The Spook School channel trans resistance into new single Margins ahead of 2027 album
The Spook School have released Margins, a defiant new single from their forthcoming album Like A Heartbeat, due on 29th January 2027 via Alcopop! Records in the UK and Slumberland Records in the US.
The Scottish indie-pop quartet’s first full-length release in eight years, Like A Heartbeat follows their return earlier this year and will be supported by a February UK headline tour, alongside dates at Paris’s Supersonic and Manchester Punk Festival.
Built around a direct refusal to be silenced or sidelined, Margins addresses the hostility facing trans people while turning anger into a sharp, communal indie-pop rallying cry. Stream the single here, while the band have also shared a lyric video for the track HERE.
A song shaped by rage and solidarity
Vocalist and guitarist Nye Todd says the song was written in the wake of the For Women Scotland UK Supreme Court decision, after they watched a speech by Carla Antonelli, Spain’s first trans senator.
“I wrote this song shortly after the For Women Scotland UK Supreme Court decision. I was feeling angry and more than a bit hopeless, and then saw a video of a speech by Carla Antonelli—Spain’s first trans Senator—speaking in opposition to calls by the Spanish nationalist party Vox to repeal a law protecting trans people.”
Todd continues: “It’s such a powerful speech that is full of rage and humanity. At the end, she closes by saying: ‘That is what you want, to push us back to the margins. But let me be clear: we will not go back to the margins!’ The same week I was at a protest, and heard so many other trans people sharing similar sentiments. The lyrics of this song are my way of trying to pay homage to that speech and to the strength and belief that transgender people can’t be erased.”
Like A Heartbeat was produced and mixed by Rod Jones at Post Electric Studio in Leith, with mastering by John Webber at AIR. The record is described as having two connected halves: one outward-facing and politically charged, the other more personal and introspective.
Todd says: “Ultimately, as a trans person, your personal life and relationships can never really be fully separated from the wider political background of media hostility and rights being rolled back.”
The tracklist for Like A Heartbeat
Alongside Margins, the album includes recent singles Falling and Corporate Caring.
- Margins
- Saying It All
- Corporate Caring
- A Little Clearer
- Falling
- Same Old Song
- Time
- Can’t Speak Up
- Survive
- New Town
- You’re Wrong
A Dinked edition is limited to 300 copies and includes Heartbeat Red and Yellow splatter vinyl, eight Spook School Top Trumps cards and a signed press photograph. Pre-order the album here.
UK dates follow the album release
The band will mark release day with an in-store performance and signing at Glasgow’s Assai Records before taking Like A Heartbeat on the road in February. Tickets are on sale now.
- 29th Jan – GLASGOW – Assai Records (in-store and signing)
- 20th Feb – EDINBURGH – La Belle Angele
- 24th Feb – BRIGHTON – The Hope and Ruin
- 25th Feb – LONDON – MOTH Club
- 26th Feb – BRISTOL – Exchange
- 27th Feb – NOTTINGHAM – The Bodega
- 28th Feb – LEICESTER – Firebug (Leicester Indiepop Weekender)
- 06th Mar – PARIS – Supersonic
- 26th Mar – MANCHESTER – Manchester Punk Festival
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