Manchester band, Doves, have released a brand-new single, but to listen to it, fans must play it themselves.
Doves fifth album, The Universal Want, will be released on Friday 11th September on EMI. After the first two singles, ‘Carousels’ and ‘Prisoners’, the band have now given fans the opportunity to hear the album’s closing track, ‘Forest House’, by ‘leaking’ the sheet music and lyrics to the song. The more musically inclined of Dove’s fans have been given the challenge of interpreting the music of ‘Forest House’ and playing their rendition of it. Musicians of all capabilities are encouraged to use #dovesleak to share their attempts, with a chance to win a signed The Universal Want Box Set and Jimi Goodwin’s original vocals being added to their recording.
“It’s been eleven years since our last album, and we all know how hard the last few months have been, so let’s have a little fun where we can. Anyone can have a go, even if all they have is an old, beat-up guitar, so let’s see what people can cook up.”
To help fans, Doves have shared a short clip of the song being played and have translated the music into scores for piano, lead guitar, rhythm guitar and bass.
The most ear-catching performance will be rewarded, whether they have spun the track completely on its’ head and created a different version of the song entirely, or they have performed the track exactly as Doves’ intended. However, with their latest single, ‘Prisoners’, being full of samples and different sounds, it’s going to take some doing to predict exactly what Doves intentions are. It is particularly exciting to see what weird and wonderful renditions that fans are going to pull out of the bag and share onto social media.
Only on the release date of The Universal Want will entrees know how close to the original version of ‘Forest House’ they got, as the final day for entries is 10th September, just a day before the album will be out in the world.
Radiohead were instrumental in changing how music was bought in 2007, as they released In Rainbows as a ‘pay as you want’ scheme, allowing fans to decide what they thought the album was worth. Iron Maiden announced their album, The Book of Souls, with an 8-bit retro online game for fans to enjoy. Doves are the latest band to market their album in an interactive and unorthodox way. Finding a way to get fans involved with their music seems to be a great way of getting their name trending on social media and gaining momentum for the band’s release.
Doves’ last album, Kingdom of Rust, was released in 2009, when the music industry was a very different place. Spotify was only launched six months prior and music streaming services were not the superpowers of the industry that they are now. After eleven years without releasing an album, Doves knew they needed to do something different to break through the noise and get back into the mainstream. With the coronavirus pandemic making it even more essential for bands to have an online presence, Doves are making sure that they’re comeback is as strong as it can be.
“We find ourselves in the middle of such strange world events. It’s still exciting to be releasing music, because I’m dead proud of what we’ve managed to pull together after 11 years,” they say.
Last month saw Doves announce a tour of the UK, which will be their first in twelve years and will take place in March and April 2021.
March 2021
21 – University Great Hall, Cardiff
22 – O2 Academy, Bournemouth
23 – UEA, Norwich
25 – Brighton Dome, Brighton
26 – O2 Academy Brixton, London
29 – O2 Academy, Bristol
30 – O2 Academy, Birmingham
April 2021
1 – O2 Apollo, Manchester
2 – Rock City, Nottingham
3 – O2 Academy, Newcastle
5 – Eventim Olympia, Liverpool
9 – O2 Academy, Sheffield
10 – Barrowland, Glasgow
TWELVE INCH 