Pickle Darling Releases New Single ‘Congratulations Champion’

Pickle Darling has released a new single, “Congratulations Champion”.

The song is built from a collection of one-liners Lukas Mayo, the artist behind Pickle Darling, had saved on their phone.

“This one collects a bunch of stand alone lines I’ve had on my phone. Some songs function purely as a timestamp for me, it has so many things in it that point to a specific moment in 2022. I was listening to a lot of R.E.M., at the time, I love melodies that kind of just ‘slot’ into place,” they said.

“Congratulations Champion” is the latest track from Pickle Darling’s upcoming album, Bots. Previously named Battlebots, it has been described as their most intricate and lovingly chaotic work to date.

It joins earlier singles “Violence Voyager”, “Human Bean Instruction Manual” and “Massive Everything” as a glimpse into the album’s experimental, emotionally tangled world.

In Bots, called their most fractured and sonically unruly album to date, Mayo pushed their computer to its limits. Songs were layered until files became inoperable, and in some cases, abandoned entirely. It’s a fitting collapse for a record about emotional static, creative friction, and the strange beauty found in ruin.

Pickle Darling debuted in 2019 with Bigness, followed by Cosmonaut in 2021. Mayo has curated a catalog that is deeply personal, featuring unexpected details that have become crucial to their sound. Their 2023 LP Laundromat was a precise and polished expansion of that world, a record that felt like it had been carefully placed behind glass.

To mark Bots‘ release, Pickle Darling will play a short run of intimate in-store shows across Aotearoa, performing solo with just a guitar.

The new music follows the launch of Pickle Darling: The Game, a retro-inspired video game created with Shortal. In it, players explore a DIY pixel-art world in search of a lost album, soundtracked by 8-bit versions of Pickle Darling songs like “Bicycle Weather”, “King of Joy”, and “Invercargill Angel”.

Pickle Darling’s “Congratulations Champion” is out now. Bots is out on September 5 (pre-order here).

Pickle Darling Shows

Friday, September 5th
Slowboat Records, Wellington – 4.30pm

Saturday, September 6th
Flying Out, Auckland – 2.00pm

Thursday, September 11th
Penny Lane Records, Christchurch