Big Special’s lead singer has declared the working classes are used as “nothing but a commodity”.
The UK punk duo – frontman Joe Hicklin and musician Callum Moloney – made the declaration to mark the release of their new single ‘Butcher’s Bin’, the latest track to be taken from the group’s upcoming debut album ‘Postindustrial Hometown Blues’, set for release on 10 May.
Joe told the NME: “‘Butcher’s Bin’ is about class awareness and the realisation that the working classes are used as nothing but a commodity and set against each other at every turn, their existence trivialised and struggles denied; the off cuts tossed to feed the rabid hounds of neoliberalism.
“The song is about all of this from the perspective of declining mental health whilst trying to make a living as an artist and to break through in a time and place where a life In art is seen as a luxury granted to those of a higher social class or a fruitless pursuit for idealistic fools.”
The alternative duo first announced details of their debut album last month, when they released the first single from the record ‘Dust Off / Start Again’.
Joe added: “‘Postindustrial Hometown Blues’ is an album about depression. It’s about the different shapes it takes; personal, social, generational… and it’s about coming face to face with those ghosts and what we do or how we feel when that happens.
“The album offers no answers, it is just an honest expression of a working-class experience in modern England through the eyes of ill mental health, a pursuit of art and political disenchantment; a story of rumination, realisation and reaction.
“‘Postindustrial Hometown Blues’ is about learning that we are connected by our common struggles and though dark and rageful, the album holds a quiet sentiment of love and hope. It’s about laughing at the face of the void, recognising its oppressive weight, holding hands and moving forward.”
Joe has previously said the group is “just on the side of the people” and “all of the music comes from a personal place and is about experience and everything around it”.
He also added in a past chat with the NME he hates the Tories and Sir Keir Starmer as they are both “all against the people”, leaving “nothing” to “look after the people”.
Joe added: “The working class might as well be completely invisible.
“I just wish it would all burn down so we could start again. At least it would be different. Every day there’s less and less hope to seek, and it breeds either ignorance, confusion or hatred.”