HEADLINE PRESS RELEASE

Gregg McKella Announces Debut Solo Album Songs from the Underground – A Raw, Reflective Journey Born on the Streets of 1990s London

Singer-songwriter Gregg McKella, known for his work with Paradise 9, Rubber Bus, and The Glissando Guitar Orchestra, is set to release his debut solo album, Songs from the Underground, on Friday, 5th December 2025.

Aylesbury-born and now based in Brighton, McKella unveils a body of work written during his formative busking years across London in the 1990s—songs shaped by the grit, diversity, loneliness, energy, and unexpected beauty of life in the capital.

Blending folk, psyche blues, neo-folk, and shimmering ambient tones, McKella defines the record’s sound as “space-folk”—a kaleidoscopic mix of acoustic storytelling, psychedelic colour, and atmospheric experimentation.

Recorded and produced by Martin Litmus, Songs from the Underground is both a personal statement and a celebration of musical collaboration. Litmus performs bass, keyboards, synths, mellotron, guitars, and percussion, while McKella contributes vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, clarinet, synths, and his signature glissando guitar.

The album features guest appearances from:

• Nick Pynn – violins
• Jeanette Murphy – backing vocals
• Tyrone Thomas (Paradise 9) – lead & slide guitars
• Eugene McClouskey – violins

ARTIST QUOTE

“Most of the songs on this album were written in the 1990s during my busking years in London. I didn’t write to a genre—I wrote what I saw, what I lived, and what the city made me feel. There’s light and shade here because that’s what life gave me then.”
— Gregg McKella

McKella also addresses the life-changing moment that pushed this long-gestating project to completion:

“In 2022, a routine PSA blood test—one I had no symptoms to suggest I needed—caught prostate cancer early. Thanks to that and successful surgery, I recovered. It gave me a greater urgency to finish this record. I now tell men over 40 at every show: ask your GP for the PSA test. It might save your life. It saved mine.”

ALBUM OVERVIEW

Songs from the Underground is a 12-track collection that moves fluidly between stripped-back intimacy and expansive sonic worlds.
Listeners travel through reflective folk musings, swirling psychedelia, warm analogue textures, and moments of emotional catharsis.

Themes include:

• The solitude and stories of street life
• Big-city disconnection and unexpected connection
• Survival, resilience, and renewal
• The spiritual and emotional landscapes formed through lived experience
• A post-recovery perspective on purpose and mortality

TRACKLIST

1. All Said and Done – 4:46
2. Gone So Silent – 5:14
3. New Horizons – 8:25
4. Face in the Crowd – 6:36
5. It’s Come to This – 4:37
6. Sacred Space – 5:18
7. Charlie Don’t Mind – 5:56
8. One More Touch – 5:44
9. New Dawn – 3:20
10. Time to Go – 6:32
11. Motherless Children – 5:37
12. Woman Like You – 7:11

https://greggmckella.bandcamp.com/…/songs-from-the…

https://greggmckellamusic.com