Xtra Mile Recordings has signed four-piece GUISE and will release their new EP ‘The Fun Part’ on 6 March 2020. Preorder the EP here.
The announcement arrives with the unwrapping of the record’s title track which you can watch the official video for below.
Recording and performing as a folk-pop quartet, GUISE is also very much the voice and heart of: Jessica Guise. Writing and playing songs live since her teens, Jessica has honed her craft as an artist who sings with delicacy, whilst imparting vicious asides when you least suspect.
Vocal flutters conceal stinging ripostes, with hers a style that is by turns sweet and haunting. And there is no better example than the bittersweet brilliance of her latest single, ‘The Fun Part’. GUISE’s first official outing under the moniker since 2015’s self-released ‘The Boy and the Thief’ EP, Jess returns with a song that will surely strike a chord with anyone feeling blue in the lead-up to another Valentine’s Day.
“They call this the fun part, but it’s the absolute worst. My phone’s deadly silent, this is why I should never, must never ever call first,” she sings, all sweetness in voice, acerbic in her assessment of dating. Possessing a remarkable folk lilt that nods to her influences including Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks and Dar Williams, ‘The Fun Part’ finds Jessica casting off the demons of the dating-game with sardonic quip and empowering self-deprecation. The track is one of four to feature on her upcoming EP of the same title. “The songs on this EP span about ten years of my life between them,” says Jessica. “Most of them are about erstwhile heartbreaks.
‘The Fun Part’ is a song about how quite often there wasn’t a fun part of dating.” Recorded between sessions at Reservoir Studios North London in November 2018 and finished during gaps in the band’s various schedules throughout 2019, ‘The Fun Part’ EP was produced by Jessica’s husband, Frank Turner.
The EP finds the singer joining the dots on a decade of life-changing events, from songs reflecting on loved-ones lost and the importance of family, to more earnest expressions on romantic entanglements gone awry, showcasing confessional folk-pop songs laden with Jessica’s tongue-in-cheek humour, wry intelligence and shot through with the honest confidence of life lessons learned the hard way.
Jessica is accompanied on the EP by her talented and faithful band, bassist Titas Halder, co-vocalist Laura Hanna, and drummer Keith Barry.
With the EP release just a few weeks away, Jessica will be airing tracks from it and more as she supports Frank Turner at a series of UK shows scheduled throughout March. Full dates and details below.
UK TOUR SUPPORTING FRANK TURNER
MARCH 2020
03 Folkstone @ Lea Cliffs Hall
04 Brighton @ Dome
06 Croydon @ The Recreational, Fairfield Hall SOLD OUT
07 Boston @ Gliderdrome
08 York @ The Barbican
10 Middlesbrough @ The Empire
11 Glasgow @ Barrowlands
13 Bath @ The Forum SOLD OUT
14 Aylesbury @ Waterside Theatre
15 Southend @ Cliffs Pavilion
16 Norwich @ Waterfront SOLD OUT
18 Winchester @ Guildhall SOLD OUT
19 Exeter @ Lemongrove SOLD OUT
20 Liverpool @ Olympia SOLD OUT
21 Nottingham @ Rock City SOLD OUT