SICK JOY

Brighton’s Sick Joy are back with a new single, a full UK tour and what’s looking like their biggest year yet. BN1 caught up with singer-guitarist Mykl Barton to chat about the new single ‘Belly Aching Beast’, songwriting, releasing music into a saturated online culture, and what really matters as an artist.

Almost out of the blue in February, Sick Joy dropped new single , a visceral, punk-charged banger that whips from brutally unhinged to infectious introspection. It’s a big ‘wake up!’ moment for fans, whose last dose of Sick Joy came in the form of 2019’s intense, slow burning History. As it was for many artists, Covid stood in the way of new releases for two years. Was the intention to was written without any thought during 2020, when everything had gone to shit. I wasn’t worried about it sounding too clever, I was just letting it be whatever the fuck it was, because I didn’t think anyone was ever going to hear it. It was wicked to just sit and go ‘this is literally just for me.’”