The Alarm’s Mike Peters returns to life after a year dominated by pneumonia and a serious leukaemia relapse, with the release of the video to Forwards, the title track from the band’s forthcoming album, out 2nd June 2023.
“I literally took my guitar into hospital with me,” says Peters. “I was on the ward for such a long time, I started writing these songs in between IV sessions and the first people to hear the music were the very people who were trying to keep me alive.”
In between hospitalisation periods Peters took the band into the recording studio with producer George Williams and, although barely able to speak due to the debilitating effects of chronic illness, Peters was able to focus the sessions on creating the music for ten new life-affirming Alarm songs.
“I’ve been to places only deep suffering can take the human spirit and, in the darkness, I clung onto every piece of light I could find to work my way back to life. This was the energy that drove me to write and record Forwards.”
The band perform at The Crescent in York on June 8th and Welly in Hull on June 9th.