Character Actors return with new single ‘Headlong’

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Following the recent release of ‘A History of Crashes’, a compilation documenting their first five years, through Engineer Records (UK), Some Dude Records (UK), Scene Police (EU) and Punk Rock Radar (US), Leeds indie-punks Character Actors return with new single ‘Headlong’, out 6th November.

‘Headlong’ is a love song for people who are scared of happiness: an angsty melodic-punk anthem about the early stages of a relationship, when admitting you’re falling in love feels like the easiest way to mess the whole thing up.

Built around lines like “I’m not scared to fall, I’m scared that I might jump” and “Happiness is that feeling in the pit of your gut that any moment now you’re gonna fuck it all up”, the song is shot through with that familiar anxiety that can arrive when something in your life is actually going well.

For fans of The Menzingers, PUP, Jeff Rosenstock and Joyce Manor, ‘Headlong’ is taken from Character Actors’ forthcoming second album, a record preoccupied with uncertainty, ageing, expectation and the increasingly unsuccessful ways we try to stay in control of our lives.

Character Actors are a Leeds-based indie punk band whose debut album The Hard Part (2023) and follow-up EP Everywhere Is Good Except For Where We Are (2024) earned praise and coverage from Distorted Sound, Click Roll Boom, Personal Punk, Keep Track of the Time, Issue Punk Zine and more.

Their recent releases have also been acclaimed by Punk Rock Theory, Thoughts Words Action, Lights Go Out and Havoc Underground, who wrote of their last single: “Who else is a sucker for jangly, subdued guitar-driven verses followed by a big, anthemic chorus? Exceedingly listenable and well-written, the old heart strings are getting quite a tugging on this one.”

The world's only British-Dutch-Seychellois punk band have spent the past few years playing across the UK and northern Europe, alongside Burnt Tapes, Slash Fiction, Antillectual, Goodbye Blue Monday, Eat Defeat, The Losing Score, Harker, Custody, Back Teeth and Toodles and the Hectic Pity. The new single was recorded by Kurt Wood (Goo, Foxes Faux, Sounds of Swami) and is the third track to be released from the band's forthcoming second album, due in early 2027.