BELFAST indie rock band The Minnows have released their first new single in almost a decade, with a long-promised and eagerly awaited new album due to follow later this year.

Entitled 'When You're Not Here', the new single is a melodic and uptempo pop rock number with a harder edge, created by its crunching electric guitars, driving bass line and ‘80s influenced keyboards – not forgetting, of course, The Minnows’ trademark harmonies.

The band, who describe themselves on Facebook as ‘Purveyors of Pop Rock Melancholy’, created an impromptu video for the song during lockdown, featuring all four band members Michael Rafferty, Paul Maynes, Kevin Carson and Stephen O'Sullivan playing ‘together’ from their own individual homes.  Such was the reaction to this rare band appearance that they decided to release the song as a single.

“We haven’t released any new material in almost 10 years,” said singer-songwriter Michael Rafferty (aka Raff), “but we’ve been writing new material and working on a new album, which we’re finally ready to release.

“During the lockdown, we thought we’d give all our loyal friends and followers on social media a little surprise by filming a video for ‘When You’re Not Here’ – one of the new album tracks – and posting it on Facebook.

“The response to the video was amazing with thousands of views and people from all over the world making contact to tell us how happy they were to see us together again, how much they loved the song, and asking where they could buy it,” he added.

“To be honest, it was a little overwhelming to see how much love there still is for the band out there – so we decided that we really need to get the album released as a matter of priority, with ‘When You’re Not Here’ as the first single. And here we are!

“I think this whole Coronavirus thing has been a real wake-up call to all of us,” continued Raff.  “Life’s simply too short and too precious to be sitting on a finished album for as long as we have been.  Yes, we all have lots of other stuff in our lives to be dealing with and sometimes the music is put on the back burner as a result.  But we know now that we’ve got to focus and set aside time to get things done. 

“This single is just the start of it, to be followed by more singles and ultimately the album, which we’re all extremely proud of.  I know it’s a rock cliché but we feel the album is the best thing we’ve ever done and we’re very excited at the prospect of unleashing it at last on the general public,” he concluded.

The Minnows (formerly Tiberius’ Minnows) first came to prominence in 1991 with the release of their debut single ‘Time Flies’ on the famous Good Vibrations record label. 

‘When You’re Not Here’ is now available on all main digital platforms, including iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon and Spotify.  More Minnows news and music can be found at www.minnowsband.com or check out the band’s Facebook page.