BLITZ VEGA KEEPING THE SOUND OF THE LATE ANDY ROURKE ALIVE WITH NEW SINGLE

Anne Kelly Published: March 2024 | Updated: March 2024 3 minutes read

‘DISCONNECTED’ IS THE SECOND SINGLE FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM ‘NORTHERN GENTLEMAN’

After the great Andy Rourke passed away in May 2023, his Blitz Vega bandmate and co-founder Kav Sandhu vowed to complete the project to fulfil Andy’s wish to see the album released and for people to hear the music they had spent so many years recording. It was a proud but bittersweet moment when, on what would’ve been Andy’s 60th birthday, Blitz Vega announced details of the ‘Northern Gentleman’ album along with its April 26th release date. Now Blitz Vega further preview the record by sharing the new single ‘Disconnected’.

As the album’s opening track, ‘Disconnected’ quickly establishes the Blitz Vega sound: driving rock ‘n’ roll attitude, echoes of what New Order might sound like had they been formed in 2024, and a maelstrom of vintage synth sounds. Kav Sandhu’s vocal delivery is both soulful and insouciant, providing a timeless, mesmerising alt-rock lead vocal.

And of course, Andy’s bass is instinctively recognisable from his many iconic moments with The Smiths. Yet this isn’t a retread of that band: Blitz Vega shows that his musicianship and songwriting ability remained on peak form in a completely different project until his final sessions.

Kav says, “We originally started recording this track in July 2019 in a studio in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Andy came in with the bassline & we built a song around it. The lyrics came far later & are about a desire to escape from the digital world & all the distractions that come with it. The lust for basic human connection & the passion & excitement that comes with new relationships”.

The ‘Northern Gentleman’ album documents the journey that Kav and Andy undertook during the preceding seven years together. It showcases their shared songwriting flair and each moment holds special significance for Kav, given the memories of making it. Most of the album was written shortly before and during the pandemic – challenging circumstances for sure, but all the more so given Andy’s illness. However, somehow it only inspired them to become even more relentlessly creative, with the duo’s production skills complemented on the final album by Will Kennedy, Jagz Kooner & Z-Trip.

Beyond the release of the album and accompanying touring (a promise that Kav made to Andy), the future for Blitz Vega is so far undecided. The live band is completed by Asa Brown (keyboards / backing vocals), Rex Roulette (guitar), Greg Gent (guitar / backing vocals), Craig Eriksson (drums) and George Yelding (bass).

Andy’s former Smiths bandmate Johnny Marr also appears on the album’s previous single ‘Strong Forever’.

News of ‘Northern Gentleman’ received a spread of international coverage from media including NME, Brooklyn Vegan and Stereogum. Blitz Vega’s other recent activity has included a headline show at London’s Scala and the full commercial release of ‘Strong Forever’ as a limited edition 8-track vinyl EP following its initial drop as part of Record Store Day 2023.