Bedroom Tax are a London four-piece – Gideon Parirenyatwa and Josh Collins on vocals, Sean Guy on guitar and bass, Paul Monham on guitar and keys – and their new single Hide & Seek came out on 8 October on Right Track Records/Universal.
The band get compared to Gorillaz, Arctic Monkeys, Bakar and The Streets, and Hide & Seek sets the language of money – mortgages, VAT, purchasing power – against the language of survival, with a chorus built around "the more you read, the less you see, and the more you feel, the less you say". It's genuinely memorable songwriting too – the sort of chorus that sticks in your head long after the track's finished.
The chorus started life as a lockdown jam between Guy and Parirenyatwa back in 2021, shelved until 2025, then reworked with hip-hop inspired verses and Monham's guitar hooks added on top. It was recorded with producer Dean Glover (who's worked with Anthony Szmierek and Aerial Salad) at VIBE Recording Studio in Manchester, and mastered by Pete Maher. The artwork mixes a photo Guy took in Cuba in 2017 with shots around London's Royal Docks – Parirenyatwa says the docks tie into the chorus line because "everything is in transit".
The band have had John Kennedy on Radio X call them "banger after banger", and BBC 6 Music's Amy Lame and BBC Introducing's Abbie McCarthy have both backed them too, on the back of a sold-out show at Sebright Arms in April. Hide & Seek is out now to stream. There's a really appealing urgency about it, which gives the whole track a restless, forward-moving energy – and with songwriting that good on top, it makes for a very accomplished release!