Skegss announce new album ‘Pacific Highway Music’

August 22, 2024 James Weaver

SKEGSS have announced a new album!

Titled Pacific Highway Music, the upcoming album from the Australian surf rock band is the follow-up to 2021’s Rehearsal, and is scheduled to be released in October this year, via Loma Vista Recordings.

Recorded at two iconic Lose Angeles studios (The Village and Topanga Canyon’s Fivestar Studios), Pacific Highway Music partly owes its wildly unpredictable sound to the period of time SKEGGS spent cutting demos at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree with studio owner Dave Catching (a musician/engineer known for his work with QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, MARK LANEGAN, and more). “In the past I’d deprived myself of using things like synthesizers, not realizing how much texture and atmosphere they can add to the music,” says vocalist/guitarist Ben Reed. “Working with Paul felt like letting our guard down and completely opening up in terms of what these songs could be.” Pacific Highway Music sustains an unstoppable velocity as the band confronts what he refers to as “the rollercoaster of emotions that come with being human.”

In choosing a title for their new album, SKEGSS honor their roots by nodding to the Australian coastal road they’ve driven on countless of times (on tour and on frequent surf trips), while also reflecting the band’s deepened sense of purpose. “I’ve spent a lot of my life driving on the Pacific Highway, and most of the time it puts me in a bit of hypnotic state,” says Reed. “With this album I tried to be as honest as possible, but I also wanted to create the kind of songs that give you that same feeling—songs where you can shut your eyes, let your imagination take over, and drift off into another world that exists only in your mind.”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, SKEGSS have released a new music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; Out Of My Head. The new song is the second single to be released from the upcoming album, following on from Spaceman, which was released back in May.

“Don’t get caught up on how someone makes you feel for too long in a negative way, pretend you get to restart life again and go do the things that make you thrive,” Reed says of the track. “We all say and do dumb things no matter how wise someone seems. So don’t get too hung up on your mistakes if you recognise them.”

Watch the official music video for Out Of My Head here:

Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:

Track List:

1. Tradewinds
2. High Beaming
3. I Think I Can Fly
4. Brain On The Highway
5. Stuck In Cheyenne
6. Spaceman
7. Batten Down The Hatches
8. Aeroplane Heart
9. Out Of My Head
10. It Is
11. Kelly Heroes