What Do You Do All Day?

Autocamper: What Do You Do All Day?

(Safe European Home/Slumberland)

All Formats Available

Released 11th July

Pre Order Here 

Autocamper, the hotly tipped Indie four piece deliver their debut album, What Do You Do All Day? after a series of self-released singles and several celebrated gigs.

Way back in February 2023 I saw, what may have been, Autocamper’s first gig as they supported The Orchids and GNAC at The Talleyrand in Levenshulme. My notes that night read, ‘Autocamper are perfect to get things going, their jangly (dare I say) C86 style with slightly sullen vocals uplifted by melodic chiming guitars remind me of The Sea Urchins’. They played a short, six song set, which was excellent, however none appear on this album, although most have been released since across singles.

Listening to What D0 You Do All Day? it’s clear that the quartet, consisting of Jack on guitar and vocals, Niamh on keyboards and vocals, Harry on bass and Arthur on drums and vocals have been honing their sound. They deliver, ‘a Northern kitchen sink rendering of The Vaselines call and response motif’, with the vocals shared by Jack and Niamh. The pair’s world-weary reflections on bedroom tiffs and hungover misdemeanours capturing the jangle pop spirit of the ‘80s.

Jack, formerly the main booker for The Talleyrand confirming, “Some of us hadn’t been in bands before Autocamper, and when you listen to recordings we took from practices early on you can hear that in how we’re playing”, they share. “All the songs on the album were written once we’d become mates and gotten really comfortable playing together and also played a lot of gigs. I think there’s a nice sense of growth from the first stuff we put out on Bandcamp to the songs on the new record.”

Autocamper are like a breath of fresh air, and one of several bands who have picked up the proverbial gauntlet to keep the jangling end of indie music alive. Over the last couple of years, labels such as Skep Wax, Precious Recordings of London, and Spinout Nuggets, who had initially been releasing new material or reissuing sessions by bands and artists who once provided the soundtrack to many a post-Smiths, Sarah Records sound-tracked bedsit party, have become key in now releasing new music by new artists who they inspired.

The album opens with Again, which was also the first single to be released from it. The band explaining, “Again felt like the best track to release to signal our foray out of ‘cassette pop’. Lyrically, it rides the contradiction between feeling inadequate and finding happiness in the beauty of other people and how that can make you feel awful and great at the same time. It comes from a very sincere place,” adding, “Musically, I think we’ve cemented our individual sound as a band here, leaning far less on our influences.”

Another single, Red Flowers, featuring Niamh on vocals, follows, blending elements of ‘60s folk and sunshine-pop. Autocamper have expressed a love for Curt Boettcher’s music, and in the style of The Millennium or Sagittarius, they incorporate flute to add a touch of lightness to the melancholic tune. The third single released is Proper, one of the last songs to be written. It’s possibly my favourite too, with a simple guitar leading into thunderous drums before an organ kicks in which then drives the urgent vocals, reassuring us that, “everything is gonna be alright, cos you’re proper”. Back in the day this would have been a 7” that you’d be playing repeatedly, just lifting the needle and dropping it back at the start…

It would be lazy to reel off the band many influences, and would do them a disservice, you just need to listen to What Do You Do All Day? to appreciate they clearly have an impressive collective knowledge of what’s gone before but also with an eye on the future. That said on Map Like A Leaf, they are joined by Tom Crossley from The Pastels who added flute to the track and Foxes has the best Wedding Present guitar line Dave Gedge never wrote, channelling their inner Go Out And Get Em Boy.

What Do You Do All Day? is steeped in the sound of ‘classic indie’, with You, for example, sounding so familiar that you’ll be sure you’ve heard it before, but unsure where. It’s like having a fever dream and knowing there is something you’ve forgotten but not sure what.
Dogsitting offers a bit of quirkiness to proceedings both lyrically (‘now i’m dogsitting for the vicar’s wife’) and in sound. A rousing number, the shortest on the album at just over 2 mins with the organ echoing Martin Duffy’s during mid-period Felt.

The longest track, the epic Somehow follows. At nearly six minutes it’s less frantic than much of the album, almost shoegazing at times with keyboards swirling as it builds, to an almost hypnotic middle-eight. The penultimate track Linnean leans into the early Weddoes rush however the closing Street View is the perfect antidote and leaves you wanting more. The final bittersweet mid-tempo number with Niamh on vocals is the perfect way to finish, close your eyes and you’re bathed in sunlight… whilst the singer is sadly, alone in ‘Whalley Range at 3am’.

What Do You Do All Day? closes with the line ‘Don’t count your chickens before they’re birds’… sound advice.

A confident debut you’ll be playing for years to come.

Catch Autocamper this summer…

4/5th July – Manchester Pop Festival
11th July – Manchester, Star & Garter (Album Launch)
13th July – Glasgow, Glad Cafe

21st July – London, Shacklewell Arms*
22nd July – Coventry, Just Dropped In*
23rd July – Leeds, Lending Room*
24th July – Newcastle, Common Room*

9th Aug – Preston Pop Festival
14/15th Nov – Malaga Pop Festival

* with Chime School

For more on the band visit their LinkTree

Image supplied by Liv Willars at One Beat PR  

All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him on Bluesky