Junk Drawer are a Northern Irish quartet that have already earned themselves touring slots with the likes of Mclusky and Built To Spill, as well as a Northern Ireland Music Award for best single – and this is before they’ve put out their debut album. They’re only a few weeks away from it though, with Ready For The House set for release on April 24, and today have shared the perfect tone setter in the form of the album’s opening track “What I’ve Learned / What I’m Learning”.
Stevie Lennox discusses the inspiration for “What I’ve Learned / What I’m Learning”:
“The title comes from the Dunning-Kruger Effect – basically the less you know, the more you think you know, while the more you know, the less you think you know.’ It was the first time I wrote with a real purity of intent, allowing myself to let go of the irony, obfuscation and self-awareness that I felt obscured some of my previous writing, because of my complete loathing of heart-on-sleeve earnestness & sincerity. I was suffering from a lot of communication problems, epilepsy and brain fog, and I didn’t realise it until afterwards but it was an expulsion – as much of the album is.”
As suggested by the title, “What I’ve Learned / What I’m Learning” unfolds in two sections; the first a fuzzed-out lurch through waking dreams and weighty worries. Just as the blissfully heavy coma seems set to overtake the song, Junk Drawer kick it into another gear and send us haring off into an electrified and tense version of paranoia, spiralling into a frantic guitar finale.
Junk Drawer’s debut album Ready For The House is out April 24 via Art For Blind. Make sure to follow them on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Bandcamp.
