Ellis Slater returns with Ellis Slater & The Night Shift, a new London based melodic punk band following his previous work with The Misnomer and Strange Planes. After a fairly substantial detour into jobs, mortgages, children and the other less glamorous consequences of adulthood, Slater is back making loud, melodic guitar music again. The band pulls from the melodic end of punk and post punk, with nods to Bob Mould, J Robbins, early Green Day, Beatsteaks and Rocket From The Crypt.
Big choruses, loud guitars and songs that tend to sound considerably more cheerful than the subject matter deserves. Their debut album, All Is Fair in Love, War & the Mundane, is released on 18 September 2026. Across 10 tracks, it deals with friendship falling apart, getting older, bad decisions, disappointment, anxiety, losing your edge and generally attempting to keep your head above water while pretending everything is absolutely fine. The first single, Graveyard of High Flyers, is already out, alongside its full band Rimshot Sessions live video.
Skulls & Skeletons, released on4 September, is the final single before the album.
The song deals with depression, regret and the slow erosion of confidence that can come with getting older. It centres around a recurring dream in which Slater can fly, with that brief feeling of weightlessness and happiness disappearing the moment he wakes and the old baggage, darker thoughts and skeletons return. There is still a bit of light in it though. Friends become the thing that pulls him out of his own head and reminds him that maybe he is not quite as far gone as he thinks. Fairly bleak subject matter, naturally wrapped up in a big melodic punk song
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