London duo TENDER announce that their hotly-anticipated debut album Modern Addiction is out September 1st through Partisan Records. To celebrate they are sharing the video to lead single ‘Nadir’, watch it below.
After the collapse of a long-term romantic relationship, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist James Cullen, found solace in TENDER and created his most personal work. ‘Nadir’ focuses on the damage done to one’s psyche when staying in a relationship way past its healthy conclusion. Directed by Jack A. Bowden, the video for ‘Nadir’ shows the highs and lows of romantic entanglement through dance. Neale spoke more on the inspiration behind the video saying; “Tender wanted to take the direction of a fragmented and collapsing relationship with this one. I decided to touch on the different dynamics which a relationship can hold. Beyond “happiness” and “sadness”, there are times when two people are just on different paths. No matter the effort they put in, something else is putting them off-kilter and out-of-synch. Call it bad timing, differences, whatever. People also become desensitized to one another, almost reaching slumber, unaware and oblivious to the other’s feelings. The energy of ‘Nadir’ screams dance to me, so I thought it would be interesting to express these dynamics through contemporary dance.”
James Cullen and Dan Cobb’s debut full length, due out September 1st, 2017 out through Partisan Records, explores the phenomenon of ‘comfort and compulsion that is addiction, via a pop record about a relationship. Cullen frames familiar feelings for us to relate to and digest, but simultaneously undermines their presence, leaving the listener holding the same hollow heart that he carried through his addiction. Cobb’s soaring synths and progressive percussion are waxed and shined by the album’s sleek club mix, and the juxtaposition with Cullen’s lyrics is heart-breaking.’
Cullen and Cobb formed TENDER in 2015, as the bedroom project of two flatmates tired of the design-by-committee nature of larger musical groups. Due to their intimate personal geography, Cobb was privy to the ’toxic’ relationship that gestated Cullen’s lyrics, and this record. Gladly enough, in regard to music-making with Cobb, “Nothing seemed like a struggle. We never fought anything,” Cullen remembers. They self-released a few songs and “Armour” wound up on the front page of Reddit a few hours later (with several hundred thousand plays on Soundcloud). Two years and three EPs later, TENDER now have tens of millions of streams across Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube and have enjoyed Hype Machine’s #1 spot several times with several different tracks.
While Modern Addiction often deals with the bleak realities of a love that’s fading, repeated listens offer a sense of optimism. It’s the relief that comes from getting through to the other side. The second half of the ‘Nadir’ is about “loving someone in a different way,” Cullen says. “Because it isn’t how it was in the beginning, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
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To follow the release of Modern Addiction the band will embark on an Autumn run of dates across both the UK and North America. All dates can be found below.
UK / N. America tour dates:
Aug 29th | Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
Aug 30th | King Tut’s, Glasgow, UK
Sep 1st | Louisiana, Bristol, UK
Sep 2nd | Bodega, Nottingham, UK
Sep 4th | Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, UK
Sep 5th | Village Underground, London, UK
Sep 10th | The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
Sep 11th | Constellation Room, Santa Ana, CA
Sep 13th | Rickshaw, San Francisco, CA
Sep 15th | Vera, Seattle, WA
Sep 17th | Cobalt, Vacouver, BC
Sep 19th | Lost Lake, Denver, CO
Sep 21st | Beat Kitchen, Chicago, IL
Sep 22nd | Adelaide Hall, Toronto, ON
Sep 24th | Songbyrd, Washington, DC
Sep 25th | World Cafe, Philadelphia, PA
Sep 27th | Great Scott, Boston, MA
Sep 28th | Baby’s Alright, Brooklyn, NY
