Psych-pop quartet Tungz have returned with their next single, buttery synth-driven track ‘80,000’, releasing via Heist or Hit alongside a premiering video. Alongside the new single, the four-piece have announced a debut album ‘A Good Dream’ for release 17th February 2023, also on Heist or Hit.
‘80,000’ is a smooth-sounding, nostalgic synth-pop ballad centred around the smaller heartbreaks we experience in everyday life, incorporating a modern take on the band’s previous productions. The sentimental single weaves a tale of idealising someone and putting them on a pedestal before you even know them resulting in small heartbreaks everyday – but with an added easy-on-the-ear groove.
The velvety funk track is brimming with the band’s signature melodic percussion and guitar licks, alongside simplistic, satin-like vocals (“I go through like 80,000 heartbreaks every day / I go get my hopes up and you give up and get up and walk away”).
Speaking of the new track, Tungz said, “80,000 is about the smallest heartbreaks we face. The ones that follow relationships that aren’t even relationships. They might be just a look or an idea that forms based on seeing someone one time in a park. These heartbreaks really sting because you’re not even supposed to care about them. The unfairness of that along with the death of all the possibilities of the life you might have had with that person makes for something extra shallow and extra sore. And all that happening 80,000 times in one day. Boy oh boy.”
The accompanying video features the band performing in a 70’s-esque TV show, in which their true ghoulish selves are slowly divulged underneath their presentable glossy exterior. The music video employs the directorial expertise of Hector Melville alongside DOP Edward Tucker (Saint Maud, The End of the F***ing World), prosthetics artist Renae Taylor (Killing Eve, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared) and stars comedian Sam Campbell (Edinburgh Fringe Best Comedy Show Award winner).
When describing the video, the band details, “The video for 80,000 was inspired by a question that we often consider as a band: how derivative is too derivative? Popular culture is saturated with throwbacks and references (something we aren’t completely innocent of as a band). TV shows and musicians are directly ripping old looks and getting credit for being inspired and original. Sure we all love the 70s, but when the scales tip over into parody - and people applaud things in all their parody-ness - the whole thing just feels a bit gross. So, we went gross with this vid. Really gross.”
The new single and video release has been supported by the PPL Momentum Music Fund. The PPL Momentum Music Fund is managed by PRS Foundation, with support from PPL, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Invest NI, Creative Wales, and additional support from Spotify.
With influences that range from everything including 80s synth funk, Jai Paul, ABBA and beyond, Tungz are quickly making a name for themselves as one of the most vibrant emerging acts of the year. Self-producing and with a notable psychedelic swagger throughout, the group’s latest single and video is set to see them rise from cult notoriety to your new favourite band.
Tungz’s latest single ‘80,000’ will be available to stream and download now, whilst new album ‘A Good Dream’ will land 17th February 2023 via Heist or Hit.
