Galen & Paul Make Room At The Top

Everything is quickly coming together for Galen & Paul, a new project from Galen Ayers, the singer-songwriter whose artistic projects include the rightly acclaimed solo album Monument, and Paul Simonon, bassist with The Clash, Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad And The Queen.

Paul and Galen (Tom Oldham)

Following the release of their first track Lonely Town and news of the 19th May release of their debut album Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?, Galen & Paul share a brand new song from the album in the shape of Room At The Top. The tune is accompanied by an official video, which was filmed in London and directed and edited by Ayers with Dan Donovan. Watch it below:

Featuring an evocative Farfisa played by Dan Donovan (Big Audio Dynamite), the instantly memorable Room At The Top finds the duo painting a picture of an unappealing – yet somehow also strangely alluring – hotel room: the lyric “The hand of Chopin plays a melody” being its most revealing clue. The music is just as engagingly off-kilter: Latin-tinged rock with a folky edge and a haunting gothic ambience.

Galen & Paul have also announced details of a series of 7” vinyl singles which will each be available in limited edition pressings of just 500 copies. Set to become instant collectors’ items, their first two singles, Lonely Town and Room At The Top, are now available to pre-order exclusively from their official website ahead of their release on 19th May. Details of two further singles will be announced soon. All four singles will feature their instrumental version on the b-side. A special bundle compiling all four singles is also available.

Paul Simonon and Galen Ayers (Dan Donovan)

As with the rest of the parent album, Room At The Top was produced by the legendary Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T-Rex, Sparks) with a band that also features Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good, The Bad and The Queen) and Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear, David Byrne, Patti Smith). Elsewhere, the album journeys across the continent, taking in French chansons, Spanish pop and English sea shanties; evoking scenes stretching from Edgware Road to Hydra Island; and painting pictures of everything from chic Parisian cafes to drunk tourists in Magaluf.

Last week, Galen & Paul announced details of their first shows together at London’s Tabernacle (7th June) and La Maroquinerie in Paris (11th June). Any remaining tickets are available here for London and here for Paris.

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