their 2018 album debut Brickbat and the reputations of former members of Lush, Moose, Elastica and Modern English, is set for release on Bella Union Records on July 23, 2021 (pre-order here). 

 Piroshka emerged in 2018, four individuals with distinct musical identities but also overlapping histories - a combination that might have unsettled, or even overwhelmed, some bands. But in their case, the bond only got stronger.

 After Brickbat explored social and political divisions by way of what MOJO described as “Forceful, driving garage songs and dream-pop epics”, Love Drips And Gathers follows a more introspective line - the ties that bind us, as lovers, parents, children, friends – to a suitably subtler, more ethereal sound, whilst still revelling in energy and drama.

 “If Brickbat was our Britpop album, then Love Drips And Gathers is shoegaze!” reckons vocalist/guitarist Miki Berenyi, formerly of Lush, a band that effortlessly bridged the two genres like no other. “It wasn’t intentional; we just wanted a different focus. I’ve always seen debut albums as capturing a band’s first moments, when you really have momentum, and then the second album is the chance for a more thoughtful approach.”

Bassist Mick Conroy (Modern English) agrees. “Brickbat was a classic first album, noisy and raucous. On Love Drips And Gathers, we’ve calmed down and explored sounds, and space.”

To recap; before Miki and KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop were a couple (and parents), they were beloved figures on the London-centric nineties indie scene. Likewise, Elastica, whose drummer Justin Welch was part of Lush’s 2017 reunion, whilst Mick had played for both Moose and – on their last ever gig - Lush. 

As Lush Mark II came to an end, Justin persuaded Miki (who’d abandoned music when Lush first split in 1997) to start another band, Piroshka (named after Hungary’s own Little Red Riding Hood), which in turn reignited Moose’s own long-dormant ambitions. Whilst Justin and Miki were the dominant influence on Brickbat, this time Moose and Mick were given the reins, with invaluable assistance from Bella Union’s in-house engineer Iggy.

“With Brickbat,” Moose recalls, “we got the songs down but we didn’t have enough time to work on sounds as much I’d have liked. This time, we made time to refine things, the stuff that makes the songs for me.”

“Moose found his mojo again,” says Justin. “He was full of ideas. But I think everyone in the band has matured as writers, and in using technology. It’s a better record than our first.”

The way Love Drips And Gathers changes shape and dynamic is less a reprise of nineties Brit indie than a transformation into a more shivery, Euro-mantic version with glistening electronic filigrees. The opening ‘Hastings’ sets the tone. Luminous guitar underpins Miki’s becalmed vocal before drums, bass and a Mellotron add pace until the efflorescent coda features their old pal Terry Edwards on flugelhorn. 

Framed by Mellotron, cello and piano. ‘The Knife-Thrower’s Daughter’ emphatically proves Piroshka can be restrained without losing any essence of drama: the calm before the euphoria pure-pop storm of ‘Scratching At The Lid’. The words ‘ethereal’ and ‘shimmering’ were surely invented for the likes of ‘Loveable, but the uncanny DNA of ‘V.O.’ is less categorisable – a Bond theme in the making with electro-gliding beats, perhaps? ‘Wanderlust’ and ‘Echoloco’ might be described as Francophile cousins of Lush before the haunting lullaby of ‘Familiar’ segues into the pulsing, rippling instrumental finale ‘We Told You’ - more eighties synth drama than nineties indie, with vocal samples played on what Moose calls, “the Miki-tron.” 

‘We Told You’ originally had a proper Miki vocal and lyric, as played on a handful of UK and European shows following the release of Brickbat. “Let me tell you,” says Miki, “humping your own gear on and off stage at our age isn’t fun! But we had a great time, and it built up the camaraderie.”

“Our friendships are deeper now,” says Mick. “And Miki and Moose are more comfortable writing about personal stuff.” Other changes in Piroshka-world, given they’re no longer whippersnappers, was the reading material in the tour van: “No longer rock biographies about trashing hotel rooms,” says Mick. “Moose was reading a book by the Greek finance minister!”  

Love Drips And Gathers - named after a line in a Dylan Thomas poem - features no Greek (or non-Greek) political tracts, and with one exception, was inspired by love, family, belonging, memory. The lyrics were completed pre-pandemic so the fact they dwell on the important stuff is simply coincidental, and very timely.

Miki and Moose split the eight lyrics, with some poignant overlaps here too. Miki’s ‘Loveable’ looks to Moose; Moose’s ‘The Knife-Thrower’s Daughter’ looks to Miki, but also their daughter Stella and his sister Anna; an empathic, touching embrace of the women in his life. Stella also inspired Moose’s ‘Wanderlust’ (“she’s become a great woman,” he says. “It’s like I’m saying ‘She’s too good for you’!”).

Staying within the family, Moose eulogises his late mother (the idyllic childhood seaside trip of ‘Hastings’) and father (the more conflicted ‘Scratching At The Lid’). On ‘V.O.’, Miki pays fond tribute to Vaughan Oliver, 4AD’s legendary in-house art director who died suddenly in December 2019, and who had a particularly close relationship with Lush during their time on the label (like Brickbat, Love Drips And Gathers’ beautiful and enigmatic artwork is by Vaughan’s former design partner Chris Bigg).

That leaves ‘Familiar’, where Miki confronts menopausal depression (“It’s a lot easier if you don’t think of it as an illness that has to be cured,” she says), whilst ‘Echoloco’ (Spanish for ‘I go crazy’) echoes Brickbat’s outward-looking lyrics with an emotional response to the ‘road rage’ tendencies of social media. “At the same time,” he says, “I love that I can correspond with someone in a place like Oklahoma.”

 Love Drips And Gathers’ nine tracks will each have its own video (all to be made by Connor Kingsley), with a continuing thread that will eventually create one story. Piroshka’s own story is rooted in family – both those you’re born with, and those (friends) you choose. Love drips and gathers, and - vaccines aside - love will save the day.