News: Cold Years Release New Single ‘Choke’

Scottish punks Cold Years have released a new single, “Choke.” It’s from their upcoming album, A Different Life. It was produced by Brett Romnes and will be available April 26 via MNRK UK. The album was recorded in New Jersey at The Barber Shop Studios. A Different Life is an album filled with songs that are both intensely personal and universally relatable. This album follows the band’s 2020 politcally-charged look at life album titled Paradise.

Stream “Choke” here.

Vocalist and guitarist, Ross Gordon on A Different Life:

“This is the first time I’ve ever come out of a studio able to listen to the tracks, where, and I say this 100% with conviction, we went in and did everything we wanted to do and more. I’ve never done that. I’ve always come out feeling like we could have done something better or different. But this album changed the game for all of us as a band. We didn’t just do 12 tracks that sound the same. We tried to make things a little different. That happened naturally, and it’s the most musical experience I’ve ever had. I definitely feel a confidence with this record that I didn’t feel on the others.

“All of us were fucked when we went into the studio. We’d come out of a year of touring, a year of writing, a year of working really hard to make it work, financially. We were all broken, but going in there and being in that environment and having good people around us gave us the energy to push through. I look at all my friends who are getting married, settling down, and having kids. I’m not ready for the picket fence just yet. The record’s about challenging normality and making your own future because you want a different life to everyone else. You miss a lot doing this: weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, so it’s this immense personal sacrifice, but it’s absolutely worthwhile.”

The band entered this process with the idea of deliberately making a rock record. It’s something that is getting increasingly rare these days as the genre has been slipping more and more outside of what’s considered mainstream music. This permitted the band to test and explore different waters in terms of genre and the band’s sound. There are faster, more up-tempo songs like “Radio,” “Choke,” and “Youth” that all position Cold Years as a band who are ready to take things to the next level. However, it’s way too easy to imagine those tracks, not to mention the inspiring carpe diem of “Let Go” and “Die Tonight.”