A-TOTA-SO SHARE THIRD SINGLE ‘FOOTPRINTS ON THE CEILING’ FEATURING BRIAN SCALLY (GANGLIONS / ANNA’S ANCHOR)

4th March 2022 0 By John Deaux

Midlands based math-rockers a-tota-so are back though not quite as mathy as you might remember them. When COVID19 hit the UK and the never ending lockdowns and lack of support for the music industry started signalling the end of live music for what many thought might be a very long time, a-tota-so decided to change things up and keep themselves busy working on their second album entitled “Lights Out”.

The biggest change sees the usually instrumental band enlisting a gang of their vocalist friends from the UK and Irish music scene, putting a fresh spin on their music and create something different this time around. Each of the 8 tracks boasts a different vocalist from the likes of Damien Sayell (The St Pierre Snake Invasion/Mclusky), Ashley Tubb (Sugar Horse), Jake O’Driscoll (God Alone) and Ellie Godwin (No Violet).

With most of the music being written during the first lockdown and recorded over winter 2020 at JT Soar, the legendary DIY venue and recording studio in Nottingham, the band sent a track to each of the vocalists they had in mind and they were given free reign to do what they wanted over the instrumentals. The result is an exciting and eclectic album which covers a wide range of genres and changes the bands sound completely.

Now the band have shared 3rd single ‘Footprints on the Ceiling’. Featuring vocals from Brian Scally (Ganglions / Anna’s Anchor) the track aims to highlight some of the issues DIY spaces and independent music venues have faced during COVID. Guitarist Marty Toner comments,

“Lights Out comes out next week so we decided to release one more single from the album called “Footprints on the ceiling” This one features one of our favourite Irish men, Brian Scally, from Ganglions and Anna’s Anchor – it’s very much a song about DIY spaces and independent music venues getting into trouble, losing their premises, unable to pay rent, getting scammed during COVID but with a hopeful outlook for the return of people and music again.”

Listen now: https://a-tota-so.bandcamp.com/track/footprints-on-the-ceiling-ft-brian-scally

Featuring members of Alright the Captain and Cheap Jazz, a-tota-so formed in 2016 after both bands went on hiatus and they went on to release their self titled debut album in 2018.

Since their formation they have gone on to tour the UK and mainland Europe appearing at festivals including ArcTanGent, Bad Pond and Strangeforms alongside shows with the likes of Tera Melos, Alpha Male Tea Party, Memory of Elephants, Chiyoda Ku and more.

“Lights Out” will be released on the 11th March 2022 via bUTTONpUSHER and is available to pre-order from – http://a-tota-so.bandcamp.com