Stockholm trio, Normandie, have today announced their new studio album, “Dopamine”, for a February 9th, 2024, release on Easy Life Records.
To mark the announcement, the band have released a brand new single, “Flowers for the Grave”, in-keeping with the band’s “Dopamine Clinic”, which sees new songs prescribed on the first of every month leading up to album release.
Speaking of “Flowers for the Grave”, frontman Philip Strand says: “‘Flowers for the Grave’ is a song about not saving the best for last. Live your life on the daily and appreciate things taking their time! We’re taught to chase our dreams, but chasing something in the future means you might miss the moment”.
Set in a not-too-distant and – crucially – not-at-all-unrealistic future, Normandie’s fourth studio album, “Dopamine”, finds the band asking two unsettling questions: what if we pushed our brains and bodies far beyond their limits?
And what if we already are?
On their follow-up to 2021’s “Dark & Beautiful Secrets”, Philip, Håkan (Almbladh – guitar) and Anton (Franzon – drums) tackle the overstimulation of modern life head-on, and answer some hefty questions with some even bigger songs to produce a devastating, clinical example of everything a modern rock band should be.
“The whole album is about the chase for different highs and natural chemicals: oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, adrenaline…”, starts Philip. “What if dopamine had to be clinically provided because we’ve burned through our receptors”?
“Making this album futuristic and dystopian came very naturally when we started discussing the current state of the world. We’re all on overdrive. We’re upping the stakes all the time, and everybody has a higher tolerance now for stress in a way that nobody saw coming”, he explains.
“Back in the old days you were sowing potatoes and that was your one goal for the day – we were hunter-gatherers and we were just there to provide for our families. Today, we have so many things going on. We should strive for greatness, follow our dreams… but we also need to live”.
“Dopamine” chronicles a different type of disorder to the band’s previous album, which took a deep, dark dive into Philip’ religious upbringing and its aftereffects. This time around, the band looked around at their present, and imagined what a fictional, hellish future might look like, rather than dwelling on the past.
In this future, swathes of society have burned out their neurotransmitters and have to take their dopamine in the same way we do today with caffeine, like that hit of morning coffee that makes you feel human again. But this time, dopamine isn’t used as a stimulant. It’s just what we need to take to get through the day.
What makes “Dopamine” feel even more vital is that it’s a futuristic, dynamic rock album that even with everything *gestures wildly* happening within, is clearly made by actual people, with all of their humanity and contradictions laid bare.
Welcome to the Dopamine Clinic.
Pre-order & pre-save “Dopamine” here.
Tracklist:
1. Overdrive
2. Serotonin
3. Flowers for the Grave
4. Blood in the Water
5. Ritual
6. Butterflies
7. Colorblind
8. Hourglass (feat. Dani Winter-Bates)
9. Sorry
10. All in My Head
11. Blue
Also announced today is the band’s Dopamine headline tour of Europe, including two UK dates in Manchester and London next March. Fans who pre-order the album this weekend can gain early access to tickets, ahead of their general on-sale on Wednesday morning.
European Tour Dates 2023:
Feb 10: PARIS La Maroquinerie
Feb 11: FRANKFURT Batschkapp
Feb 13: COLOGNE Die Kantine
Feb 14: HAARLEM Patronaat
Feb 15: HAMBURG Uebel & Gefährlich
Feb 16: COPENHAGEN Pumpehuset
March 13: MANCHESTER Academy 2
March 14: LONDON Electric Ballroom
March 16: MUNICH Technikum
March 17: VIENNA Flex Café
March 18: BUDAPEST Durer Kert
March 20: PRAGUE Meetfactory
March 21: BERLIN Hole44
March 22: WARSAW Proxima
Weblinks:
www.normandieofficial.com
www.facebook.com/normandieofficial
