Krooked Tongue Releases Debut Album “I Know a Place”
Bristol-based alt-rock band Krooked Tongue, consisting of Oli Rainsford (lead vocals/bass), Dan Smith (guitar/vocals) and Harry Pritchard (drums), released their highly-anticipated debut album “I Know a Place” on April 24, 2026.
The album comprises 10 tracks, produced by long-time collaborator Josh Gallop at Stage 2 Studios in Bath, written by Oli Rainsford, Dan Smith, and Harry Pritchard.
It spans the breadth of the human experience: teenage love, life's turbulences, unfulfillment, technology, human connection, grief and fighting fear and exploring the unknown.
The album marks a shift toward the most striking evolution of the band's sound, from initially forming whilst at university together, to spending years refining their songwriting and finding a mature sonic identity that is unmistakably theirs.
The band lead singer Oli Rainsford said of the album, “'So here it is. The debut album. It almost feels as though it's always been. That this collection of songs have been rattling around in peoples heads for eternity but then we're met with the reality that this is just the beginning. The title track from the debut album of the same name 'I Know A Place' is a reference to the conflict and the game of chess played by authoritarian figures throughout history time and time again. We live in turbulent times where people will too gladly pin their politics to the mast and let human connection fall by the wayside. We are only to blame for our failure to connect, falling into the abyssal trenches of division. Despite the commentary on the state of society, as a band we aim to allow the listener to find escapism from reality. An umbrella to the acid rain, where underneath sits two deck chairs and a cooler full of beers. This album hopes to bring back the love that we have so carelessly released our grip from.”
Oli Rainsford explained track by track for the album.
“I Know A Place” “And although the overall feeling of this album is one of love. 'I Know a Place' pays homage to the friendly stranger that brings you in for a cup of tea when you need a place to get in from the cold. Or the high school sweetheart that wants to sneak off from the dance to be alone together, somewhere where nobody goes. It's every secret hideout with friends in the dying light of summer, and every bar where you talk and laugh deep into the night with the people you care most about. It's the cure to the bleakest of days in which you can turn and say 'I Know A Place'. It's whatever and wherever you want it to be. We hope with this album that we can ignite the thing that makes us love music at its core. It doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, it just has the ride that wheel down to its spokes and take everyone on a ride that they'll never forget.”
“Let 'Em Loose” “'Let 'Em Loose' is a song that parallels the technological age we find ourselves in today. We're all so addicted to screen time that we forget how important it is for us to spend time with each other, really with each other. No distractions; Harking back to that old cliche of 'living in the moment'.
'Let Em' Loose' is a song that reminds us to be a little more present in a world where it seems like being tethered to a plug socket is the norm. It's a reminder to look up. There's a whole universe in front of us. Whilst you're scrolling reels or finding yourself down YouTube rabbit holes all night, you're missing your kids growing up, you're missing out on your Grandad's most compelling stories and you're eating away at the dwindling hourglass of time. It's harder now more than ever NOT to be sucked into the world of social media, but in the words of Eddie Abbew ... 'Wake the fuck up'.
We had a sick time recording this one with Josh at Stage 2 Studios. We made sure to get the tones and sonic palette dialled in to make those chorus and lead parts as beefed up as possible. Getting diction on the vocal down for 'Let Em' Loose' felt particularly important because it is very lyric heavy, so we wanted to make sure the message was conveyed clearly. The lyrics in the chorus draw inspiration from the Black Mirror episode 'Metalhead'. I think the way in which technology is represented as these robotic minions hunting people in rural settings is quite a relevant visualisation of the message in 'Let 'Em Loose'. Especially now with a sudden push for AI to do everything that's made us human. Maybe there's a place for that somewhere, but it shouldn't be used where it can fragment society more than it already is now. We need to regain our sense of importance. 'Let 'Em Loose' is your warning.”
“Ember Mile” “In a lot of ways, 'Ember Mile' is the more positive cousin of 'Nothing Ever Grows'. It's a victory song. The cry of the inner battle when it comes to trying to create. The concept of 'Ember Mile' is something I conjured up that embodied the electricity of a moment. To me it feels like the part of a movie where the hero finally knows what they have to do to save the day. Here comes the triumphant music and the 80s montages. You could say it's our Rocky 4.
'Ember Mile' is the clairvoyance, a beacon to channel your dreams and actually make something happen. SO often we talk about doing things but never follow through. I suppose this is the kick up the arse to make it happen. I wanted this song to feel like an internal monologue, breaking the fourth wall and spitting back with a sarcastic tongue. 'Ember Mile' refers to a proverbial golden, fiery strip of road where the final idea awaits on the horizon. In my case it's referring to the final hurdle before finishing writing a song.”
