Cherry i
- bizzarre
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Cherry i share new single “Arctic Sun” and announce Ali Chant-produced debut EP “Yes, but I could never tell that lie”.
London art-rock four-piece Cherry i have shared an urgent new single titled “Arctic Sun”. The track was released this month alongside the announcement of the band’s much anticipated debut EP “Yes, but I could never tell that lie”, which was produced by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Yard Act, Soccer Mommy), and is out 17th July.
Formed in 2025 by two now best friends who moved to the UK together due to the conflict in their Ukrainian homeland, despite only having met a handful of times, Cherry i have since gone on to release two well-received singles, racking up north of 100K streams, whilst building a feverous word-of-mouth buzz playing across the London DIY Windmill scene.
Full of tense spectral vocals and dark incisive instrumentation that is at once melancholic and incendiary, “Arctic Sun” perfectly encapsulates everything that has brought the band to this point. Speaking on the single, vocalist Nikol Kozin says:
“what it is like to be in a desperate state of looking for fulfilment in a romantic relationship without complications. Something that on its own can be like addiction with the lyrics stating,
‘after you, after you, I quit people’”.
Elsewhere on “Yes, but I could never tell that lie”, tracks such as their atmospheric recent single “The Arsonist” delve into themes of war and displacement.
Speaking on their time together since moving to the UK and the formation of the band, Kozin says,
“I had orchestrated for Nastya to come live with me and my family for a bit. She agreed, and so with her in an enclosed space and no other entertainment options, I tricked her into starting a band with me. Later we were joined by our bassist Slava and our drummer Hugh in London.”
Whereas, the fuzz-laden “Mistake”, released in late 2025, looks at the tumultuous realities of being an “up-and-coming” band.
"The idea behind the song is essentially a one-way conversation between a person and something inanimate,”
continues Kozin,
“in this case it is the fraught relationship one can have with music and choosing that as a career path.”
With further live dates coming up and more new music already in the works, this new EP captures all the promise of Cherry i’s early live shows and releases, and highlights underlying ambition of the band to carve out a unique space for themselves within the burgeoning and tempestuous UK scene. Both their personal and musical journey so far has proven that the band have the footing to weather the storm, where they go from here, we should all endeavor to follow.
Picture by Zero Poffenroth
Live dates
June 5th - The Bell, Bath
July 11th - Windmill Brixton, London
July 23rd - Daltons, Brighton
Pre-save “YES, BUT I COULD NEVER TELL THAT LIE” here
