Black Country, New Road frontman Isaac Wood announces departure from band
The group's second album, ‘Ants From Up There’, is due to be released Friday (February 4)
Black Country, New Road have confirmed that vocalist Isaac Wood has left the band.
The group, who have now cancelled all upcoming tour dates including a headline show at Camden’s Roundhouse, are due to release their second album ‘Ants From Up There’ on Friday (February 4).
In a message shared to the group’s social media, Wood wrote: “Hello everyone, I have bad news which is that I have been feeling sad and afraid too. And I have tried to make this not true but it is the kind of sad and afraid feeling that makes it hard to play guitar and sing at the same time.
“Together we have been writing songs and then performing them, which at times has been an incredible doing, but more now everything happens that I am feeling not so great and it means from now I won’t be a member of the group anymore.”
“To be clear,” he added, “this is completely in spite of six of the greatest people I know, who were and are wonderful in a sparkling way. If you are reading this maybe you would have seen some of that. It has been a great pleasure and I would like to say the words ‘Thank You’ to everyone.”
The remaining band members confirmed they will be continuing as a six piece, writing: “Although Isaac won’t be part of the group any longer, the rest of us will be continuing to make music together as Black Country, New Road. In fact, we’ve already started working on it.”
They continued: “The things we’ll miss about working with Isaac are too many and various to list here, but by listening to the music we made together, I’m sure you’ll understand at least a few of them. It’d be difficult to overstate how much our experiences as a group have affected us. In fact, it’s difficult to say anything at all coherent about what we’ve managed to do. But it has certainly been the greatest privilege to do it all together, as seven friends.”
Black Country, New Road’s 2020 debut ‘For The First Time’ was Mercury-prize nominated.
Earlier this month the group released ‘Snow Globes’, the fourth single from ‘Ants From Up There’.
The nine minute track follows ‘Concorde’, ‘Bread Song’ and ‘Chaos Space Marine’ in previewing what’s to come on their sophomore release.
Discussing ‘Snow Globes’, drummer Charlie Wayne said: “Snow Globes was one of the songs which had existed before we wrote the majority of the songs on ‘AFUT’. Though it’s a pretty good representation of the musical world we wanted to explore on the album at large.”