Basement are officially back. On May 8, the British alt rock favourites will release WIRED, their first new album in over eight years and their first with Run For Cover Records since their early days.
If you’ve been waiting, this feels worth it.
Alongside the announcement, the band have shared two new tracks, “WIRED” and “Broken By Design,” and they show two very different sides of what’s coming. The title track is urgent and sharp, packed with driving guitars and a hook built for live shows. “Broken By Design” pulls things back. It’s moodier, more reflective, but still unmistakably Basement.
Vocalist Andrew Fisher says “WIRED” explores the idea that sometimes we’re set up to feel and act in ways beyond our control. Interestingly, it almost didn’t make the cut before becoming one of his favourite songs to perform and record. “Broken By Design,” meanwhile, is about giving something everything you’ve got, watching it fall apart, and choosing to grow from it. Fisher describes it as the band trying to return to why they started in the first place. Doing this for fun. For each other.
That reset feels important. After 2018’s Beside Myself, the band stepped away, questioning everything following a difficult experience on a major label. During the hiatus, there were real conversations about whether Basement should continue at all. Instead, they regrouped with no outside pressure, no expectations, and started writing purely on instinct.
They spent years refining these 12 tracks before heading into the studio with producer John Congleton, known for his work with St. Vincent and Mannequin Pussy. The goal was simple. Make the most decisive Basement record yet. Something people will either love or hate, but never ignore.
There’s also a new generation discovering them. “Covet” from Colourmeinkindness went viral on TikTok and earned a Gold certification in 2024, over a decade after its release. Basement are returning bigger than they left.
With European dates locked in this summer, including Outbreak Festival in Manchester and a slot at All Points East in London, WIRED marks more than just a comeback. It feels like a band choosing themselves again.
May 8 can’t come soon enough.
