Chartreuse are very pleased to announce details of their second album Bless You & Be Well, which is out on Friday 29th August via Communion Records.
The album was recorded in Iceland with producer Sam Petts-Davies (The Smile) and follows on from their 2023 debut Morning Ritual.
Alongside this, the band release their new single ‘Fold’, which premieres today on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6Music radio show. Listen here / watch the music video here.
Speaking about the track, piano player and vocalist Hattie Wilson says: “Fold’ is an odd little love song. It’s about the desperation to make everything okay when the other person is navigating a tough patch. The feeling of being out of control and you can’t instantly make everything better for them, trying to get it all back to normal as quickly as you can.
“Rory and I have been together for nearly thirteen years, and so it’s about going through these different parts of life together; reaching milestones, watching each other grow and change — while still being completely connected and in love.”
A run of UK headline tour dates have also been unveiled for this autumn. This comes after Chartreuse’s successful return to the live stage at Hoxton Hall, as well as three further shows in Brighton during The Great Escape festival, where they received praise from Rolling Stone UK as one of their top highlights from the festival and quoted 2025 as being a “transformative year for the band.”
These new announcements follow on from previous single releases ‘I’m Losing It’ and ‘Sequence of Voices’. Both of which have gained support from Wonderland, Rolling Stone UK, Far Out, Rough Trade, Clash, The Line of Best Fit, The New Cue & more.
The full list of tour dates can be found below. Tickets available here.
Chartreuse Live Dates:
(*) with support from Moreish Idols
(**) co-headline with Moreish Idols
Thursday 30th October – Green Door Store, Brighton
Saturday 1st November – Bradshaw Hall, Birmingham
Tuesday 4th November – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow (**)
Thursday 6th November – Three Tanners Bank, North Shields (*)
Friday 7th November – Deaf Institute Lodge, Manchester (*)
Saturday 8th November – Mash, Cambridge (*)
Monday 10th November – The Lanes, Bristol (*)
Tuesday 11th November – Forum, Royal Tunbridge Wells (*)
Thursday 13th November – St Peter’s Church, Poole (*)
Friday 14th November – Bush Hall, London (*)
Saturday 15th November – Live at Leeds in the City
ABOUT CHARTREUSE
For Chartreuse, the rural Icelandic studio Flóki served as a refuge in a myriad of ways. Set in a
secluded location on the northern tip of the island, a five-hour drive from Reykjavík, the Black Country band’s two-week stay here in the summer of 2024 was one of escape, connection and understanding. They returned home with a special, urgent and necessary new album, Bless You & Be Well.
The dynamic of the Black Country band feels wholeheartedly distinct. The four-piece are intimately interconnected – brothers Mike (guitar, vocals) and Rory Wagstaff (drums) are joined by Rory’s long-term partner Hattie Wilson (piano, vocals) and Hattie’s childhood friend Perry Lovering (bass).
Their 2023 debut Morning Ritual introduced a group that swerved the traditional tropes of indie-rock bands, instead using their instruments and innovative production techniques in unusual and thrilling ways. They set a precedent of equality from day one, with the instruments they play all interchangeable, and no lead songwriter dictating their every move. This remains the case. Music for them is like pulling puzzle pieces out of the air, fitting things in the right configuration.
But now, on their new album Bless You & Be Well, it’s each of their personal experiences which inform their new material.
Their latest recordings were brought to life with producer Sam Petts-Davies (The Smile) and engineer Oli Middleton. Having self-produced their debut album, bringing other minds into their creative fold was daunting at first. But it quickly became one of their best decisions. Gut instincts presided over second-guessing; if it sounded good in the moment, it stayed. If it didn’t, they tried something else. As Petts-Davies, a calm and easy-going antidote to the band’s self-declared perfectionists, told them: “You are a band and this is how you sound, so let’s just run with it.”
No people, no limits, no distractions… all external noise was shut out, allowing Bless You & Be Well to become their most expansive album to date. But their remote location in Iceland provided a sanctuary in more ways than one, offering them a vital reprieve from the personal struggles that each of the band members were facing in their own lives.
For Lovering, navigating the grief of their late father’s passing bled into the creation of Chartreuse’s latest songs. Yet rather than drowning in existentialism, Lovering learned that grief doesn’t have to be the end, and that the pursuit of creating things that make you happy – in his case, making music – is ultimately what makes life worth living.
For Wilson, the anxieties of undergoing major surgery at just 29-years-old, learning to walk properly again, and the long road to recovery that still lies ahead for her shaped her approaches to the band’s new music. Initially guilty that it would affect those around her, opening up has not only been a learning curve, but also a humbling experience to witness the care that her friends, family and bandmates are more than willing to give.
Only a band as strongly connected for so many years could create such a space for each other in order to disappear into their music together, Wilson says: “To have those bonds within the band is really special and we can naturally pick up on each other’s cues. I don’t know if it would work with any other people, or if we would be able to be totally ourselves, or as accepting of each other on what anyone’s going through.”
Being in a band is a necessary part of life for Chartreuse. Writing music offers them a canvas to lay bare their emotions. But while informed by struggle and grief, their new music isn’t defined by it. Instead, it’s a window through which to understand both yourself and those around you better and more deeply. It also affirms the power of something as seemingly trivial as being in a band, and of music as a way to understand and move through life.
It all culminates in a fresh new chapter for Chartreuse, imbued with a palpable sense of honesty and introspectiveness that will no doubt resonate with others far and wide.
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