Porridge Radio reached their finish line at the close of 2024, wrapping up a run of raw guitar music that made them one of Brighton's most direct acts. For Dana Margolin, the group's frontwoman and primary songwriter, bringing that project to a close has opened the way for an unadorned new phase. She has released her debut solo single, Big Beautiful Sound, offering a deliberate, scaled-back introduction to her work outside a band format.
The path toward this solo outing was laid across the whole of last year. Porridge Radio announced their breakup in January 2024, marking the moment with the release of a farewell song, Don't Want To Dance. Their final EP, The Machine Starts To Sing, followed the next month. An extensive farewell tour occupied the rest of the year, culminating in a last concert together in Glasgow in December. With the band resolved, Margolin shifted into a far quieter, self-contained method of recording.
Written alongside Dan Hutchins and Sam Yardley, Big Beautiful Sound deliberately pushes aside any inclination toward thick arrangements. The entire session operated under a strict technical rule, ensuring every element recorded fit within the confines of an eight-track recorder. That discipline leaves no space for extraneous studio sheen or dense layering, centering the composition on Margolin's acoustic guitar, quiet percussion, and an intimate, close-mic vocal performance.
Margolin has described the piece as an account of moving through a heavy emotional state, comparing the experience to walking down a spiral staircase into the centre of the earth where nothing can grow. Choosing to take that downward route ultimately led to an unexpected discovery. At the lowest point of the journey, she uncovered a glowing ember, something luminous that resolved into a big and beautiful sound. A black and white video directed by Mike Mills and Joe Nankin accompanies the song, matching the restrained nature of the music.
Setting tight boundaries on her work is familiar ground for Margolin. Around the release of Porridge Radio's 2020 album Every Bad, she recalled tracking the band's earliest songs inside a shed. That setup spurred her ambition to take control of the production side, motivated by a need to capture the direct impact of their live performances on tape. Over years on the road, the stage became the place where she learned to trust her instincts as a singer and guitarist, using the immediate rush of performing live as the primary foundation of her musical life.
Those instincts will soon be tested in this stripped setting. Margolin has arranged a run of live dates throughout October, alternating between headline gigs, festival appearances, and support slots for Ezra Furman. The tour begins on October 7 at The Golden Hinde in London, before she heads to Portugal for Sonus Art Festival in Guimarães on October 9. She plays Cardiff's Sŵn Festival between October 15 and 17, then joins Furman at Liverpool's Epstein Theatre on October 21 and The Halls in Norwich on October 22.
Her schedule continues at Boia Festival in St. David's from October 23 to 25, followed by three final dates opening for Furman at Union Chapel in London on October 26, Minster Church in Reading on October 27, and Brighton Dome Corn Exchange on October 28. Returning to the stage under her own name, Margolin presents her songwriting down to its plainest elements, free of collective noise and focused entirely on the essentials.
