London-based four-piece PREP have released a new single “Getaway” via Bright Antenna Records, featuring an artist their fans in Southeast Asia have been waiting for for a long time – the one and only Phum Viphurit from Thailand. “Getaway” is a track about the conflicting feelings of needing a break from a situation, but knowing you don’t want to leave it behind forever. Fans can listen to the song here: ffm.to/_getaway
On their collaboration with one of Southeast Asia’s most sought-after indie artists, PREP shares, “We were on tour in Thailand – it was a pretty intense time for us, playing some of the biggest shows we’d done. But we’d been in touch with Phum and one afternoon he found us this studio where we could all go and hang out together. It was this beautiful hidden spot, a real retreat from the world, surrounded by greenery, with kids playing under the trees outside. And the song came together with him pretty much there and then, very quickly and simply.”
PREP recently toured Asia in 2023 – they played at VERY Festival in Thailand before heading to China for a string of headline shows and finished off the run with Clockenflap in Hong Kong. They have over 500,000 monthly listeners and subscribers from Southeast Asia alone, and the band hallmarks their time building their fanbase in Asia as an important pivot where PREP’s sense of sonic possibility expanded. “At one point we thought PREP would just be a studio project,” keyboardist Llywelyn ap Myrddin elaborates. “But we played gigs that went really well, and we spent some amazing time in Asia.”
In 2015, the four members of PREP came together to cut deep grooves that mine contemporary R&B and electronica while hearkening back to the soft, sheer sound of the late ’70s and early ‘80s—what some listeners have retroactively dubbed yacht rock. The love for that style united vocalist-lyricist Tom Havelock, keyboardist Llywelyn Ap Myrddin, drummer Guillaume Jambel, and producer Dan Radclyffe. PREP is pop music that feels tip-of-the-tongue familiar even though you’ve never heard it before.
The freshness of fusing well-worn genre tunes with modern sounds is a product of the distinct backgrounds that make up the group. Llywelyn has a classical music education in composition and piano; Guillaume moonlights as a house producer and DJ; Dan produces hip-hop; and Tom works as a pen-for-hire songwriter in the pop music world.
