London alternative rock four-piece unpeople have released their debut full-length we are unpeople on SharpTone Records, accompanied by a new track and fan lyric video for haunted.
London alternative rock band unpeople have released their debut album we are unpeople on SharpTone Records, marking the culmination of three years of rapid ascent since their formation in 2023. The record arrives alongside a new track, haunted, for which the group has issued a fan lyric video.
The album captures a band intent on building communal connection through music. It leans on four-part vocal harmonies, large choruses and heavy riffs, balancing colour and intensity in a way that has already produced several standout singles including blueprints, friends, clouds, the garden and waste. The new cut haunted continues that approach, extending the record’s run of material that sits comfortably between festival stages and larger rock venues.
unpeople formed in the summer of 2023 when guitarists and vocalists Jake Crawford and Luke Caley began writing together after the end of their previous band Press to Meco. The name unpeople was chosen to reflect everyday people often regarded as politically unimportant or of little value. The current line-up is completed by Em Lodge on bass and vocals, who joined after original bassist Meg Mash stepped away due to chronic illness, and Richard Rayner on drums and vocals.
In a statement accompanying the release the band reflected on the path to this point. “It’s so difficult to sum up the journey to this point, but we couldn’t be more proud of this album. We hope all the unpeople out there can hear and feel the time and effort we put into making these songs the best they possibly could be. we are unpeople. you are unpeople. we are all unpeople.”
That sense of shared identity runs through the record. The group has built a live reputation for sets that translate across different environments, described at times as the lightest band on a heavy bill and the heaviest on a more alternative one. They have opened for Metallica in Vienna, shared stages with Smashing Pumpkins and Coheed and Cambria, and drawn strong crowds at 2000trees among other festivals.
The album follows a self-titled EP released in 2024 that helped establish the band on the international alternative rock circuit. Signing to SharpTone Records in late 2023, they issued their first single Smother shortly afterwards and have steadily expanded their audience through consistent touring and festival appearances at events including Download, Slam Dunk and Jera On Air.
Currently on the road supporting Don Broco, unpeople will next join Royal Blood for a run of UK dates at the end of November. Looking further ahead, the band has announced their largest UK headline tour to date for January 2027. Most of those dates sold out quickly after going on sale. The run closes on 28 January at London’s Electric Ballroom, a venue that matches the scale of ambition the group has shown since formation.
we are unpeople presents twelve tracks that move between stomping riffs, anthemic choruses and more unpredictable turns. The running order places earlier singles alongside newer material, giving a clear picture of the sound the band has refined over the past three years. The record rewards listeners who value both melodic accessibility and heavier edges, delivered by a four-piece that treats vocal harmony as a core element rather than an occasional feature.
The timing of the release places unpeople among the more closely watched new alternative acts to emerge from the UK in recent years. Their progress from a post-Press to Meco project to a signed band with a full-length album and major support slots has been notably swift. The emphasis throughout remains on the collective: the idea that the music and the audience form part of the same group.
With the album now available and a busy period of live dates ahead, unpeople continue to press the message that has defined their project from the start. The songs are out. The stages are booked. The invitation is open.
January 28, London, Electric Ballroom
we are unpeople Track Listing:
01. Clouds
02. Friends
03. The Garden
04. Swallow
05. Bottle It
06. Blueprints
07. Haunted
08. Waste
09. Look Up
10. Kangareuben
11. Smother
12. As You Were
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