Family Art Club Share Homesick New Single ‘How Long Will Winter Last This Year?’ Ahead Of Sophomore EP

Leeds indie-rock outfit Family Art Club have shared their latest single, ‘How Long Will Winter Last This Year?’, via cult Leeds label Private Regcords, with their sophomore EP Pigeons When I’m King arriving today, 15 September.

A softer, more sentimental offering from the band, ‘How Long Will Winter Last This Year?’ finds Family Art Club looking towards home through layered saxophones, gentle guitar strums and a pastoral warmth that carries a quiet sense of grief. There are shades of Black Country, New Road in its intimate, homespun feel, while lyrics turn towards currants, mountaintops, nostalgia and the feeling of watching somewhere you love change.

For guitarist and vocalist Evan Usher, the track began during a period of intense homesickness.

“I was very far from home when I began to write it,” he explains. “I had some intense spells of homesickness and I was holding a lot of nostalgia and sentimentality.”

He describes the song as “a picture of the homeland I hold in my heart and the sadness that I carry with me that comes from loving a changing thing.”

The track follows previous single ‘Bird Watching Accident’, with Usher describing the two songs as “emotionally very close” despite their contrasting sounds. It also offers another glimpse into Pigeons When I’m King, a record the band say captures a period of growing together musically and personally.

“We’re really proud of Pigeons When I’m King because we put a lot of ourselves into it,” says Usher. “For me, it’s about growing up and learning to love the world, but I think it means something different to each of us.”

Family Art Club have carved out a distinctly cosy corner of the burgeoning Leeds scene, pairing folky, jazzy and emo-tinged songwriting with a colourful, occasionally silly and often melancholic approach. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel and Laurie Lee alongside Pavement and Jeff Buckley, their music has the warmth of something made among friends, without losing its emotional weight.

With previous support slots alongside Casual Smart, Truthpaste and Surf Trash, the band continue to build their own little world around the music — and Pigeons When I’m King looks set to take that world further.