JAMIE LENMAN - New Single 'Crazy Horse'

Revered alt-rock songwriter Jamie Lenman has just revealed a special animated video for his new single ‘Crazy Horse’, which is released on 29th March 2023.

The track is the latest to be taken from his forthcoming new EP, Iknowyouknowiknow, a surprise new collection of material set for release on 5th May 2023 via Big Scary Monsters.

The EP serves as a companion release to his latest album The Atheist and is designed to fit inside the same album sleeve.

Commenting on the track, Lenman says: "’Crazy Horse’ is one of those songs that didn't really sound like me—in fact it sounds a lot more like my buddy Frank Turner—but then this whole project is about songs that don't really sound like me, so perhaps ‘Crazy Horse’ is the best example of that."

"A lot of my songs are about death and how small we all are in the big scheme of things, but I don't think I've ever managed to make that concept sound happier than I have on ‘Crazy Horse’, and for me that's a big achievement. The whole point of The Atheist and now this EP is about accepting that your life is finite, that there probably isn't anything afterwards, and accepting that fact in a positive light. So that's what ‘Crazy Horse’ is: they're gonna keep carving that statue after you're gone, and it's going to be beautiful."

The single comes with a gorgeous animated video by the multidisciplinary artist himself, which utilises New York Times illustrator Michael Parkin’s beautiful album and EP artwork.

"I had a whole shoot planned where we were going to go up to a mountain and film with a drone and I was going to sculpt my own version of the statue,” explains Lenman, “but it just kept getting more and more complex, and on the other hand I was secretly bummed out that I hadn't done any animation work in a while, which I really enjoy. So in a lightning-rod moment, I realised that if I sacked off the film shoot and made an animated video myself, that would solve both problems. I'd had it in the back of my mind ever since I saw Parkin's lovely illustrations that I'd like to make them all move somehow, but I forgot about it when everything got going, so revisiting that idea was a total joy."

Hot on the heels of his acclaimed fifth album The Atheist released in late 2022, the new track follows on from the EP’s lead single ‘Words of Love’ which was released earlier this year.

With tracks variously produced and mixed by Mark Roberts at The Old Chapel in Chichester, Chris Coulter at Decimal Studios, and Jamie Lenman at home, Iknowyouknowiknow was mastered by Tom Langrish at E1 Mastering.

“These six songs (and the acoustic mix of one of the album tracks) are a funny little gang,” explains Lenman of the new release. “They're all the odd ones out. ‘Crazy Horse’ and ‘The Last Supper’ were recorded just after Shuffle, when I was casting around trying to find a new sound...then King of Clubs and the pandemic sort of got in the way, but once that was over I went in and did ‘Words of Love’. That was when it really came together, so we went in and did the rest - ‘I Done Things I Ain't Proud Of’ came about during the album sessions proper, and any one of those four could have gone on the main record.”

“We made the acoustic version of ‘This Town Will Never Let Us Go’ during the mixing stages, purely because there were a lot of textures (accordion, guitar solo) that were scrubbed from the original version that I wanted to hear in a softer setting, and I thought it would be nice to put it on the end of the EP as a little connective tissue to join it to the LP. Then finally, ‘Run Right Home’ is a track I wrote for a local arts project right after all the other work was finished, but it's so much of a piece with the others that I thought it belonged with them. So maybe the EP is a little less cohesive than the album, but I think it has its own identity, and I think it functions as a worthy companion in terms of style and certainly content. I love it!"

Iknowyouknowiknow EP tracklist:

1. Words Of Love
2. Crazy Horse
3. Run Right Home
4. The Last Supper
5. I Done Things I Ain't Proud Of
6. This Town Will Never Let Us Go (Acoustic Mix)

Fans will also be able to catch the new material in a live setting on Lenman’s recently-announced Spring 2023 UK headline tour dates and festival appearances (see below for listings).

New EP Iknowyouknowiknow is released 5th May 2023 via Big Scary Monsters