[Cover photo credit to Michael Stasiak]
Modern Nature has announced their new album, The Heat Warps due out August 29, 2025 via Bella Union. To accompany the announcement the band have shared lead single “Pharaoh”, a track influenced by Andrew Weatherall who, before he passed away in 2020, played Modern Nature on his NTS radio show and inspired them with his motto “Fail we may, sail we must”.
Commenting on the track, Jack Cooper says:
It’s a song about the men we’re conditioned to respect and follow and it’s a song about the people who inspire us to think differently. It’s as much about Pharaoh Sanders as it is about the kings and politicians we’re meant to believe in. ‘Pharaoh’ makes the case for finding a personal philosophy and trying to live a life that might inspire others or at the very least not hurt them.”
The Heat Warps features the core trio of Jack Cooper (vocals, guitar), Jim Wallis (drums) and Jeff Tobias (bass guitar) augmented by a new guitarist, Tara Cunningham. Jacl Cooper feels that this new band is “a symbol for his reawakening and the perfect vessel for him to continue to explore themes of collectivism, our relationship with the natural world, the weight of consciousness – but with more directness and purpose.” The new work built on an equally new dual guitar sound.
Though the new album wrestles with “anxieties”, Jack Cooper explains:
Every day we’re confronted with a confusing and scary world. Making music and creating things can sometimes feel flippant or unnecessary, but my own world view was defined and influenced by art and artists who weren’t afraid to highlight and offer solutions: Public Enemy, The Smiths, and a wider American counterculture.
Cooper continues:
The community we’ve built our life around – artists, musicians and the people who gravitate to these things as a way of communicating – are struggling to reconcile how they fit into an increasingly cruel world. This album, the themes and the lyrics are directed towards them because I think there are still reasons to be optimistic. There are amazing things happening all around us and it’s up to communities like ours to double down on the things we believe in. It feels as if being part of a group like Modern Nature and making an album that’s open, optimistic and ambitious is in itself part of the solution.
Tour Dates – TICKETS
12/10: Arcata, CA @ The Miniplex
12/12: Seattle, WA @ Clock Out Lounge
12/13: Portland, OR @ Holocene
12/14: Point Reyes, CA @ Dance Palace
12/15: San Francisco, CA @ 4 Star Theater
12/17: Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
12/18: Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
