A new track has just been released by Bill Ryder-Jones. Called ‘If Tomor­row Starts With­out Me’, it’s the sec­ond track tak­en from his forth­com­ing fifth album Iechyd Da, Jan­u­ary 12th. There will also be a run of solo in-store dates for January.

The sim­plis­tic yet mov­ing phrase of ‘If Tomor­row Starts With­out Me’ is some­thing that’s been rat­tling around in Ryder-Jones’ head for decades wait­ing for the right moment to be released. And Ryder-Jones’ soul­ful, expres­sive vocal style is per­fect for this emo­tive and intro­spec­tive track. If the title sounds maudlin, Ryder-Jones assures the lis­ten­er that the work on this new album, is more pos­i­tive in feel than in his lat­ter work.

Says Ryder-Jones of the new song: “It con­tains prob­a­bly the old­est lyric I’ve ever writ­ten. Which comes from when I was about 15 watch­ing Euro­trash. There was a Thai sex-work­er read­ing from a diary and she just read the words: “What if tomor­row starts with­out me?” I just loved it. It’s always stuck with me.” How­ev­er, it takes on a whole new mean­ing and lev­el of emo­tion­al weight in the con­text here. 

We’re a suck­er for a beau­ti­ful and sim­ply made video and Bill Ryder-Jones’ new release and this ani­mat­ed video direct­ed by James Slater is a pow­er­ful and emo­tion­al watch about those left behind. 

Upcom­ing 2024 live dates
Fri­day 12th Jan­u­ary – Rough Trade East, Lon­don - solo
Sat­ur­day 13th Jan­u­ary – Spillers, Cardiff - solo
Tues­day 16th Jan­u­ary – Mono­rail, Glas­gow - solo
Wednes­day 17th Jan­u­ary – Pic­cadil­ly, Man­ches­ter – solo
Thurs­day 18th Jan­u­ary – Apples­tump Records, Nantwich - solo

Tues­day 12th March – Room 2, Glas­gow
Wednes­day 13th March – Bru­denell Social Club, Leeds
Fri­day 15th March – The Cas­tle & Fal­con, Birm­ing­ham
Sat­ur­day 16th March – New Cen­tu­ry Hall, Man­ches­ter
Sun­day 17th March – Thekla, Bris­tol
Tues­day 19th March – CHALK, Brighton
Wednes­day 20th March – Isling­ton Assem­bly Hall, Lon­don
Thurs­day 21st March – Con­tent, Liv­er­pool
Sat­ur­day 23rd March – Par­adiso, Ams­ter­dam
Sun­day 24th March – Hafen­klang, Ham­burg
Mon­day 25th March – Kan­tine am Berghain, Berlin
Wednes­day 27th March – Trix Bar, Antwerp
Thurs­day 28th March – La Maro­quiner­ie, Paris
Sat­ur­day 30th March – The Workman’s Club, Dublin
Sun­day 31st March – Black Box, Belfast.
 
Addi­tion­al­ly, last month it was announced that Ryder-Jones was spon­sor­ing West Kir­by Unit­ed FC Under 10’s, more infor­ma­tion here and you can sup­port the club by buy­ing a shirt here.