CYMBALS, the duo comprised of Jack Cleverly and Dan Simons, will return with a newfound strength after a series of personal challenges on their second album, Light In Your Mind, out August 25th, 2017 via Tough Love Records. It’s their first new material in two years, and the follow-up to their debut LP The Age of Fracture.

CYMBALS’ line up has been through changes. Amidst that change there has always existed the songwriting duo of Cleverly and Simons, who formed the band in 2011 with the sole intention of “having fun”. At various points over the last six years and across three albums, an EP and single, a rotating cast of at least ten other people have formed some version of CYMBALS. It wasn’t until everything else was stripped away and all others had left that the two finally began to be what they first tried to be. Others still contributed to Light In Your Mind – Justin Goings and Josh Hefferman both provide drums, while Alabaster DePlume plays saxophone on “Fully Automated Luxury.” Producer Kristian Robinson (Capitol K) is a major presence across the album and played a key role in guiding the transition from the band’s sound on their previous record to this one (indeed, this was the first time the band spent any significant time in a studio). Jorge Elbrecht, whose work with Ariel Pink and Tamaryn had inspired the band, mixed the record in Miami, adding those elusive final touches that make it CYMBALS’ best album to date.

Cleverly explains, “When the band cut down to just me and Dan, and we stopped trying to find more people, I remember that it was scary at the time, and we didn’t know if we would keep going. We agreed to a few rehearsals together and see where it went. We had a great surprise: it felt great, the writing was easy. It was if together we gave up trying to be anything other than what we are. We cut any bullsh*t between the two of us and talked honestly about the last few years. We found that when we started writing together, we were going faster towards the feeling that had given rise to CYMBALS in the first place.”

The ‘bullsh*t’ that Cleverly refers to was hardly trivial. Failing relationships, betrayal, addiction, illness: the emotional challenges were huge. Thankfully, they were not insurmountable, and as with so much creative practice, it was through the music itself that a wider understanding of the world was found.

Cleverly recognizes the unexpected contrasts best when commenting on the name of the album: “The title Light In Your Mind comes from the song “Where Nothing Can Be Defined.” The idea of not being able to name what’s happening is kind of a cop out, but it’s about grasping at something within when that thing within is not a clear light or dark.”

Cleverly elaborates, “In this title I see the image of a guy escaping an imaginary world. But the Light In Your Mind is that there is nothing to escape. In the constant decline, there is always revival.”

Light In Your Mind Tracklisting:
1. Decay
2. Car Crash
3. Talk To Me
4. I Thought I Knew You
5. My Body (Winter Mix)
6. Where Nothing Can Be Defined
7. Splitting
8. Euphoric Recall
9. ASMR
10. Fully Automated Luxury
11. Lifetime Achievement Award

CYMBALS European Tour:

5/03 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House*
5/04 – Manchester, UK @ Soup Kitchen*
5/07 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds*
5/08 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana*
5/09 – Brighton, UK @ The Green Door Store*
5/10 – London, UK @ The Lexington*

* w/ Hoops