My New Band Believe’s debut album began as a fever dream

Delirious in a Chinese hotel room, Cameron Picton was battling through the worst of a sudden illness when he was overcome by flashes of weird imagery and loose ribbons of scrambled text. The musician would later salvage and shape some of these fragments into songs, but the one that lodged most clearly in his mind was the odd phrase, “My New Band Believe.”

When it came time to christen his solo project there was no decision to be made; this unwieldy assemblage of words had to be his signature.   As the bassist and sometime frontman of black midi, Picton and his bandmates practiced an explosive form of musical world-building, weaving complex story-telling through thrilling passages of controlled chaos. When the group called it quits in 2023, the artist didn’t immediately feel like making a solo record or jumping back into another band.

Loose plans to be a rotating collaborator with various London groups à la Jim O’Rourke, including caroline were discussed, even rehearsed, but never fully materialised. It was from this position of a not-quite team player, not-quite bandleader that Picton entered the studio and the seeds of My New Band Believe gradually began to emerge.