English Teacher‘s Lily Fontaine has given credits to her mother for the band’s debut album artwork on ‘This Could Be Texas’.
The frontwoman took to social media to give the backstory on English Teacher’s debut album art, which was just released last Friday (April 12). The band are currently on track to land in the Top Ten on the Official Charts this week.
Writing on X/Twitter, Fontaine shared: “To feel understood potentially takes the number one spot in the chart of experiences. The response to this thing we made has granted me that on a fascinatingly large scale and I’m basking.
She went on to credit her mum Gilly for her support of the band, writing: “Shout out to my mum @gillyfgrist, West Yorkshire’s finest who not only understood more times than you can say um in the Houses of Parliament, but even when she didn’t understand, continued to support us anyway.” Fontaine is referring to the speech she gave Parliament in a session arguing for a £1 ticket levy on all arena gigs.
Fontaine revealed that her mother also painted the album’s cover back in the 1980s, depicting Ilkley Moor’s Cow and Calf Rocks, named after a larger outcrop and a nearby boulder reminiscent of a cow and her calf: “Her work was a foundation of consistency throughout a childhood of relative displacement.”
Finally, Fontaine shared that the central creature in the album was made by her, saying it represented the band “in that I don’t know what it is. Some sort of musical meaty machine.”
She concluded: “To the north and all its hills and valleys, to Mum, to my best three boys & to music x”
https://t.co/Tu04qpwNub pic.twitter.com/gzhYQwC8Zz
— Lily Fontaine (@sillyfontaine) April 15, 2024
English Teacher have also shared footage of Fontaine’s strange creature propped up across London, much to the delight of passer-bys. The video was captioned with: “Arrival. What? We don’t know. Maybe even who? From where? And why? ‘This Could Be Texas’. Out Now.”
NME reviewed English Teacher’s debut album when it dropped last week, giving it a five star rating: “What you have in ‘This Could Be Texas’ is everything you want from a debut; a truly original effort from start to finish, an adventure in sound and words, and a landmark statement. Poised for big things? Who knows if this industry even allows that anymore.
“Here are a band already dealing in brilliance, though – who dare to dream and have it pay off. Not everyone gets to go to space, but at least English Teacher make it a damn site more interesting being stuck down here.”
We also spoke to the band for our Cover, where Fontaine discussed her struggles existing in the post-punk scene as a mixed-race woman: “There are times when I still worry about how we are viewed as a band.
“I always used to think about how we started to gain attention for our music around the same time as the George Floyd protests, and I was worried that people thought that the only reason we were getting any support was because I’m not white. I know that the talent is there – we’re not just a diversity pick. I had to unlearn that previous mindset.”
In other news, English Teacher will embark on a winter 2024 UK tour – find all tickets here and dates below:
English Teacher’s winter 2024 UK tour dates are:
NOVEMBER
12 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
14 – O2 Ritz, Manchester
18 – Saint Luke’s, Glasgow
19 – Boiler Shop, Newcastle upon Tyne
21 – SWX, Bristol
