Gilla Band face “feeling unloved and finding it difficult to articulate what I’m actually thinking” on first new song in four years, ‘Giraffe’

Gilla Band have shared their first new song in four years in the form of the head-scrambling ‘Giraffe’ – check it out below. 

The influential Dublin group, formerly known as Girl Band, have not released a studio album since their third record ‘Most Normal’ in 2022, but they are now back with new music. 

They have also confirmed details of a string of US tour dates for the end of 2026 and a European tour in January and February 2027, at the end of which they will be playing in Bristol, London, Manchester and Glasgow – see all the details below. 

‘Giraffe’ is typical of the band’s experimental, boundary-pushing approach to guitar music, with distortion and atonality at the fore, and singer Dara Kiely’s tortured, yelled vocals spilling out an internal monologue. 

It will be available as a 7” picture disc via Rough Trade from Friday (May 29) and you can pre-order your copy here. 

Kiely has said: “In this track, the first few sections represent what my general headspace is like. It can be a very scattered and sometimes lonely place. Feeling unloved and finding it difficult to articulate what I’m actually thinking.” 

“The outro on the other hand indirectly details a kind of confirmation that affection towards me does exist. While I appreciate it, I still find that hard to believe. ‘She chased me out the door with a hairbrush demanding that I would wear a suitable jacket.’ It’s a very Irish Mammy action. That amount of love is difficult for me to accept but it is a beautiful thing to have in life.” 

Gilla Band will play: 

OCTOBER 
14 – Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts 
15 – Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere – The Hall 
17 – Allston, MA Brighton Music Hall  
19 – Montreal, QC Fairmount Theatre 
20 – Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace  
21 – Detroit, MI Third Man Records – Cass Corridor 
23 – Chicago, IL The Bottom Lounge  
24 – Saint Paul, MN Turf Club  
27 – Denver, CO Bluebird Theater 
28 – Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court 
30 – Portland, OR Mississippi Studios 
31 – Vancouver, BC The Pearl on Granville  

NOVEMBER 
01 – Seattle, WA Neumos  
03 – San Francisco, CA The Independent  
04 – Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room Highland Park  
07 – Phoenix, AZ Valley Bar  
08 – Santa Fe, NM Meow Wolf 
10 – Austin, TX 29th Street Ballroom 
11 – Denton, TX Rubber Gloves Showroom 
13 – Nashville, TN The Blue Room at Third Man Records 
14 – Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle (Back Room)  
15 – Washington, DC The Atlantis 

JANUARY 2027 
20 – Trabendo – Paris, France 
21 – Le Botanique – Brussels, Belgium  
22 – Le Grand Mix – Tourcoing, France  
23 – Tolhuistuin – Amsterdam, Netherlands  
25 – Ekko – Utrecht, Netherlands  
26 – Betty – Hamburg, Germany  
27 – Loppen -Copenhagen, Denmark  
29 – SO36 – Berlin, Germany  
30 – Hydrozagadka – Warsaw, Poland  
31 – Subzero -Prague, Czech Republic  

FEBRUARY 2027 
02 – Durer Kert – Budapest, Hungary  
03 – Flucc Wanne – Vienna, Austria  
05 – Bogen F – Zurich, Switzerland  
06 – Arci Bellezza – Milan, Italy  
10 – Trinity – Bristol, UK  
11 – Heaven – London, UK 
12 – Band on The Wall – Manchester, UK  
13 – Grand Classic – Glasgow, UK 

Last year, the band’s guitarist Alan Duggan Borges launched a new project called The Null Club, with a debut EP featuring collaborations with members of The Horrors and Mandy, Indiana.