“Dog Days” “'Dog Days' is a love song that lingers on the lattice of a ghostly, nostalgia-drenched wedding dress. I feel like 'Dog Days' is a tune that perfectly sums up that feeling of teenage love; There's a chaotic beauty in teenage love. It's everything and nothing all at once. We trick ourselves into thinking that this moment, right now, is all there will ever be. Blinded by the vapour of adoration. Hindsight is everything now, but the innocence of youth is everything at the time. We attach importance to things that seem so trivial now but in the moment, are our whole life.
Those years are ones where we find ourselves, who we are, and those first relationships we have are cornerstones throughout the rest of our lives. Nobody forgets their first love, that's for damn sure. There's a nostalgia for the teen years that I think resonates with most people in their 20s and beyond. A retrospective comfort that makes us remember the weather somehow always being good. Every memory dressed in a golden hue and every moment packed with a constant stream of peers that never seemed to fade. Of course, as we get older they do; friends drift apart and relationships, despite our naivety, come and go. But to have felt the full bearing of our budding emotions at that time, as if the whole world stopped for a summer just so you could live it to the maximum is a beautiful thing.
'Dog Days' is a much more authentically written tune, if you can call it that. It was written on an acoustic originally and then spruced up later with all the niceties of our electric sound. You can still hear that acoustic throughout the tune though as we wanted to keep that rhythm and authentic feel throughout. It's quite a bass heavy track despite its soft nature, which is quite a cool concoction of tonalities. I think it helps drive home that nostalgic fullness that the song harps on.”
“You Don't Need A Sun Tan” “The idea behind 'You Don't Need A Sun Tan' came about after visiting the town I grew up in one summer weekend. Meeting up with your old mates, getting leathered at the pub, and realising that everything is almost exactly how it was when you left. Sure, there's a new wave of people, the next generation of Wetherspoons patriots, but nothing really changes and it's a double edged sword. It's a reminder of why you left to begin with, to see the world, get out of the bubble and head to the city. But there's also a sense of belonging, being back with 'your' people. A certain comfortability that comes with heading back to the old stomping ground.
It's an ode to that message, not one that's positive or negative, just merely an observation. I think 'Sun Tan' also acts as a word of encouragement for people to get out from under the weight of what they know, and discover what they don't know yet.”
“Blood Shark” “'Blood Shark' is a jumper cable to the lazy and uninspired aspects of ourselves. A fat uppercut to our excuses for why we can't, or don't do the things we want to do. Everyone experiences nodus tollens at some point in their existence. Where it seems the vicissitudes of life are too turbulent to navigate. The walls are closing in and there's not a ladder in sight. But we often need change to inspire the solution, taking a step back and approaching our inescapable slump from a different angle.
'Blood Shark' is a plea to find a will so strong that it becomes in itself, unstoppable. The metaphor of the 'Blood Shark' encapsulates the foibles of our decisions. When it's all said and done, when we're being lowered into the ground, the 'Blood Shark waits at the bottom of your grave'. It feasts on a life left unfulfilled, reassuring you with a beguiling grin that it's OK that you didn't follow your dreams. It's a villainous reminder that there's still time to fight back and give the big fish an inedible final judgement.
There's a ton of lyrical nuggets throughout this tune; 'You can run and get back to the river, back until you're scaled' is a play on evolution, or devolution I suppose; the idea that we need to keep moving forward and doing new things in order to grow. And if we aren't willing to take a risk, we are perpetually moving in retrograde. The lyrics were a lot of fun to write, the track offered a chance to be playful within the parameters of such an 'aggy' sounding tune. Like, I really wanted to see if I could squeeze 'Appaloosa' into a song, and I sure as hell did. We've been dying to get this body of work out into the world and give fans something to cherish forever.”
“Nothing Ever Grows” “'Nothing Ever Grows' is a right moody geezer of a song. It was one of those tunes that transpired really quickly and it just captured the essence of the mood perfectly. I think it stems from frustration with yourself when you can't finish that idea, or that lyric.
