The Lunar Year – UK-based vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Connor Ball [The Vamps] and Croatian drummer Sasa Macek [Cheat Codes] – are back in business on their new single “Hey! Wait!” – listen here.
“Hey! Wait!” was written in Los Angeles with blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and GRAMMY®-nominated producer Matt Malpass [blink-182, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Nas X]. High energy from the start, Connor’s introspective opening declaration sets the tone for “Hey! Wait!” as a distorted melody overlays accompanying riffs and heart-beat-like hip-hop percussion, making way for an incredible chorus and subsequent twists and turns. The new single arrives with visuals from The Lunar Year’s UK headline tour last year.
“Hey! Wait! reflects on my time being on tour over the last ten years. I wanted to create a song to remind myself to always be present in whatever I’m doing whether it be playing shows or with family and friends.” Connor explains. “I came to a point in my life – I think over lockdown – where I realised that some of the best times of my life had just passed me by in a heartbeat and I wish I’d taken a second to take it all in.”
“We wrote the song in LA with Mark Hoppus which was a dream come true. Blink inspired me so much while I was growing up, and to be able to sit in a room and create something so personal with Mark was amazing. He’s one of the nicest and most talented guys I’ve ever met. With everything he’s been through in his life,I feel like he could relate in ways that other people that I’ve written with couldn’. Bring the song to life in the studio was a real special moment.”
The Lunar Year’s self-titled debut EP was produced by GRAMMY®-nominated Matt Malpass and released via M3 Recordings – a collaboration between Matt Pinfield, Matt Malpass and Matt Holmes – in May 2022. Featuring their breakout single “Back For More” and successive tracks “Medicine”, “Boys Will Cry” and “When The Sun Fades”, The Lunar Year caught the attention of Kerrang!, Upset, Rock Sound, Daily Star and United By Pop – to name a few.
“Back For More” struck an impressive balance at radio achieving plays on BBC Radio 1’s Best New Pop and The Rock Show with Daniel P Carter as well as plays on Kerrang! radio, and “Boys Will Cry” peaked at #1 on iTunes Top 40 UK Rock Chart and #22 on iTunes Top 40 UK Chart upon release. A refreshing change of pace for both Ball and Macek, The Lunar Year EP leant into the new era of pop-punk, exploring new sounds while igniting a one-two punch of chantable choruses and airtight instrumentation, and brought themes of vulnerability, coming-of-age and the deterioration of relationships together in a future-forward package.
In 2020, Sasa Macek stumbled upon Connor Ball’s pop punk covers on YouTube. After shooting Connor a direct message, the pair began chatting via phone, Facetime, and Zoom. Up until this point, Connor co-founded award-winning platinum pop phenomenon The Vamps, toppled charts, and toured worldwide. Meanwhile, Sasa grew up in a family of eleven drummers and holds down the drums for multi-platinum hitmakers Cheat Codes. “At first, I didn’t think he’d respond because he has so many followers,” laughs Sasa. Together, they cooked up a cover of Machine Gun Kelly’s “forget me too” [feat. Halsey] and kickstarted an unbreakable creative partnership that exploded once Connor made the trek to Croatia in the summer of 2021. A year later, The Lunar Year was a fully-fledged reality with the duo releasing their debut EP and embarking on their first UK headline tour.
2023 will see The Lunar Year at their highest peak yet.
