Porridge Radio

A project helmed by songwriter Dana Margolin, Porridge Radio offer a high-strung blend of indie rock, slowcore, and art-punk. Emerging from the south of England in the mid-2010s, their full-band debut, Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers, appeared in 2016. Picking up traction on outlets like BBC Radio, the group took a leap in recording quality and volatility with 2020′s Mercury Prize-nominated Every Bad. Two years later, the anxious Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky strived for a more sweeping, stadium-sized sound. Margolin later emerged from a breakup with “Sick of the Blues,” the lead single from Porridge Radio’s fourth LP, 2024′s Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me. Begun as the guitar-based, laptop-recorded solo effort of Brighton, England’s Dana Margolin circa 2012, Porridge Radio released its first collection of acoustic demos, Misery Radio, on Eyeless Records in May 2015. Margolin followed it with the self-released I’m Not Sure Anymore that December and the EP Say Sorry or Die early the next year. Early 2016 also brought a split EP with West America called Hello Dog Friendly. Expanding the lineup to include Margolin (vocals, guitar), Georgie Stott (keyboards, vocals), Snake Leather, aka Josh Harvey (guitar), Maddie Ryall (bass, vocals), and Sam Yardley (drums), Porridge Radio released its first band LP, Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers, in August 2016. It was recorded in Yardley’s shed. Another solo EP, frgttng, appeared in October of that year, with the solo full-length Bad Breath eventually following in December 2017. Still spare and rough-hewn, it included experiments with sound samples, keyboards, and electronics. That same month, Porridge Radio issued the seasonal song “O. Christmas.” A series of tracks arrived throughout 2019, and the band did a pair of live sessions for BBC Radio 6 Music, before the long-player Every Bad followed on Secretly Canadian in March 2020. The group’s first studio album, it was recorded as a four-piece following the departure of Harvey and went on to garner a Mercury Prize nomination. With touring off the table due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Porridge Radio set about writing and recording their next album while playing just a handful of dates throughout 2020. New music appeared in the form of the singles “Good for You” (with Lala Lala), “7 Seconds,” and the holiday-themed “The Last Time I Saw You (O Christmas),” and Every Bad was reissued in an expanded version featuring demos and remixes in 2021. As the band put finishing touches on their third album, they provided covers of Wolf Parade’s “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son” and the Shins’ “New Slang” for Sub Pop’s singles club. Co-produced by Tom Carmichael, Margolin, and Yardley, the completed Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky arrived on Secretly Canadian in May 2022. It became their first album to crack the U.K. Top 40, where it peaked at 39. It charted just outside the Top 40 in Germany. A subsequent breakup and burnout both informed Porridge Radio’s next album, 2024′s Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me. Led by the single “Sick of the Blues,” it featured new bassist Dan Hutchins. ~ Marcy Donelson