Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has announced details of his debut solo album ‘Radio Songs’ and shared new single ‘Devil’s Island’.

The record, which is released via Cooking Vinyl on January 23, 2023, was produced by Leo Abrahams, who has previously worked with Wild Beasts, Brian Eno, Ghostpoet.

“The idea of Radio Songs is me spinning through the dial,” he said. “It sounds like you’ve got a radio tuned to some static and you spin the dial, and the song pops out of it. And then you spin the dial again, and the song dissolves back into the static.”

He has also shared his soothing new single ‘Devil’s Island’, which you can listen to below, following the album’s first recent taster ‘London Bridge’.

“I grew up in the UK in the 1970s and while there were definitely good points about the decade, I also remember how toxic it could be. The country was deeply divided, and racism and misogyny were the norm. The economy was a basket case, and at one point we had to be bailed out by the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. However, listening to some people, you’d think it was a golden age to which we should yearn to return. This song is a note to self, to remind me how far we’ve come in 40 years,” Rowntree explained.

The full tracklisting for ‘Radio Songs’ is as follows:

‘Devil’s Island’
‘Downtown’
‘London Bridge’
‘1000 Miles’
‘HK’
‘Tape Measure’
‘Machines Like Me’
‘Black Sheep’
‘Volcano’
‘Who’s Asking’

Rowntree started work on solo material around four years ago, penning songs in his home studio for himself between his “day job” hours as a composer. “In my downtime, I started writing songs, meeting up with other people and collaborating with them, coming up with ideas,” he previously told NME. “We did that with Blur and that part of being a musician was something I’d really been missing.

“I was just noodling along, having ideas and things and then of course, lockdown happened. I suddenly found that I had a lot of time on my hands. I was speaking to my producer friend Leo and we were both locked down in our studios, so we decided to work on these songs together.”

The Blur drummer will also perform his first headline show at London’s Omeara on November 2. Tickets are available here.

Fans who also pre-order ‘Radio Songs’ through Rough Trade will be given access to a special release day show at their East London store. You can pre-order it here.