Scustin Release New EP ‘The Lock-In’
Irish four-piece Scustin have released their new EP ‘The Lock-In,’ out May 8.
The four-track release follows a packed run for the band, including support slots with Inhaler at the Royal Albert Hall, Ulster Hall, and St Anne’s Park, plus festival appearances and sold-out headline shows.
Scustin work in pub talk, post-punk bite, disco pulse, and the kind of choruses that sound built for a room already three pints deep. The jokes land, but there’s more going on underneath: Irish identity, class, boredom, community, and the little rituals people cling to when the night starts slipping sideways.
The EP moves from the sharp satire of ‘Dodgy Box Pyramid Scheme’ into ‘Scustinism,’ a punchy look at Irish identity, before ‘Pub Talkin” brings the grit and mouth. Closer ‘The Ballad Of Scampi Fries’ stretches into something stranger, part chant, part pub elegy, part last-orders singalong.
Produced by Richie Kennedy, whose credits include Interpol, The Murder Capital, Shame, Ride, The Libertines, and The Last Dinner Party, The Lock-In keeps the band’s rough edge while giving the songs more space. Guitars lead the charge, with keys and brass slipping in around Joe Hearns and Liam Smith’s vocal back-and-forth.
Speaking about the EP, the band say:
“The Lock-In is the culmination of everything we’ve built so far, a bit of a sonic tip of the hat to the community that’s grown around us. We’ve spent the early years of this band playing and hanging out in pubs, meeting incredible people along the way, and everything always comes back to a few key things: community, humour and sincerity.
That’s what we wanted to capture on this record, and I think we gave it a good shot. As we close that chapter, it feels like we’ve landed on something that’s genuinely connecting with people, you can really feel that in the shows.
We’ve pushed each other a lot as musicians, and it’s brought out what we think is our best work so far. Now we’re itching to get stuck into whatever comes next.”
Scustin have appeared at Electric Picnic, Latitude, Wilderness, Wild Paths, SXSW London, Sŵn Festival, and Other Voices, with upcoming dates at 2000 Trees in July 2026 and Boomtown in August 2026.
Headline photo: Anna Burnett
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