Pom Poko have announced their third LP, Champion. The follow-up to 2021’s Cheater drops on August 16 via Bella Union. Along with the announcement, the Norwegian four-piece have shared the album’s title track. Check it out below and scroll down for the album cover (by Erlend Peder Kvam) and tracklist.
“One of our collective favourite tracks from the album, so it was very fitting it became the title track,” the band shared in a statement. “I feel we trusted our songwriting a lot more in this album process, and this song feels like a step towards letting the songwriting speak for itself. Our mixer Ali Chant asked if Champion is the name of the car in the song, and we kind of like that thought. It’s also a homage to the community feeling you get as a band, we feel very safe when we’re all together in that tour van.”
“The word ‘champion’ was there from the beginning,” vocalist Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit explained. “I built the lyrics around that title, just one evening, in my apartment. There’s a big parking lot in front of my building, and I was just sitting there and looking out at it. I was just struck with this image of being in our van, and touring, and all the parking lots we’ve ever been in. It’s a song about growing older and not feeling like you have to take over the world anymore. We’re just doing this for ourselves, really. If we can be in a band that lasts for 20 years, that’s amazing. We’re not champions, but we are at the same time.”
“Successful people have a reason to be confident,” drummer Ola Djupvik added. “The fact that we are just relaxed and doing it for the music and for the fun of it—that sort of helps fuel our success. I think this album feels pretty confident, in a good way. It’s not braggy, it’s more like, ‘This is what we are doing, and we’re comfortable.’”
In 2022, Pom Poko released the This Is Our House EP.
Champion Tracklist:
1. Growing Story
2. My Family
3. Champion
4. You’re Not Helpin
5. Pile Of Wood
6. Bell
7. Go
8. Never Saw It Coming
9. Druid, Fox And Dragon
10. Big Life
11. Fumble
