Ahead of the release of their upcoming album, The London Suede have released their first short film entitled Autofiction: A Short Film. Known as Suede here in the UK, the band goes by The London Suede in the US due to the name belonging to an existing act. A press release for the announcement describes the film, “the production explores the complexities of memory, the perceived truth, communication and anxiety in human relationships. Themes at the core of The London Suede’s new album Autofiction, which, as its title suggests, is one of Brett Anderson’s most personal records yet.”
The band’s bass player Mat Osman has also provided a statement concerning Autofiction: A Short Film, “With the Autofiction short film we didn’t want to make a normal performance video – instead we wanted to make a short film that overlapped at a The London Suede gig, with the band as just a minor part of the film, rather than at the centre. MrMr then came up with the idea of taking a crossroad in a couple’s life and playing with it in odd ways – moving backwards and forwards in time, seeing it through different sets of eyes, seeing their hopes and fears and memories all jumbled up too. Autofiction: A Short Film takes some of the themes of the album: youth and ageing, love and loss, fear and joy – sees them play out in the story of Chris and Hannah.”
AUTOFICTION: A Short Film, as premiered by @AnOtherMagazine, is available now: https://t.co/gip266KmrB
The film features Suede’s singles ‘She Still Leads Me On’ and ’15 Again’ from upcoming record AUTOFICTION. pic.twitter.com/q8ZchRxkbL
— Suede HQ (@suedeHQ) August 17, 2022
Although the group have held a long relationship with visual collaborations, Autofiction: A Short Film is their first foray into the short feature format. Since the early years of their historic career, The London’s Suede have linked the mediums of audio and visual in creative ways. In 1993, the group made a concert film with Derek Jarman which featured their set at London’s Clapham Grand.
In 2015 the band released the feature Night Thoughts, showing the band’s live debut of their seventh studio album Night Thoughts. The feature’s footage also included the accompanying silent film which was directed by Roger Sargent. The film sired great critical success, at the time of release The Telegraph asked “Have Suede reinvented the album?”
The film’s audio partner Autofiction will mark the band’s ninth studio album and is set to be released on 16th September 2022 via BMG. The album was recorded at North London’s Konk studios and sees the band team up with long-time partner Ed Buller. Buller and The London Suede first worked together on the band’s debut single “The Downers”. Speaking on the album Brett Anderson has stated, “Autofiction is our punk record, No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess. Autofiction has a natural freshness, it’s where we want to be”
’15 Again’, premiered by @steve_lamacq on @BBC6Music, is out now for your listening pleasure.
This is the second single from Suede’s upcoming record AUTOFICTION. Listen and pre-order at https://t.co/cegJ0stYVH.
-SuedeHQ pic.twitter.com/2eGJc623Nw
— Suede HQ (@suedeHQ) August 3, 2022
The London Suede premiered the album’s first single “She Still Leads Me On” during a live show in Brussels this Spring. The track quickly became a huge hit and has been included in playlists compiled by BBC Radio2 and 6 Music. The single acquired rave reviews, The Sunday Times Culture described the track as “classic Suede” and CLASH said, “so tight, so inter-connected, and so innately physical”. The group then dropped the album’s second single “15 Again”, the track was premiered during Steve Lamacq’s BBC 6Music show. The album has already been named “a superb new album” by The Times and has been tipped as “a superb new album” by The Times and “so moving, the punk ferocity protecting a deeply vulnerable core” by Mojo Magazine.
The London Suede are set to embark on tour in support of Autofiction, the series of live shows are scheduled for September and October 2022. Alongside a string of intimate shows at venues such as London’s Electric Ballroom, the group will also perform live and hold signing appearances in various record shops.
The London Suede Record Shop Tour
15/09/2022 – Banquet Records – Kingston (Live Performance)
16/09 – Rough Trade East – Shoreditch (Live Performance)
17/09 – Crash Records/Brudenell Social Club – Leeds (Live Performance)
18/09 – Rough Trade/Fleece – Bristol (Live Performance)
19/09 – HMV – Liverpool (Signing and Q&A)
19/09 – HMV – Manchester (Signing)
20/09 – Bear Tree Records – Sheffield (Signing)
20/09 – Rough Trade – Nottingham (Signing)
21/09 – Truck Records – Oxford (Signing)
21/09 – Fopp – Cambridge (Signing)
22/09 – Vinilo – Southampton (Singing)
The London Suede UK Tour
05/10/2022 – Electric Ballroom – London
06/10 – Electric Ballroom – London
Click here to purchase tickets.
Click here to pre-order Autofiction.
Photo credit: Dean Chalkley
