Latvian trio Carnival Youth are back with a brand new release - a double A side single featuring ‘Birthday’ and ‘Phantom Planet’ on 16^th March via their own label, Carnival Youth through The Orchard.

Blending gloriously hazy vocals with Tame Impala-esque jangle guitars, the two new songs manage to pull of an incredible combination of the melodic, experimental and catchy sound for which the band have become known for. Carnival Youth are Edgars Kaupers, Emīls Kaupers, Roberts Vanags and Aleksis Luriņš.

These tracks are the first taster from their new album. Emils described ‘Birthday’ as “Feeling careless and celebratory, even too naive sometimes. It's interesting how this one day each year makes us feel so special that we can forget about everything else and there are no more responsibilities. That day we feel like we can be the happiest, but, of course, it's just a beautiful illusion”.   On Phantom Planet “It was one of the last songs that came together for the record. We felt that the verse had this darkish groovy hip-hop vibe, so the lyrics came up about the inner world, the one we always feel, but aren’t always in control of – and the way how it’s in contrast with the other world – the everyday normal side of us. A dialogue like one Dale Cooper's character has in Twin Peaks. But it's not a fight, it's cohabitation.”

Their new music was recorded last summer in Red Bull Studios in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s produced by the band’s long-time collaborator Gatis Zakis and mixed by the Grammy winning producer Nicolas Verhnes, who has previously worked with Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, Wild Nothing, The War on Drugs and several others. The mastering was done by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound in New York (The National, MGMT, Interpol and Arcade Fire).

The new music follows up to a series of internationally acclaimed releases, which gained the band the title of Latvia’s biggest musical export. Part of a new generation of bands coming out from the Baltic, Carnival Youth became the first Latvian act to win The European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) and EBBA ‘Public Choice Award’ at Eurosonic.

Their debut EP ‘Never Have Enough’ opened the doors to the European Festivals circuit, as well as gaining the band a steady radio support across Europe and the UK, including backing from 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq. Three years later and over two million Spotify plays, their first debut album ‘No Clouds Allowed’ ended up being rewarded as Best Debut Album of The Year in Latvia, earning them support from BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens, John Kennedy on Xposure, and Jim Gellatly on Amazing Radio. Whilst sophomore album ‘Propeller’, prompted Noisey to realize that “there's some pretty f**king cool music coming out of the Baltics these days”.

Photo by Filips Smits Photography