Turtle Skull release Being Here on May 23 via Art As Catharsis and Copper Feast Records

Title: Being Here
Artist: Turtle Skull
Genres: Alternative Rock, Doom Metal, Experimental Music, Psychedelic Rock
Label: Art As Catharsis, Copper Feast Records
Description: Turtle Skull release their new album Being Here on May 23 via Art As Catharsis and Copper Feast Records, recorded live with no click track or studio tricks.

Turtle Skull release their third album Being Here on May 23, 2025, via Art As Catharsis (AUS/NZ) and Copper Feast Records (UK/EU). The material was tracked live at NoWave Studio in Mullumbimby. Most of the studio adjustments were eliminated in favour of immediacy. No click track was used. Aside from vocals, nearly everything was captured during the initial recording sessions. According to drummer Charlie Gradon, “no excessive layering, no studio trickery” was involved. The band chose to self-produce and mix the album.

The full interview with Turtle Skull is available on Retrofuturista.

Speaking to Retrofuturista, the group stated: “We just wanted to feel connected again… Being Here is our way of processing that, and making something that we could believe in.” Further into the interview, they explained: “There’s no big statement, just a sense of presence and process… We didn’t want perfection, we wanted the moment.”

The current lineup includes Dean McLeod (vocals, guitar), Charlie Gradon (vocals, drums), Julian Frese (bass), and new addition Ally Gradon (synth, vocals). Her entry alters the internal dynamics and expands the tonal range, with analog synthesizers layered alongside the usual guitar-bass-drum structure. This is the first full-length since Monoliths (2020), and the third release since the project began in Sydney in the late 2010s.

Being Here contains references to fatigue from digital communication, time compression, disconnection, and isolation. Several tracks were written rapidly, rehearsed live, and recorded with minimal takes. Mixing was completed independently by the band.

The band has played at Camp A Low Hum (NZ), The Gumball, Vivid, and NinchFest, and has supported Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Earthless, and Stonefield. A performance at Melbourne’s Bergy Bandroom on March 7 marked their first 2025 live appearance. Additional tour dates have not been announced.

Previous album Monoliths entered the Doom Charts at #4 and topped Australia’s AIR 100% Independent Albums ranking. Turtle Skull initially described their music as “flower doom”, a phrase coined during the recording of their self-titled 2018 release, later reissued by Copper Feast Records.

Being Here is released on vinyl and digital formats via the respective labels in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the EU.

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