RT LP600 will come out 601 days after day 1 of 29 recording days, well over 100 edit and overdub days, 11 mix revisions, and 1 master revision before handing in this self-titled record: My New Band Believe on the 8th of December 2025. We recorded 9 tracks, 8 of which are on the album, 7 members of caroline were involved in making it, 6 of them played on it, 5 on track 4 alone; 3 people are credited as producers, 2 of those being caroline members; Mike O’Malley and Jasper Llewellyn, the other 1 being me.

We worked at 11 different studios across 10 London postcodes with 9 different recording engineers. The record features 23 string instruments¹, 22 musicians, 21 singers, 20 minutes of music on side A, 19 seconds of silence, an 00018 copy made by Andy Ramsay, 17 minutes of music on Side B, 16 letters in the phrase My New Band Believe, 15 layered string septets on Love Story, 14 visits to the cinema on recording days, 13 not sure, 12 acoustic guitars, 11 instances of the word “believe”, 10 horns, “night” 9 times, multiple 8+ minute-long songs, including Actress: track 7, an example of upright bassist Caius Williams’ playing on the record, 6 in total. There are 5 drummers on My New Band Believe, 4 pianos played by 3 people, only 2 of them pianists, and 1 toy accordion.

¹a total of 118 strings.

The album was mastered by Robin Schmidt, who runs 24-96 mastering from Studio-22. He’s worked with 163 artists, including the 1975, 1984, 257ers, and Six60. It was mixed by Sam Grant, producer of 4 Richard Dawson albums, 2 of which feature drummer Andrew Cheetham, who appears on track 3 of My New Band Believe. Andrew also played on 2 albums by Kiran Leonard, who arranged string quartets and septets for 4 tracks on the album (1, 2, 4, and 7). Kiran’s arrangements were so strong they warranted a writing credit on 3 songs, the same goes for 4 other credited writers, including Georgia Ellery and Martha Irwin, who between them wrote 29 words out of the 1813 on the record.

The oldest musician on My New Band Believe is drummer Steve Noble, 66, who has played on 166 records. His 1st credit is “I Am Cold” by Rip Rig + Panic, released in 1982. On its cover is a sketch of the poet Arthur Rimbaud, who 111 years previously in 1871 at 16 wrote Le Bateau Ivre, a poem whose 10 nights and 100 lines track a sinking ship out to sea. In 1899, Joseph Conrad, then 33 (3 years younger than Rimbaud) wrote 30,000 words about another boat’s 3 month journey into the 3-word Heart of Darkness: track 3 on this record. Speaking of Le Bateau Ivre, the album will be announced 555 days after my old bandmate wrote the words “it’s iver” on Instagram to announce our breakup. Rimbaud quit writing poetry at 21, the same age as the youngest player on My New Band Believe, tenor saxophonist George Johnson, BBC Young Jazz Musician finalist in 2024 - not to be confused with the one who recorded with The Wolverines in 1924, who is either 126 years old or dead.

When this record, 2,193 seconds long, comes out it will be 2,193 days since the earliest idea on it was written. I only had 2 hard rules for My New Band Believe: 0 electric instruments and 0 musicians who played on black midi records. 2 rules, both broken on track 1.

The artwork was, more or less, finished 9 months ago. I commissioned the painter, Kuo Jun You², who lives 10,000,000 metres away in Taiwan to do it. He said he’d send me a sketch in 4 days and ended up sending the finished painting in 2. In the early stages of making My New Band Believe I’d had a dream in which a childhood friend left 20 photos of us on my doorstep, all real images from waking life except for 1: the scene depicted in the painting. There are 65 birds on the cover, 20 in the painting, 18 flying and 2 dead, with 45 more on the frame itself. There are 2 mountains, 1 river running through 1 valley, on mountain #2 (or #1 if you read R→L) there is 1 man with 1 detonator resulting in 1 explosion on mountain #1 (or #2 if you read L←R).

6 months after ²sato870930 completed it, Molly Boniface photographed the painting hung up at night 3/3 of our residency at the Horse Hospital, a grade 2 listed building at Colonnade, WC1N 1JD, whose construction started in 1794. 200 years later, caroline member, My New Band Believe musician, and Horse Hospital employee Alex McKenzie was born. This photo (DSC02031-Enhanced-NR) was used on the final album cover, which was designed by Joseph Bradley-Hill.

Today, the 17th of February 2026, marks the release of Numerology, 52 days before My New Band Believe on the 10th of April. I wrote it 2 days before a 10-date tour across 7 states with 6-strong Black Country, New Road. The word ass appears 53 times, the word one 27, and the word “night” 26 times. It features 8 musicians, none of whom, apart from George Johnson, feature on the album. I paid less attention to the album rules, with 1 4-string electric bass (Josh Finerty of Shame and Boygenius), and smacking the 88s: Seth Evans, 27, black midi keyboardist between the years 2020-23 and ages 21-25, who produced it with me. 2 versions of My New Band Believe, the deluxe LP and deluxe CD, come with a bonus 10” or maxi-CD of Numerology. The maxi contains 7 versions of it, the 7th being Numerology (71331295238).

The idea is for the band to eventually end up functionally similar to King Crimson, with 1 lineup making a record together, touring it, and then after 1 year, 2 years, whatever, deciding individually and collectively whether or not to carry on. Newness and regeneration is then built into the way the band operates - but who knows, let’s not set up false expectations. It’s early days with the live stuff but so far we’ve played 14 shows with 44 different musicians as an in4mal 2-way audition process. A lot of the new music we’ve been playing has been relatively simple compared to My New Band Believe, 2 or 3 chords, 2 or 3 sections, 2 or 3 ideas max in order for the 2 or 3, or 4 or more other players to be able to come at it with 0 preparation.

My New Band Believe, 16 letters, 4 words, 8 songs, 36 minutes, 38 seconds, and 177 numbers to avoid talking about so much on the record best discovered for yourself.