Belle & Sebastian have shared their latest single, ‘What Happened To You, Son?’ ahead of their North American tour.
The jangle-pop track features a retro-sounding guitar riff, a thumping bass line and crisp keys. “Son, you’re a mystery / all your precious words don’t mean so much to me” sings frontman Stuart Murdoch during the opening of the song. The track was originally meant to be on the band’s 2023 LP ‘Late Developers’ but was pulled last minute.
Speaking of the track in a press release, Murdoch shared: “‘What Happened to You, Son?’ got pulled rather randomly from the last LP because the LP felt one track too long. Out it came.
“The song is about my youth, and the funny hole I fell into in my late teens. I was failing at my university course, failing in almost everything I tried around then. I was obsessed with the music of the time, I used to hang so much on the lyrics and message and feeling of certain bands of the 80s era – it probably wasn’t healthy.”
He continued: “So although the theme of this song is a little accusatory, the fault is with the beholder. I could have switched off at any time. Instead I let the singers become my penpals and my deities. The song tries to address what happens when the pop stars grow up, and change, and go a different way, and seem to betray the stance they held when you loved them the most. The song finishes hopefully, however. There’s always a way forward, always a light to.”
Belle & Sebastian are set to kick off their North American tour next week (April 23) with a show at The Eastern in Atlanta Georgia. The tour will mark the band’s first state-side dates in nearly two years, including festival and headline stops in New York, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, and points between, with support along the way by Haley Heynderickx and The Weather Station. Check out the full tour dates below and visit here to purchase tickets.
Belle & Sebastian 2024 North American tour dates are:
APRIL
23 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern #
24 – Richmond, VA @ The National #
26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer %
27 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre %
28 – Montreal, QC @ M Telus %
29 – Toronto, ON @ History %
MAY
1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount %
2 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem %
3 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre %
4 – Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed %
6 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe #
7 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom #
8 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue #
10 – Denver, CO @ The Fillmore Auditorium %
11 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party
13 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether %
14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether %
15 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel #
16 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater %
18 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall %
19 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre %
# w/ Haley Heynderickx
% The Weather Station
In other news, Belle & Sebastian recently announced they will curate a new festival called ‘The Glasgow Weekender’.
The band will take over Glasgow’s SWG3 from August 2-3, where they will play shows on each night and curate the lineup for both days.
The festival is part of the Scottish band’s ‘Bowlie’ Weekenders, with the first Bowlie staged in 1999 at Pontins, Camber Sands. They returned to Camber Sands in 2010 for ‘Bowlie 2’, and announced 2019’s ‘Boaty Weekender‘ which took place on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
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