Passenger to Tamworth is a band with a unique origin story, stemming from a £20 bass guitar bought by Neill Austin in a UK pub 30 years ago. After years of working in music, recording bands, heading production at Ireland’s first Alt Rock radio station (Phantom 105.2), and DJing at Whelan’s, Neill rediscovered the bass while preparing to teach someone to play. To honor its legacy, he wrote and recorded five tracks over six months, featuring harmony vocals from Louise Meagor and lead guitar by Ian Bogle.
Their music tackles quirky questions that middle-aged punk rockers ponder, such as the absurdity of a potential North Korean attack during a drunken broadcast or the absence of opera in the Cayman Islands. With snarky pop-punk energy, heavy bass, and pounding drums, Passenger to Tamworth delivers clever, ironic lyrics that invite listeners to shout along as they navigate life’s chaos, perhaps while enjoying another drink.
Passenger to Tamworth has released a thought-provoking new single titled “Rockets Over Russia,” which carries an eerie urgency reminiscent of news announcements played at 1.5x speed. The track navigates through various musical variations, combining crisp, upbeat beats with intriguing synths that convey a sense of frustration and tension.
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Thematically, “Rockets Over Russia” delves into the chaos, paranoia, and catastrophic consequences of political recklessness and nuclear warfare. The song paints a dark, cinematic picture of a world spiraling toward nuclear destruction—not driven by strategy or necessity, but by ego, panic, and miscommunication at the highest levels of power. Figures like Trump, Kristi Noem, and Putin are depicted as players in a nightmarish chain reaction, where diplomacy collapses and humanity teeters on the brink of annihilation.
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The repeated chorus, “It’s a game and it’s not friendly / You can’t always see your enemy / Falling for the complimentary / Ending up a distant memory,” captures the illusion of control that defines modern geopolitics. The “game” represents the dangerous dance of nations armed with nuclear weapons, where pride and perception often take precedence over peace, leading to a scenario where everyone ultimately loses.
We spoke to Passenger to Tamworth about their new single and more. Keep reading to learn more.
- Hey Passenger to Tamworth! Welcome to Sinusoidal. “Rockets Over Russia” feels like a cinematic panic attack. Part satire, part social warning. What sparked the idea for this track?
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Not really a common subject for a debut single in fairness, but I started writing it last year on holiday after reading a book where a single missile fired at the right time by North Korea could start a war between the US and Russia. It was pretty disturbing as it’s an actual scenario the US military thought plausible and they’d have trouble defending against. Add into the mix the building of a massive underground palace by the North Korean regime designed to keep them safe for 10 years in the case of a major nuclear exchange, and you have the whole world’s existence on the edge of a knife. Whilst that’s bad enough, if you throw into the mix an inexperienced US Secretary of Defence you could end up with a pretty bad situation pretty quickly. I guess the track was to highlight that this situation is critical, and the tensions between nuclear armed nations can’t be managed by tweeting and posturing…
- The song’s pacing, that feeling of urgency, like the world spinning out of control, mirrors the theme. Did you consciously shape the rhythm to feel like a countdown to disaster?
Yes, exactly. The keys at the beginning were made to sound like an air raid warning and the bass line and drums keep building the tension in the track like you’d find in a panicked situation . In a real nuclear war you’ve about 12 minutes to make a call on what actions you want to take, after that it’s about escaping to safety, I wanted the listener to be pulled into that sense of urgency and feel the panic starting to build.
- The mix feels cinematic, almost like a news broadcast unraveling in real time. Did you approach production with that apocalyptic newsreel energy in mind?
We went through a couple of iterations with the lyrics, but what worked was shaping the narrative into what a live news feed would probably have in that situation. Outside of my music I’ve worked in crisis management and have seen all the best laid plans go up in smoke when something unexpected happens: As Mike Tyson once said “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. With 12 minutes to make a call on actions that could end humanity outright you need people in charge who can hold it together and make the right call without panicking. I guess the track looks at what could happen if that isn’t the case. The video kind of followed the same format, showing how people can be cheering on the escalating situation with no idea what its going to lead to, whilst others are manipulating it in the background.
- Did the final version of the song sound anything like your first demo, or did it evolve dramatically through experimentation?
No, We must have worked on the track for 12 months, and it was never intended to go on the EP originally because it was much too long. The change came when we shifted to look at the personal interactions in that 12 minute window of a nuclear exchange rather than the subject of general welfare. Once that was dialed in, everything fell into place. Although I did get sidetracked trying to find the perfect air raid siren to sample, which we ended up creating with a synth 🙂
- How do you want listeners to feel by the end? Angry, amused, unsettled, or all three?
I guess I’d like people to be a bit unsettled, after all this is a situation researched by the US military who found it was a plausible attack strategy. I’d also hope they’d look at who’s in charge of the nuclear arsenal on all sides and demand accountability from those making the decisions: Critical situations need the top people in their field to take charge of them, I think it’s important to make sure anyone in a critical position is correctly qualified and capable.
- After a 30-year journey from buying that £20 bass to this single, how does Rockets Over Russia capture where Passenger to Tamworth is today?
Ha! Good question. When I bought that bass years ago I was a skinny white punk guy with dreadlocks questioning why we all had to be governed in the first place. These days I understand that without rules of law enforced for everyone regardless of how much power you have, humans can get away with some truly horrible actions that damage us all. Rockets Over Russia is about calling that out. Maybe I’m getting wiser in my old age, but I believe the best way to make things better is through dialog and understanding; all this bipartisanism gets us nowhere apart from being more divided. We should all be able to sit down at a table across from someone we disagree with, and still be able to talk and listen.
- What’s next for Passenger to Tamworth?
We’re working on the next EP already, to be released early next year with any luck. Might not cover nuclear war this time, but I think the lead single will be about the time I broke my mate Jeff’s knee smuggling him out of his care home for quadriplegics. True story 🙂
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