The Last Dinner Party have told Music Week they set out to take artistic risks on their second album, From The Pyre.
With the LP just released (October 17), the group – lead singer Abigail Morris, guitarist Lizzie Mayland, multi-instrumentalist Emily Roberts, bassist Georgia Davies and keys player Aurora Nishevci – lift the curtain on their new era in the November edition of Music Week.
“We wanted to take some risks in an artistic way, like in the lyrics, and push where we can go genre-wise,” said Nishevci, speaking in this month’s cover story. “It was about asking, ‘How can we make it more sparse?’ It’s easy to make it full and then you’re hidden behind all of this music. We wanted to explore what it is to sing at the piano and be vulnerable in that way.”
In the interview with Music Week‘s Anna Fielding, Mayland shared her hopes for the record, which has been trailed by the singles This Is the Killer Speaking, The Scythe and Second Best.
“Hopefully we’ll encourage other people to access their emotions; music is such a powerful way of doing that,” she said. “It’s also really exciting to play new music and have an opportunity to bring people together in a space that’s all about positivity and feeling every inch of your emotions.”
The Last Dinner Party debuted new songs at a special launch party at London’s Hoxton Hall this week. The invited audience of fans were encouraged to attend in medieval dress with some wearing chain mail and hooded capes.
The band, whose acclaimed debut Prelude To Ecstasy (123,066 sales) hit No.1 in February 2024 and scooped their first BRIT, for Rising Star, that same month. They added the BRIT Award for Best New Artist to their collection 12 months later. Morris said making From The Pyre had brought the quintet even closer.
“It’s opened so many avenues for honesty and growing as friends and as collaborators and being challenged,” said Morris. “It feels less scary to put it out, because we are looking after each other. I don’t feel vulnerable because I’ve bared my soul, instead I feel confident and safe.”
You need somewhere to play… You need that space, and that’s being cut, desecrated
Aurora Nishevci
TLDP began working on the record in 2024 with Predule To Ecstasy producer James Ford, but turned to MarkusDravs following Ford‘s leukaemia diagnosis earlier this year.
“For the first album with James, we had been playing the songs live for two years so it was a bit more straightforward,” said Nishevci. “For this one, we’ve had a shorter time together writing and we haven’t played a lot of them live. So Markus saw us writing from scratch.”
After the band accepted their trophy for Best New Artist at the 2025 BRITs, Davies used the moment to talk about grassroots venues.
“We wouldn’t be a band without the UK’s incredible independent venues,” she said. “They are the lifeblood of the music industry. And they are dying.”
Nishevci told Music Week: “Anyone wanting to be a musician… you need somewhere to play. You’ve got to share what you’re doing with people. And where can you do that? You need that space, and that’s being cut, desecrated. It’s the same with club culture, it’s all disappearing, so we’re going to do what we can to help.”
The Music Venue Trust recently thanked The Last Dinner Party “for donating £1 from every ticket sold” on their tour to them, while the group are also ambassadors for the Independent Venue Community. On their upcoming UK tour, the charity will work with local schools to connect pupils with touring staff.
“They’ll shadow a bunch of people in our touring party, learning about different roles and responsibilities, and that you can have a career in music,” said Davies. “That’s not just being an artist, it’s lighting design, monitor engineering… It’s learning about all the ways that the industry functions in order to address some of the inequalities.”
You get this amazing opportunity and you know it could go away at any minute. You throw yourself in, head first
Abigail Morris
Mayland added: “Smaller bands and artists need more label support with tours. People are paying out of their own rent money to go on tour, to be able to sell their record.”
In late 2024, the group cancelled a number of European dates after “pushing themselves past breaking point”.
“We bit off more than we could chew last year,” said Davies. “We don’t want to be saying, ‘Oh, we have to tour’ – we want to be like, ‘Touring is great, we get to see all these places and see our fans in different countries.’”
Morris suggested that “there needs to be a little more pastoral care” for new artists across the music industry.
“That’s not necessarily therapy or counselling, but more someone in the industry in a mentor role, giving a little bit of preparation and advice,” she said. “For a lot of artists, us included, you’re working really hard, you get signed, you get this amazing opportunity and you know it could go away at any minute. You throw yourself in, head first. You’re just expected to go on and on until you’ve had a breakdown and there’s no one to prepare you.”
The Last Dinner Party will begin a 35-date headline tour across Europe and Australia in November, including two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. They also have ambitions to play further afield
“The Philippines and Taiwan have really strong music scenes,” said Davies. “And we do get comments that say things like, ‘Please come and play in Manila!’”
Subscribers can read the full cover story with the band – plus Q Prime’s Peter Mensch, Island EMI Label Group president Louis Bloom and CAA’s Emma Banks – in the latest issue of Music Week.
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