The Vacant Lots release single/video 'Damaged Goods' ahead of new LP

Brooklyn-based duo The Vacant Lots are dropping their new single ‘Evacuation’, the third to be lifted from their incoming ‘Interiors’ LP out October 13th on Fuzz Club. Arriving off the back of recent singles ‘Amnesia’ and ‘Damaged Goods’, ‘Evacuation’ sees a blistering disco-on-downers dance beat shot through with lacerating guitars and icy detached vocals. Stream it here: thevacantlots.lnk.to/evacuation

The Vacant Lots’ Jared Artaud says of the track: “Evacuation is about internal conflicts and the duality of love and loss within a relationship. Looking inward and carving out the pain was a mantra for the whole album. You get this moment in time and space to translate complex feelings into the work. It cuts both ways. You’re creating something out of necessity that can also be shared with other people to inspire them or make them feel less alone. That’s what I’m after.”

Brian MacFadyen adds: “This track immediately resonated with both of us early on in the ‘trading demos’ phase of writing the record because of its primitive and raucous aesthetic. It taps into the original DNA of the band.”

The 8 songs on ‘Interiors’ – The Vacant Lots’ fifth studio album – synthesise all of the duo’s past work while pushing forward into the future. Ethereal metallic synths and blistering electronics are driven by disco-on-downers dance beats lashed with gutter-rock guitar riffs and evocatively concise and lacerating vocals. “I like writing songs you can dance or zone out to”, Artaud says: “That duality of individual listening and music played in a crowd has always attracted me. A cross between the club and headphones. Music for loners and lovers.”

Long-time supporter of the band and godfather of punk Iggy Pop perhaps perfectly articulated The Vacant Lots’ ethos when spinning the band on his BBC 6 Music show: “I like The Vacant Lots. They try a number of things to just make a musical mood. They’re really not going for ‘this is pop’ or ‘this is dance’ or ‘yeah man rock n roll’ or whatever it is. They just create a nice mood wherever they go.”

Recorded over many sleepless nights and amphetamine-fueled mornings in the project’s isolated Brooklyn bunker home studios, ‘Interiors’ goes deeper into the band’s minimal is maximal aesthetic, with nods to 70s/80s punk and nightclub music ala Joy Division, Iggy Pop’s The Idiot, Depeche Mode, and New Order. The album sees The Vacant Lots team up once again with Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher) on mixing duties, who also worked on the band’s last two albums, ‘Closure’ (2022) and ‘Interzone’ (2020).

Outside of Jared Artaud's work in The Vacant Lots, he is also the Creative Director of the Alan Vega and Suicide estates – discovering, co-producing and mixing the lost Alan Vega albums 'Mutator' (2021) and 'Insurrection' (2023) as well as curating many releases, such as the collection of Suicide rarities released with the 2023 'A Way Of Life' reissue. Recently, Artaud co-produced alongside Hedi Slimane the exclusive soundtrack – an extended mix of Suicide's 'Girl' – for Celine's Le Palace FW23 runway show and has also facilitated or collaborated on Alan Vega / Suicide projects with fashion design companies Marc Jacobs, Midnight Studios, Agnes B and Dries Van Noten