Credit: Rosie Sco
“astonishing” – Stereogum
“No Windows could be a generational talent.” – The Line Of Best Fit
“As ever, brilliant, mature songwriting from a duo who simply don’t miss.” – So Young
“epic” – The FADER
“loaded with nostalgia while waltzing into the future.” – NME
“inquisitive alt-pop with a dogged DIY aesthetic” – CLASH
+ support from Gorilla vs Bear, Paste, DIY, Brooklyn Vegan & many more…
Today, Edinburgh duo No Windows share an emotive new single titled “Tricky”. The track comes just days ahead of their much-anticipated new EP The Great Traitor. The new release follows their critically acclaimed 2024 EP Point Nemo, a packed out run of EU / UK tour dates – including being part of The Great Escape’s ‘First Fifty’ and supporting full Slow Pulp tour. Alongside the new single and EP, the band have also recently shared details of a new run of live dates for 2025.
Multi-instrumentalist Morgan Morris and lyricist Verity Slangen’s evocative blend of classic pop & folk has earned them widespread support from radio and press, as well as the coveted Sound of Young Scotland Award at the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Awards in 2023. In 2024, they signed to Fat Possum records at 18 and 19-years-old respectively, with just one self-released EP (Fishboy) to their name.
With every release to date, No Windows have continued to refine their atmospheric indie pop blend, combining warm Duster-style soundscapes with lo-fi experimentalism and nods to borderless indie-folk. The Great Traitor EP expands the duo’s sonic territory even further, leaving the more familiar indie traits behind in favour of lush, psychedelic arrangements that take their cues from 70s chamber pop (George Harrison, Leonard Cohen) and film score composer Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Produced with Ali Chant (Dry Cleaning, Sorry, Yard Act), the recording process took them out of Morgan’s DIY bedroom set-up and into a studio, where they had access to a breadth of instruments that allowed for more exploration across the EPs six tracks.
The touching new single “Tricky”, sees Morgan’s deceptively intricate guitar work weave around Verity’s lyrics of love and infatuation. Producer Ali Chant also plays percussion and slide guitar on the track. Speaking on the single, Morgan says, “Tricky is as much of a love song as we’ll likely ever write. Verity and I are quite cynical people so sometimes love songs can seem benign to us. There’s definitely a time and a place though. Sometimes there’s this beautiful cohesion that occurs between us, it was a joy writing this song despite its deceivingly difficult guitar part that I loathe playing live, hence the song’s name.”
As with the recent singles “Return” and “Easter Island”, the new track is also accompanied by a stunning new visual directed by CLUMP Collective.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “TRICKY” HERE
STREAM HERE
Written after the release of Point Nemo, The Great Traitor marks a transitional period for No Windows, both as a band and as individuals. The songs came together while Morgan was in the process of deciding to drop out of university, while Verity had just started university and was adjusting to life there. For both of them, 2024 specifically “felt like the transition from adolescence to adulthood.” The EP reflects that in its blooming instrumentals and its emotional nuance. “When I wrote [the lyrics for] Point Nemo I was very much a teenager and very hormonal still. I think this EP is coming out of that a little bit,” Verity offers. “For me, it’s a mediation between being a younger person to being someone in my 20s who’s figuring things out a bit more.”
The result is a series of heartfelt tracks that capture transient feelings at their most acute, while at the same time arranging them within the cinematic landscape of memory; an immortalisation of significant life events that have, for No Windows, already come and gone. “Our music has always felt quite nostalgic to me,” says Verity. “I think The Great Traitor sounds like a snapshot in time. A picture, almost, of how we were in that moment.”
9th May – Edinburgh – Assai (EP release day instore)
22nd May – London – Footsteps Festival – w/ The Vaselines
24th May – Bristol – Dot To Dot Festival
25th May – Nottingham – Dot To Dot Festival
14th June – Edinburgh – Hidden Door Festival
21st June – London – Rough Trade East (headline)
26th September – Glasgow – The Rum Shack (headline)
14-18th October – Norwich – Wild Paths Festival
The Great Traitor is out Friday via Fat Possum Records – Pre-save / order HERE
