A new name on the thriving South London DIY scene, Moon Balloon are a Peckham-based band fronted by songwriter Rhys Timson, who in his own words writes, “songs about love, loss & gentrification whilst finding solace in a city that no longer wants you”. What started as a solo project, expanded when Rhys recruited friends, and future bandmates in Ewan Wilkie, Anna Baily, Lucy Rushton & Jake Card. Last year they formed a record label, SelOut records, to share their debut cassette EP, Don’t Turn Around. Working out of Vacant TV, a Greenwich studio they share with acclaimed producer Euan Hinshelwood, the band have been working with both Euan and blog regular Joe Futak on a flurry of singles. With plans to head into the studio later this year to make their debut album, today the band are premiering their latest single, Larry’s.

As more songs probably should be, Larry’s is an ode to eating delicious food, in this case, an Aubergine Parmigiana sandwich from the Larry’s Cafe in Peckham. While already an excellent jumping-off point for any song, the band explain the song took on something of a deeper meaning, “It’s a song about finding joy with the ones you love most in an impossibly unaffordable city…about not allowing your anxiety to thwart your fun and helping your loved ones along the way”.

Musically, the track is a nod back to the halcyon days of British indie, coming across like the middle ground of Teenage Fanclub and the more accessible edges of Graham Coxon’s solo work. The track opens with a flurry of rhythmic guitar chords, soon joined by the chugging drums and layers of yelp-along vocals. While there’s undeniably a joyous quality to Larry’s, it’s one that’s laced with just a touch of delirium, a lingering sense that while you’re running around falling in love and eating your delicious sandwich, the world still isn’t quite built for you. As Rhys sings towards the song close, “the rich get richer and they’ll paint their vulgar pictures, but you and I will dance as their strokes fill the page”, it’s the sound of dancing as the world burns, kissing as you’re evicted, shimmying and shaking as you’re priced out of the city you call home. It’s hopeless yet oddly defiant, you may take Moon Balloon’s city, but you’ll never take their sandwich, and there’s something curiously delicious about that.

Larry’s is out now via SelOut Records. For more information on Moon Balloon visit https://linktr.ee/Moonballoon.

Moon Balloon Live Dates:

5th July – Shokoladen, Berlin
3rd August – The Finsbury, London