Brisbane’s Nice Biscuit – a firm favourite here at Backseat Mafia – have unveiled their first single since their 2021 double EPs, ‘Create Simulate’ and ‘Passing Over’, and following last year’s cover of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ which was dropped in support of 2023 UK/EU dates that included festival appearances at Wide Awake and The Great Escape.
“Rain’ is propelled by a motorik beat, electronic pops and burbles with scything synths and a jaunty, catchy rhythm. The dual vocals of frontwomen Billie Star and Grace Cuell create a shimmering hue that contrasts the effervescent beats with a serious message. The band says:
We began to work on ‘Rain’ again after a catastrophic flooding event occurred in Meanjin (Brisbane) in 2022, after weeks of constant rain. We felt trapped in this feeling of helplessness. The song then became a reflection of the psychological impacts of climate change, where you are at first wishing for rain and then begging for it to stop. We changed the lyrics to reflect this, alternating between ‘stop the rain’ and ‘please don’t stop the rain’. We live in a system where action to mitigate climate change is ignored – so in this song we imagined a rainbow ‘cracking through the concrete’ to break free from the shackles of the system to bring change and… the rain. It’s a positive take on a situation that can make us feel powerless – to encourage us to keep going and to not lose hope when everything is uncertain.
This is dynamic and brilliant, delivering an insistent, driving forward motion that is threaded by a sense of yearning and a hint of positivity.
The track is accompanied by an amusing video directed by Joshua Tate and edited by Joshua Tate and Cody Wood that sees the band and friends take up the role of scientists urgently trying to find a drop of precious water:
Released via Greenway Records (US) and Bad Vibrations/Fuzz Club (UK), ‘Rain’ is out now and available to download and stream here and through the link below:
Feature Photograph: Analog Hin
