Big Truck Debut Album ‘Midday At The Middleway’ Is Out Now Via Marshall Records; Featuring The Focus Track ‘Surf The Suffering’

BIG TRUCK Debut Album ‘Midday At The Middleway’ Is Out Now Via Marshall Records; Featuring The Focus Track ‘Surf The Suffering’

Uniting the songwriting talents of Laurie Vincent (SOFT PLAY) with the musicianship of his bandmates Sam Coppin (drums), Asa Thallon (guitar) and Justin Myles (keys), Big Truck present something engagingly fresh: abstract pop made with a creative freedom, and rich with lyrics which blend stream-of-consciousness expression with blunt snapshots of Laurie’s day-to-day life. Now Big Truck unveil their eagerly anticipated debut album ‘Midday At The Middleway’.

The album is a leap away from the visceral raw energy of Laurie’s work with SOFT PLAY. Abstract pop is an apt starting point, but it only hints at Big Truck’s range. Instead, the band runs the gauntlet, from indie-pop hooks that recall The Cure or The Smiths, to the widescreen atmospherics of The War On Drugs or Sam Fender, to the leftfield style of The Breeders or Joeyfat. That eclecticism has been a thread running their recent singles, such as the soulful, sun-kissed ‘Rebounder’, the woozy, waltz-like ‘Collider’ or the heartland rock of ‘Central Reservation Blues’.

The album’s new focus track ‘Surf The Suffering’ bursts from the speakers with a joyous, crunching melody - instantly catchy but also sufficiently caustic to unleash moshpit chaos at shows. The idea behind its lyrics is simple: the morning battle against the excesses of the night before. It’s also symbolic of the album’s wider philosophy: an acceptance of life’s yin-and-yang ups-and-downs. Big Truck also today release an electrifying live video of the song, their thunderous performance accompanied by a big reaction from the crowd at a homecoming show at Tunbridge Wells Forum.

Laurie says, “It’s about being at peace and atoning for your sins. Like accepting that you hit it hard, but that doesn’t mean that’s who you are. We all have rough edges, but you can’t be completely smooth. So the goal is to move through life accepting those things. Things can't be good if they're not shit sometimes. That’s what this album is about. It’s this radical acceptance of life, it gets easier but it never gets easy”.

The other new material on ‘Midday At The Middleway’ is just as essential, whether it’s the post-punk paranoia of ‘Polyester Vibrations’, the raw intimacy of ‘Heavensent’, the echoes of Pixies on ‘Feel Me’, or the glitch-rock ‘Head So Full’. The record is bridged by the piano-driven beat-poetry of its ‘Interlude’, with music written by Justin Myles.

Big Truck themselves are a band that emerged effectively fortuitously. Laurie Vincent and Sam Coppin were both part of the same Tunbridge Wells music scene back in the day, and had made plans to start a band together that never quite came to fruition. Early in 2025, they reconnected after a chance meeting and Sam was excited by the strength of some new songs that his old friend had been writing. Sam enlisted Asa Thallon, a young guitarist he had been casually mentoring, and then Justin Myles came on-board after Sam had been wowed by his talents after seeing him play while working in the studio at the Supajam music college. Recording the album was just as free-flowing, captured in just four days of sessions at Marshall Studio.

The media and public reaction has been instantaneous. This year has seen the band attract big crowds at 2000trees and The Great Escape, as well as enjoying rapturous receptions with select headline shows. There has also been in-depth coverage from Kerrang! and Dork, and further media attention including NME and The Line of Best Fit. Radio support has included a session and an interview with John Kennedy for Radio X, while Laurie joined MC Grindah on Huw Stephens’ Roundtable discussion on 6 Music. He was also a guest on last weekend’s ‘Sunday Brunch’.

Now streaming, physical copies of ‘Midday At The Middleway’ are available to buy HERE.

Today sees Big Truck start a record store tour at Truck in Oxford, which continues at London’s Rough Trade Denmark Street and then Resident in Brighton. They also have two festival dates on the calendar, the Neighbourhood Festival and the Reeperbahn Festival.

BUY/LISTEN HERE

Tracklist:

1. ‘Feel Me?...’

2. ‘Central Reservation Blues’

3. ‘Polyester Vibrations (and the Handstand Currency)’

4. ‘Surf The Suffering’

5. ‘Collided’

6. ‘Head So Full (algae riddim)’

7. ‘Rebounder’

8. ‘Dress For All Weathers’

9. ‘Interlude’

10. ‘Heavensent’

11. ‘Keep On Trucking’