Methyl Ethel have announced that their new album, Triage, will be released on February 15th 2019. They also share new single ‘Real Tight’ and its accompanying video, directed by Matt Sav. Triage marks the Perth, Australia band’s third studio album. It was written, produced and performed by lead singer Jake Webb, mixed by Marta Salogni and mastered by Heba Kadry. Recorded in Webb’s home studio in West Perth it is available for pre-order today.

+ You can pre-order Triage by Methyl Ethel via 4AD Store here +

+ You can pre-order, and pre-save, on all other platforms here +

'Real Tight' is availble to stream everywhere, here .

With his thirtieth birthday, and the ceremonial cap on three records and three EP's, Webb felt a sense of closure in the making of Triage. Methyl Ethel has always been a surrealist outfit - a dark and obscured expression of life set to the backdrop of dream pop hooks. But Triage is a more reflective album - one that explores the notion of coming of age, only to reference it for the snapshots and passing memories that it has become.

Methyl Ethel is the musical project of Jake Webb with a five-piece live band that includes Thom Stewart, Chris Wright, Lyndon Blue and Jacob Diamond. Methyl Ethel has enjoyed phenomenal success in its native Australia in recent years. ‘Ubu’ became an ARIA Accredited Gold single after landing at #4 in triple j’s 2017 Hottest 100, and also topped the Australian Independent Singles Chart (AIR) along with fellow Everything Is Forgotten single ‘Drink Wine’. Methyl Ethel also won in the Best Album and Best Pop Act categories in 2017 WAM Awards and they have played sold-out tours throughout the country and the UK since 2016.

To coincide with Triage, Methyl Ethel will play a handful of Australian, UK and North American headline shows in 2019, with more to be confirmed. Visit methylethel.com for more details.

March 2019

14th - Heaven, London, UK [TICKETS]

19th - The Echo, Los Angeles CA, US* [TICKETS]

20th - Café Du Nord, San Francisco CA, US* [TICKETS]

22nd - Mississippi Studios, Portland OR, US* [TICKETS]

23rd - Barboza, Seattle WA, US* [TICKETS]

25th - Schubas, Chicago IL, US [TICKETS]

27th - The Garrison, Toronto ON, Canada [TICKETS]

29th - Elsewhere, Brooklyn NY, US* [TICKETS]

30th - DC9, Washington DC, US* [TICKETS]

* with Teen

An Artist Statement:

METHYL ETHEL began as a personal challenge. I wanted to see if I could write, record and release some music before the band I was in at the time finished doing the same. I did and subsequently withdrew from some close friends. Relationships were severed, I severed some even closer ones. This all played out in such a public way, as it invariably does, so I withdrew more. My first album Oh Inhuman Spectacle became the 'why me?/fuck you/sorry' album that I wrote as a confused coping mechanism. It helped and I enjoyed it. I continued the introspective journaling with the follow-up, Everything is Forgotten. For me, that album said 'who cares? all your emotions are irrational and meaningless anyway.'

This year, I found myself in the same city, alone in a room tasked with writing an album to be heard, not as an outlet for personal grievances. I decided to find closure with Triage. The question this time around is 'what is important? What requires attention?' I think It's about living with secrets. Secrets cause the problems. They call them white lies, little things used to manipulate people for the greater good. It's a triage of truths to maintain an artifice. A poem by T.S Elliot that I referenced on the first EP I recorded says it best;

"To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;

There will be time to murder and create,

And time for all the works and days of hands

That lift and drop a question on your plate;

Time for you and time for me,

And time yet for a hundred indecisions,

And for a hundred visions and revisions,

Before the taking of a toast and tea."

Everyone is older, people have moved on. I receive text messages from old friends looking to reconnect. I have a masochistic social complex in so far as I enjoy the company of others, but self-imposed solitude and exile are exciting and useful to me. Its like method acting, which isn't too far removed from the emotional memory I see people drawing upon every day. I challenge the idea of friendship and trust. I think because I am untrustworthy. At least I'm honest about that.

- Jake Webb, 2018