White Flowers
- bizzarre
- Mar 20
- 3 min read
White Flowers release new single ‘Heaven’ taken from their new album Dreams For Somebody Else via The state51 Conspiracy.
Preston duo White Flowers - AKA Katie Drew and Joey Cobb, release ‘Heaven’ single ahead of new album Dreams For Somebody Else, out May 1st via The state51 Conspiracy.
Dreams For Somebody Else came together via a circuitous, yet intentional process. For a decade, Drew and Cobb have enacted a dedicated archival and diaristic practice - storing snatches of musical and artistic ideas across hard drives and physical mediums.
These fragments formed a primordial soup via which the 10 tracks that make up the LP have since coalesced.
Sonically, the two-piece embrace ‘sad euphoria’ - a palette starting from their well-established dream-pop sound, whilst adding the cathartic elements from dance music.
The result is an album not backward in coming forward regarding its pop-sensibilities. The gleaming ‘Heaven’ falls into this space - it is pure radiance, anchored by Drew’s soft, close vocals, as if murmured from a dream. A wistful tone pervades the track, which is nonetheless laced with optimism. In terms of the themes, the band defer to a quote from Jean Rhys’ 1939 novel Good Morning Midnight:
“People talk about the happy life, but that's the happy life when you don't care any longer if you live or die. You only get there after a long time and many misfortunes. And do you think you are left there? Never.
As soon as you have reached this heaven of indifference, you are pulled out of it. From your heaven you have to go back to hell. When you are dead to the world, the world often rescues you, if only to make a figure of fun out of you.”
Alongside the sparks of inspiration that came from revisiting old ideas in their ‘sketchbook approach’, there are external influences that have helped drive the narrative. As they explain:
“Whilst recording the songs for ‘Dreams For Somebody Else’, we really connected with the concept of Annie Ernaux’s book, ‘The Years’ - a ‘collective autobiography’ pieced together from mismatched fragments from her past, conjuring the effect that she’s merely an observer of her own life.
This concept merges into the White Flowers world, where time, rather than being restrictive, is fluid and boundless, with our music existing as an endless conversation with versions of ourselves at different stages of our lives.”
The genesis of any work in the White Flowers world (or “realm”, as they coin it) begins with the duo’s own creativity, before opening this up fills in the detail. Namely on Dreams For Somebody Else this came from working with Al Doyle of LCD Soundsystem on co-production - a serendipitous link-up given the profound effect a 2017 LCD set at Primavera had on the two-piece’s outlook. In another sliding-doors moment, as the grind of immediate post-pandemic touring was close to taking a crippling toll, the offer to join one of their favourite bands Beach House on tour came in - a sign to persevere. This perseverance has been rewarded with what feels like their most complete work yet - a holistic structure built from ephemeral foundations, couching themes of isolation, dissociation and identity in trance indebted rapture. Sad euphoria, indeed.
The album will be supported by tour dates later in the year.
Photo by Louise Mason
Live Dates
30.09.26 The Croft, Bristol
01.10.26 Alphabet, Brighton
02.10.26 The ICA, London
08.10.26 Stereo, Glasgow
09.10.26 The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
10.10.26 Yes (Pink Room), Manchester
