Post-punk and new-wave blending outfit Current Affairs is an assemblage of veteran musicians: Glaswegian frontwoman Joan Sweeney (formerly of bands Aggi Doom and the Royal We); bassist Gemma Fleet (the Wharves, Order of the Toad, Dancer); drummer Andrew Milk (Shopping, Pink Pound); and on guitar Sebastian Ymai (Comidillo Tapes, Pissy, and Anxiety). With diverse roots – Ymai is from Chile and now based in Berlin, while Fleet and Milk are from London – it’s Glasgow, with its celebrated, longstanding DIY music scene, that the stalwart alt-rockers have claimed as their own musical nucleus.
A version of the band first emerged in 2019, releasing the EP Object and Subject, but it was only after Ymai launched Spite House, an initiative created to highlight female-led and queer music, that today’s iteration of Current Affairs was born. Ymai was driven to launch the project in response to the masculine vibe that proliferated in Glasgow’s gritty live scene at the time. “The motto was: ‘Everyone’s welcome, but don’t get it twisted’,” Sweeney said in an interview with Loverboy magazine. “I think that sums it up quite well.”
Their forthcoming debut album, Off the Tongue, promises an unpredictable, 10-song ride, beset with sudden lane changes and hairpin turns. “Current Affairs is where I can burn the world down one minute and then push for brighter things the next,” says Sweeney. “It’s not always bad to rage, cry or be a Pollyanna.” Perhaps there’s wisdom in this whiplash.
Current Affairs’ debut album, Off the Tongue, is out on 14 July via Tough Love. They’re touring the UK throughout July.
