Django Django announce new album Doveland, share J.G. Ballard-inspired single “Cameos”

The album marks a deliberate pivot from the restless genre-hopping that has defined the band’s back catalogue. Drummer/producer/founding member Dave Maclean said: “After four records where anything goes, we were getting bored. So we went back to basics.” That process took the group to extended recording sessions in the German countryside with producer (and Franz Ferdinand member) Nick McCarthy and composer/producer Polly Ester.

Doveland takes its name from an online urban myth about a supposedly vanished town in rural Wisconsin. While the settlement is not the direct subject of the songs, the idea of searching for an impossible place became a catalyst for the writing. The record is also shaped by grief: during its creation, Maclean lost his older sister, and bassist Jimmy Dixon's father died. Those experiences feed into the album’s themes of memory, isolation, and fleeting human connection.

“Like a lot of the album, the lyrics are much more inward looking and about journeying through grief and how important people are only there for part of your story,” Dixon explains. The single "Cameos" draws inspiration from J.G. Ballard’s 1974 novel Concrete Island. Dixon adds: “The lyric ‘cameos’ just felt like a relevant summarisation of an individual playing a role in a wider story. It seemed to make sense in the Doveland world of someone looking for an idea of a place.”

The album artwork was created in collaboration with mother-and-daughter mudlarking team Northern Mudlarks, featuring historical artefacts found along river banks in the Scottish borders, arranged into curated collections. The record also carries guest spots from Hak Baker on “Little Me” and Max Pope on “Feel Alright”. Live plans so far include an Italian festival appearance in August and a Glasgow show supporting Scissor Sisters at Queen’s Park Recreation Ground on 30 August.

Doveland artwork

Doveland tracklist

“Meteorite”
“Cameos”
“Still Life”
“Little Me” (ft. Hak Baker)
“Year Of The Snake”
“Quicksand”
“Left Adrift”
“So Heavy”
“Bird Song”
“Indigo Road”
“Dirty Hotel Blues”
“Feel Alright” (ft. Max Pope)