“Folk music for now”: Any Young Mechanic share news of debut LP The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot

The band, who take their name from a lyric in "Hooray For Hollywood", cut the album – released this June – over three days. The 12 tracks were rehearsed in drummer Jay Eliot Mee’s childhood bedroom – a space so cramped that a double bass had to be ducked under doorframes.

Frontman Sam Wilson describes the record as an attempt to move beyond folk’s more predictable tendencies. “We are trying to make folk music for now,” he says. “Turning it on its head in a new, sometimes uncanny way, because we don't want to just do the old thing again.”

"Pretty Strange World", says Mee, leans into rhythmic shifts: “Our little adventure into math - the topsy-turvy rhythmic approach is both incredibly fun plus a neat camouflage for Sam’s lyrical introspection.”

The band – all alumni of the Elder Conservatorium of Music and School of Performing Arts – one of Australia's oldest, most esteemed music schools – and honed their approach in Adelaide’s DIY scene. They return to the UK in May for dates including The Great Escape (14 and 15 May), Get Together Festival (16 May) and a headline show at Shacklewell Arms (31 May).

The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot artwork

The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot tracklist

“There’s A New Place On The Market”
“Pretty Strange World”
“Write You Wrong (Album focus track)”
“Captain and Compass”
“Snug Barber”
“Every Time You Put Me Up, I Get Down Some New Way”
“I Never Met An Engine Don’t Need Tanks”
“My House Divides”
“Can Sardine”
“Barn Burning”
“Bare The Brunt”
“Atlas, Here You Are”