Irish purveyors of hook-heavy indie-rock scorchers The Academic are excited to share the Community Spirit EP, featuring the new single “Not Your Summer” out now via Capitol Records. Listen to the full EP HERE.
“Not Your Summer” opens Community Spirit, and debuted on Thursday with a global first live animation event using Google Slides, created in collaboration with BDDO New York and Open the Portal. Fans were able to watch live as a team of animators put together the video in real time. Click HERE for more information on the Google Slides collaboration. It’s a fizzing, frenetic tune, with Craig Fitzgerald’s vocals floating effortlessly over a bed of breezy guitar chords. The circumstances in which the song is being released only adds pertinence to this wistful ode to what would usually be such a celebratory season. “Maybe it’s not your summer // Maybe it’s not your year,” resolves the song’s chorus hook, delivered in a cool falsetto which brings to mind The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas.
Although “Not Your Summer” wasn’t written directly about lockdown, the anxiety induced by the pandemic has undeniably left its mark on the single. Frontman Craig explains: “Enjoying your own company can be a great thing, but it can also take its toll and that’s how I was feeling at the time, needing time away from myself.”
Community Spirit sees the Mullinger four-piece honing their knack for epitomizing the excitement and apprehension that one meets at the intersect between youth and adulthood, without a hint of cynicism or pretense. These are sky-scraping, heart-on-the sleeve anthems, accented with guitar hooks which immediately take up residency in the head of anyone who listens.
“Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)“- the only cut from Community Spirit to have been shared thus far – marked an unflinching return from The Academic. Written by Craig as a teenager, the song documents his fears of never leaving his hometown or amounting to anything. “I started looking through all my old notebooks and found this song fully written,” he says, retrospectively. “I had a gut feeling that it might come to life now with a few more years of living behind me since it was originally written.”
Having collaborated with Kaiser Chief’s Nick Hodgson on last year’s Acting My Age EP, this new collection of tracks will mark The Academic stepping into the producer’s role, unquestionably developing as musicians with each thumping release that passes.
Despite their young years, Craig, Dean, Matthew and Stephen have already acquired a following and a CV that many bands would relish from a lifetime of work. Support slots with Pixies, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and The Rolling Stones (upon Sir Jagger’s personal request), as well as a debut album that reached #1 chart in the Irish charts, firmly cements The Academic in an enviable position amongst their peers in the category of UK and Irish bands on the path to global superstardom.
