John Grant has announced The Art Of The Lie, his sixth solo album, which will be out June 14 via Bella Union / [PIAS]. He made the album with producer Ivor Guest, who has worked with everyone from Grace Jones and Bridget Fontaine to Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey.
“Ivor assembled a team of incredible musicians,” Grant says. “Dave Okumu [from The Invisible] is such an incredible guitar player. He came into the room when we were playing the demo of ‘Father’ and just immediately started doing what you hear on the record. Robin Mullarkey played fretless bass and blew my mind, and the very talented Seb Rochford was on drum detail. There were a lot of moments of magic from everyone.” The album also features a guest appearance from Scottish singer Rachel Sermanni, who provides the beautiful and moving backing vocals on ‘Mother And Son’.”
The Art of the Lie is very much a 2024 record and he tackles heavy subjects with Grant’s signature dark sense of humor. “This album is in part about the lies people espouse and the brokenness it breeds and how we are warped and deformed by these lies”, he says. “For example, the Christian Nationalist movement has formed an alliance with White Supremacist groups and together they have taken over the Republican party and see LGBTQ+ people and non-whites as genetically and even mentally inferior and believe all undesirables must be forced either to convert to Christianity and adhere to the teachings of the Bible as interpreted by them or they must be removed in order that purity be restored to ‘their’ nation. They now believe Democracy is not the way to achieve these goals. Any sort of pretence of tolerance that may have seemed to develop over the past several decades has all but vanished. It feels like the U.S. in is free-fall mode.”
The first single from the album is “It’s A Bitch” which is powered by some very funky clavinet. “It was a blast making this track which is just about having fun with words, synths and dope rhythms and bass lines and also making fun of post-COVID malaise,” says John. “Plus, people get to ponder what a ‘hesher’ is. I loved going to the arcade in the 80s and watching smokin’-hot heshers hold court while playing Tempest, Stargate, Robotron and Asteroids, and while also blasting Iron Maiden and Rush on their Walkmans.”
The video for “The Art of the Lie” plays out like trailer for a tell-all rockumentary — it’s pretty funny — and you can watch below.
John has UK/EU dates lined up for the fall and those are below.
The Art of the Lie
1. All That School For Nothing
2. Marbles
3. Father
4. Mother And Son
5. Twistin Scriptures
6. Meek AF
7. It’s A Bitch
8. Daddy
9. The Child Catcher
10. Laura Lou
11. Zeitgeist
John Grant UK & EU tour dates:
17.10.24 – London – Hackney Church
19.10.24 – Sunderland – The Fire Station
21.10.24 – Glasgow – Barrowland Ballroom
22.10.24 – Dublin – Vicar Street
24.10.24 – Cardiff – Tramshed
25.10.24 – Bristol – Bristol Beacon
26.10.24 – Bexhill – De La Warr Pavilion
28.10.24 – Birmingham – Birmingham Town Hall
29.10.24 – Norwich – Epic Studios
31.10.24 – Manchester – New Century Hall
01.11.24 – Leeds – Project House
02.11.24 – Liverpool – Liverpool Philharmonic
05.11.24 – Amsterdam – Melkweg MAX
06.11.24 – Cologne – Kulturkirche
07.11.24 – Berlin – Columbia Theatre
09.11.24 – Aarhus – Train
10.11.24 – Copenhagen – Vega
11.11.24 – Stockholm – Nalen
13.11.24 – Oslo – Rockefeller Music Hall
15.11.24 – Weissenhäuser Strand – Rolling Stone Beach