After spending more than a decade immersed in Bristol’s vibrant and diverse music scene, multi-instrumentalist Tim Burden is stepping into the spotlight with his ambitious solo project, Late Stay Ultra Girls. The latest offering from the project, ‘Chasing Rats, Polly’, is a captivating new single that captures the unique dancefloor swagger-meets-creeping paranoia aesthetic rapidly becoming the project’s signature.
Known throughout Bristol for his contributions to a wide range of musical ventures—from the alt-rock energy of The Hideaways and the country-tinged songwriting of Billy Driscoll and Taynee Lord to the flamboyant theatricality of Doreen Doreen-Burden now leaves the comfort of collaboration behind to embrace a more personal, unpredictable creative vision.
Under the Late Stay Ultra Girls banner, Burden crafts a sound that is intentionally unstable yet irresistibly compelling. His distinctive take on swung art-rock combines barrel-house piano, motorik synth-noir textures, and expansive post-rock noise into something that feels both familiar and thrillingly off-kilter.
On ‘Chasing Rats, Polly’, Burden explores the uneasy territory between confidence and self-delusion. The track examines shallow bravado and the lengths people will go to bend reality in pursuit of admiration, acceptance, and validation. It’s a sharp reflection on self-image, performance, and the consequences of presenting a version of yourself that isn’t entirely authentic.
Recorded alongside acclaimed producer Stew Jackson (Massive Attack), the single unfolds with a striking sense of drama. What begins as a tightly wound blend of dance-driven indie and post-punk momentum gradually mutates into something far darker and more expansive. Midway through, the song shifts into a brooding bridge before opening into a sweeping, 70s rock-inspired crescendo of soaring guitars and haunting vocal layers. The transformation gives the track a compelling emotional arc, evolving from swaggering confidence into something cathartic, introspective, and deeply unsettling.
The result is a track that feels messy, inventive, and sonically absorbing in equal measure.
Speaking about the song, Burden explains:
“I’m absolutely in love with Talking Heads and David Byrne. I think this tune is me trying to write two thirds of a Talking Heads tune but with an Elton John outro. It’s disco infused post punk vibes for two and a half minutes before it shifts into Goodbye Yellow Brick Road-esque bombast and psychedelia for the outro. I played it to my best mate and he said, ‘fair play, sounds like you’re writing a musical’. I was thrilled with that.
The line ‘I’ve been chasing rats round, Polly’ popped into my head outside Costa at Strensham services. It was pretty disembodied, but I really loved the cadence of that line and immediately wanted to write the rest of this nonsensical speech to this imagined Polly figure. I don’t know who Polly is. She could be a friend, a partner, some poor girl getting her ear chewed off in a bar. Pick your Polly I suppose.”
‘Chasing Rats, Polly’ arrives as the second instalment in a planned run of singles from Late Stay Ultra Girls throughout 2026. Following early support from publications including Atwood Magazine, It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine and Notion, alongside significant airplay from Amazing Radio UK and US, the project continues to build momentum with each release.
With its fearless blend of danceable rhythms, theatrical songwriting, and psychological unease, ‘Chasing Rats, Polly’ further demonstrates the creative potential of Late Stay Ultra Girls, and suggests that Burden’s most compelling work may still be ahead of him.
