Bathing Suits

Bathing Suits share a re-worked version of their break-out single ‘I Can Be A Freak’, featuring guest vocals from Mandy, Indiana frontperson Valentine Caulfield. Listen here.

The new version pulls Bathing Suits’ already volatile collision of snarling guitars, punishing electronics and club-ready momentum even further into the red. Caulfield’s unmistakable vocal presence adds another layer of tension to the track, bringing together two of the most confrontational and compelling bands currently operating at the intersection of experimental guitar music and the dancefloor.

Speaking on the collaboration, Valentine Caulfield adds: “I discovered Bathing Suits after meeting Freyja at one of our shows earlier this year, and it was love at first listen. Their music is exciting, provocative, danceable, and – something quite rare for a band so young – they know exactly who they are. When they asked me if I would be open to recording a verse for them, the answer was obviously yes. Little do they know that they are the ones who did me a favour: in ten years, when Bathing Suits are filling up arenas around the world, I can say I loved them before it was cool.”

The release arrives during a landmark year for Bathing Suits. Following three performances at The Great Escape, including an appearance on the BBC Radio 6 Music stage, the Leeds four-piece were named winners of the festival’s prestigious Steve Strange Award. Earlier this summer they headlined the Rising Stage of Green Man Festival, where they were picked out as one of the highlights of the weekend.

Their debut EP, ‘KILL BATHING SUITS’, is out now via Underplay Recordings. Across five tracks recorded and produced by Benny Howell, AKA Leeds and Berlin-based DJ and producer DJ Subaru, the band move between the seven-minute noise-trance sprawl of ‘Empathy’, the battering feedback and big-beat propulsion of ‘I Can Be A Freak’, and the four-to-the-floor ferocity of ‘Swan Princess’. In September, Bathing Suits will support Bodega at London’s 100 Club before playing a headline show at Rough Trade East on September 16th. The show will celebrate the limited vinyl release of ‘KILL BATHING SUITS’,

Born out of the DIY party scene in their Leeds hometown, Bathing Suits’ earliest rehearsals took place in the same basements as their homemade club nights: tiny spaces transformed by blaring PAs, rumbling subwoofers and elaborate lighting rigs. That environment remains central to the band’s sound, where live instrumentation is treated with the physicality and intensity of club music.

The band will then take the EP on the road for a run of in-store appearances and shows in Paris, Amiens, Nottingham and their hometown of Leeds. Their relentless live schedule continues into October when they join Man/Woman/Chainsaw on tour across the UK, including a show at London’s Electric Ballroom on October 7th.

Bathing Suits’ reputation has grown rapidly through their feverish live performances and early releases, earning support from BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6 Music, KEXP, Rolling Stone UK, Bandcamp, NME, DIY, So Young, COLD Magazine, Far Out, Louder Than War and more. Earlier this year, vocalist and live drum-machine operator Freyja Blevins was also photographed by Hedi Slimane as part of the celebrated photographer and designer’s ongoing portrait work.

Bathing Suits are the inaugural signing to Underplay Recordings, a new label venture distributed exclusively in partnership with Virgin Music Group.

With the Steve Strange Award secured, their debut vinyl pressing rapidly disappearing and a new chapter already waiting in the wings, Bathing Suits are hurtling towards the end of the year as one of the UK’s most uncompromising and exhilarating new live bands.