Porridge Radio with Sluice

When Dana Margolin started working on the fourth Porridge Radio album, there was something different in how the songwriter approached creativity. Almost all the songs started out as poems, says Margolin of the work that became Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me (2024), I wanted to challenge myself. In songwriting, Dana argues, she had learnt that the writer can always hide behind the tricks of the music and well-worn techniques such as repetition. In a poem, though, says Dana, you cant hide. Recorded in the Somerset countryside in early 2024 by longtime Big Thief and Laura Marling engineer Dom Monks, Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me is Porridge Radios new album and first new music in two years. The UK bands new album is a coming-of-age moment inspired by burnout, the music industry, heartbreak and the brutal collapse of significant relationships and - crucially - Danas own increasing immersion in her craft as an artist. Across the album, particularly on the devastating A Hole In the Ground and God Of Everything Else, Danas ruthlessly self-interrogating writing style is matched by some of the bands most affecting music to date, patiently building and tragically intense. When Porridge Radio formed in 2014 - a decade ago - being in a band was the very last thing that London-born Dana Margolin expected to do. Studying anthropology at the University of Sussex, Dana began performing her songs on her own at local open mic nights, before assembling a full band - taking in Georgie Stott on keyboards and backing vocals, Sam Yardley on drums and keyboards, and former bassist Maddie Ryall (who departed in 2023, replaced by Dan Hutchins). Their debut album - Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers (2016) was followed by Every Bad (2020), which was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and acclaimed by The Guardian as uncompromisingly brilliant. Later, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky (2022) became their first UK Top 40 Album Chart success. Today, Dana reflects on Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me with the enthusiasm of a real creative breakthrough. It feels like the first time weve made something, she explains, it captured something about our friendship as a band and the way that we have learnt to play together. I love the songs, I love playing them, they havent gotten old to me and it feels like its a very singular thing. A pause. Its taught me so much. Following your gut to the nth point, trusting your friends and their loyalty, trusting yourself to be able to fight with people properly and still come back together. How I want to live is how I want to make records, because making records is my life because my work is my play is my job is my life. It all ties together in this thing, and there are ways to do this that might not kill me. Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For You is released by Secretly Canadian on 18th October, 2024