PREMIERE: Fur Trade Return With “Signature Moves” and Announce New Album, Dark Celebration

The ambitious, pop-twisting duo of Steve Bays (Hot Hot Heat) and Parker Bossley (Gay Nineties, Mounties) — have returned following a nearly ten-year absence, and put simply, they’re ready for the party. Their new video premieres on Reverie, which sees the band paying homage to the drag ball scene with clips from the iconic documentary Paris is Burning and a swoon-worthy electro sound that will instantly transport you to indie-sleaze bliss.

Fur Trade — the project of Hot Hot Heat frontman Steve Bays and the Gay Nineties’ Parker Bossley are back with the announcement of their first new LP in a decade, Dark Celebration, arriving this fall via their new label home Light Organ Records.

To celebrate the announcement, the Canadian indie-sleaze darlings share lead single “Signature Moves”, which showcases the duo diving into towering pop-synth hooks influenced by yacht rock as well as psychedelic and electronic music. Bays and Bossley (who at one time played bass for Hot Hot Heat) recorded the music for their debut album at Bays’ Tugboat PI studio in Vancouver, with Bossley playing guitar and bass, Bays on drums and keyboards, and the pair splitting vocal duties.

"Like many of the songs on this record, we wrote 'Signature Moves' between sunset and sunrise," wrote Bays. "It encapsulates our misplaced FOMO and phantom nostalgia for NYC underground club culture in the early 80s. We had the film 'Paris is Burning' on loop in the background while writing and recording, and felt a connection with the dancers and designers at those wild drag balls. We’re from a different world of course, but we still relate to that feeling of hiding in the cracks of a bubbling underground scene where you know will be understood and appreciated, while openly fantasising of being superstars, and simultaneously sardonically paying homage to the surrounding gauche luxury culture of a city being rapidly gentrified."

"Signature Moves" opens to the hazy swoon of a synth jazz chord progression floating behind a drum machine loop dripping with amp spring reverb. Bossley drops an iconic bass line that adds a new layer of dirty funk, as Bays begins to yelp and croon like he was auditioning for Cameo. Pitched down steel drums and 80s-MJ-era agogo percussion transports you to an easier time in the world. Layers are revealed as it ramps up to an explosive dance chorus, that somehow stays just understated enough to not abandon the dark mystery of the verse.

After teasing Fur Trade’s sound with the single “Kids These Days,” the full-length Don’t Get Heavy arrived in July 2013. It’s been a long-time coming for Fur Trade, with this new cut following the band's previously released singles, "LOL Trash" and bombastic 80s City Pop single "Make it to the Morning", each with accompanying music videos, directed by the band.

Watch the new video for “Signature Moves” below and stay tuned for more new music, coming later this year via Light Organ Records.

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