De Staat announce self-titled LP DE STAAT with new single “THE FIRE”

The Nijmegen-based band returned from a two-year break in April with “THE KING”, a track that now turns out to have been the first glimpse of DE STAAT (THE STATE). Lead vocalist Torre Florim explained that the decision to name the LP after the band - a moniker they’ve held for 25 years - stems from a shift in how that name resonates.

“As a band, we’ve long explored ideas around power, faith, and the increasingly blurred line between reality and fiction,” Florim said. “The world we’re living in has pulled us further down that dark path, and suddenly it feels as though the name we chose 25 years ago has taken on a whole new weight - as if everything we’ve made has been unconsciously building towards this moment. That’s why our seventh album is called DE STAAT.”

The new single “THE FIRE” is built around a lyric that pins down a familiar, queasy comfort: “New car, new war, watch the battles at the bar, Oh come on, it’s looking dire, but I wouldn’t worry about the fire / It’s only burning overseas.” Florim frames the song as an interrogation of screen-mediated indifference.

“‘THE FIRE’ is about the comfortable assumption that the world’s disasters will stay safely on the other side of the screen,” he said. “We hang in that quiet space between knowing and acting - and from this side, it’s easy to mistake one for the other.”

Alongside the recorded material, De Staat have developed an audiovisual live show in collaboration with director Floor Houwink ten Cate, audiovisual artist Boris Acket, lighting designer Freek Ros, visual artist Tarik Barri, and audio designer Reinier Rietveld. Titled De Staat Becomes De Staat, the production will debut with three exclusive theatre performances at Amsterdam’s Koninklijk Theater Carré in October, before a broader tour that includes UK stops in Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, Nottingham, and London in November.

The band are regarded as one of the more inventive live acts on the European circuit, and the involvement of a creative team with credits stretching from Thom Yorke to Fred Again.. suggests the shows will push that reputation into more immersive territory. No details have been given on whether the concept will translate in full to the club dates, but the UK run includes rooms like Thekla, Band on the Wall, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Rescue Rooms and Scala.