Krooked Tongue transforms grief into delicate and haunting musical moments with their latest single, “I Don’t Believe In Ghosts”. From their forthcoming debut album, I Know a Place (April 24,2026), the song is a rather moving departure from the band’s previous releases like “Dog Days”, “You Don’t Need a Suntan”, “Marigold” or “Let’s Loose”. While unmistakingly Krooked Tongue, the song shows off a rare vulnerability not just within the band’s lyrics and vocals, but also within their sound.
Instead of rumbling bass and drums and razor sharp riffs, there’s a piano that creates a solemn and intimate backdrop for Oli Rainsford’s gentle vocal delivery. It allows his voice to anchor in a wave of longing and sorrow that echoes throughout. While his voice has always been one to show emotional edge, in the track it reverberates with the grief of a memory of what was. Perhaps even what might have been.
On the song, Oli says,
It’s a song that tries its best to pry open the syntax of death, to make sense of it, but knows there’s no way to categorise or organise our emotions when it comes to losing someone. The idea of ‘ghosts’ or ‘the paranormal’ is one we all know and by the most part reject. I don’t buy into any of that stuff, but ‘I Don’t Believe in Ghosts’ acts as a sort of proverbial notepad.
The arrangement mirrors these feelings by stripping back to its barest essentials and allowing pauses and subtle dynamics to carry the emotional weight. The minimalism in their sound highlights every inflection in the vocals, and the moments of silence within the music gives one time to reflect and translate the quiet moments of loss into musical form.
He further adds,
The lyrics continuously play with the phantom feelings that we all sometimes experience after someone dies. A perfectly timed breeze or a robin that lands nearby on a crisp Autumn morning. We see ourselves and others in moments throughout our life. Whether you believe in those sorts of things or not, the fact that we can even for a split second imagine and say ‘maybe it’s a sign’, is the purity of the human experience.
Originally part of his Masters dissertation, the song’s origins underscores its sincerity, and the band’s choice to preserve the original piano-driven simplicity reinforces their authenticity and comfort in knowing who they are as a band. They know when to crank it to eleven and “I Don’t Believe in Ghosts” shows they know when to simply let a song be its own magical beacon.
“I Don’t Believe In Ghosts” is sonically and emotionally a space for reflection. It bridges personal loss with a universal human experience, while maintaining the band’s signature attention to melody and detail.
It’s a quiet reminder that restraint can be as powerful as intensity.
Catch Krooked Tongue live:
December 14th 2025 – The Louisiana, Bristol (Supporting The Valla)
January 27th 2026 – Drummonds, Worcester (IVW Tour)
January 28th 2026 – The Grove, Nottingham (IVW Tour)
January 29th 2026 – Green Door Store, Brighton (IVW Tour)
January 30th 2026 – Tiny Rebel, Cardiff (IVW Tour)
January 31st 2026 – The Cobblestones, Bridgwater (IVW Tour)
March 3-8th 2026 – New Colossus Festival – New York, USA