It's an ode to the tortured artist. It's a splash of cold water, a slap across the face followed by a shot of whiskey. A defibrillating wake up call to say 'Oi, if you don't get yourself in a better headspace, nothing good or prosperous can come out of it'. Hence 'Nothing Ever Grows'. And I think that relates to every aspect of life, not just to creativity”
“Marigold” “'Marigold' is a love letter to the 'what might've been'. Do you ever meet someone in passing and wonder where their life is going to end up? What struggles they might have, what their family is like, what they do in their spare time. It can become fantasy, and it's interesting to speculate. I've always liked to people watch; you can defer so much from just a few seconds of looking at someone, and yet have no idea at all on how valid your assumptions are. Most of the time when we interact with strangers, it never gets a second thought. Maybe a subtle glance, or a smile here and there but mostly it's a cold and disconnected endeavour. But then there's those moments where you have instant chemistry with someone, and for a minute it's electric; the room stops spinning and the chaos fades away. And then you never see that person again. Who knows where a split decision could've taken you. 'Marigold' is THAT electricity.
It's a song that tries its best to put into words the love that lies dormant in us, waiting for someone to break open the safety glass. Although I think it's less of a 'love at first sight' cliche and more of a homage to missed opportunities. 'Marigold' is a fascination with the high speed pace of everyday life, and how we ebb and flow into each other's periphery…like atoms. Destined to live separately or destined to veer from the main road and see where a chance will take us. Like a flower, that only blossoms when the time is right.”
“Drugstore Cowboy” “'Drugstore Cowboy' is a high octane goose chase through downtown, knocking over newsstands, bumping into passersby and tearing through the clustered chaos of the everyday hustle and bustle. There's this movie from the 80's called 'Drugstore Cowboy' with Matt Dillon (based on the book), and I remember watching it for the first time and just soaking in its atmosphere and attitude. It has a ton of 80's charm that I figured would be a really cool subject to translate into a song. It's chaotic and brash but at its heart there's a relatable message. In the pursuit of our own needs, we can often disregard reality. It's about a man who will do anything for a rush no matter the consequences, and despite this, is thoughtful and aware enough to know that he is the way he is. You might not like it, but you gotta respect it. There's a divine peace in knowing your downfalls, and 'Drugstore Cowboy' is a tune that throws its arms wide open, falls backwards and trusts whatever decision fate casts upon us. 'Drugstore Cowboy' is a gunslinging, store raiding soliloquy that acknowledges what it means to truly live in the moment. Being the main character in your own story, even without knowing how that story will end.
The song was actually written on the acoustic, but it was immediately clear it was going to end up a belting javelin of a tune. It harks back to the sounds of mid-late 2000's rock, which is kind of a vibe we reckon, channeling a bit of what was still left of the golden age of MTV. You can almost imagine the boys from Jackass barrelling down a f-ton of stairs with 'Drugstore Cowboy' blasting in the background. At its core it's just a helluva fun song, and sometimes.. that's enough.”
“I Don't Believe In Ghosts” “'I Don't Believe in Ghosts' holds the chalice of uncertainty with the tender grip of an exhausted hand. It's a song that tries its best to pry open the syntax of death, to make sense of it, but knows there's no way to categorise or organise our emotions when it comes to losing someone. The idea of 'ghosts' or 'the paranormal' is one we all know and by the most part reject. I don't buy into any of that stuff, but 'I Don't Believe in Ghosts' acts as a sort of proverbial notepad. A place to whisper your thoughts out into the open and feel as though they're being heard, even if they're not. I think we've lost our way a bit in this modern age, disconnected from humanity and death in an age where death is so commonly consumed through media. We've lost the art of taking a moment, catching our breath. 'I Don't Believe in Ghosts' gifts us that moment to breathe. The lyrics continuously play with the phantom feelings that we all sometimes experience after someone dies. A perfectly timed breeze or a robin that lands nearby on a crisp Autumn morning. We see ourselves and others in moments throughout our life. Whether you believe in those sorts of things or not, the fact that we can even for a split second imagine and say 'maybe it's a sign', is the purity of the human experience.
The song was originally written on piano, as it is on the record, a couple of years ago as part of my Masters dissertation. When it came to start planning our debut album, it just seemed too authentic a song for it to not be included in our first full body of work. It was important for us to keep it authentic. It would've been easy to slap on a bunch of extra stuff, but the song's strength, we agreed, is in its solemn tone. The artwork for the song was inspired by the visualisation of grief in the film 'A Ghost Story'. Something about the crudeness of a classic bed sheet ghost adds to the childlike innocence in keeping with the lack of knowing, when it comes to death. I thought the way that movie embraced the silence and space was really captivating, and it had a clear influence in the writing and performing of the song. Death is a weird thing to write about, it's something so familiar to everyone and yet so alien because it relies on personal experiences. One of the most beautiful things about music is that it often bridges that gap. We want to dedicate this song to everyone who has lost someone, and to everyone who has carried the torch as life hurtles onward. Time heals all. Don't be a ghost. Stay human.”
