bdrmm announce third studio album, Microtonic

"The themes surrounding John on the Ceiling are that of confusion and doubt. When something ends and another starts, you lure yourself into a false sense of security that the mistakes made won’t happen again. This happens over and over until you are paralysed in limbo. Can people ever truly change?" says vocalist and guitarist Ryan Smith.

The forthcoming album, Microtonic, recorded with long-term band collaborator Alex Greaves and featuring guest appearances from Sydney Minsky Sargeant of Working Men's Club and Olivesque of Nightbus, is unquestionably a bold leap for the group, who have embraced a fuller spectrum of tones and atmospheres. “I felt very constrained writing a certain type of music to fit the genre [we were known for] but something lifted and I felt more free to create what I want,” Smith continues. “And what I seem to be doing at the moment is a lot of electronic music – taking influence from different spans of electronica, from dance music to ambient and more experimental sources.”

The first single "John on the Ceiling" is a song the band had the foundations for early in their career but one that represented a direction they maybe didn’t possess the full confidence or know how to follow at the time. The completion of the single was to lay the groundwork for how they approached the rest of Microtonic, and set the precedent for their third record as whole.

Being asked to support Daniel Avery, along with a trip to Field Day for a group rave, were both instrumental moments in the band deciding to incorporate more dance music elements into a sound that had already been moving steadily towards across recent releases.

The band have also announced a 2025 tour in support of the album, with dates in Newcastle, Leeds, Glasgow, Nottingham, London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, and more.