History Of Guns premieres 2025 mix of debut single ‘Little Miss Suicide’ – Out now
History Of Guns (Photo by John Fox)
Hertfordshire-based industrial-postpunk act History Of Guns kicks off 2025 with the single “Little Miss Suicide (25)”, released via the Liquid Len Recording Company. In fact, this is the band’s debut single in a 2025 remix. The accompanying video uses footage, originally filmed by Danni Cutmore on a VHS camera, of the band writing and performing the song at Earthworks studio in Barnet in 1998.
Produced by Max Rael, this single was mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson, using all the original audio recorded back in 1999, and mastered by Pete Maher (U2, Pixies, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails). Written in 1998 by founding members Del Alien, Max Rael and Stagger Lee, alongside regular contributor Gary Hughes (who also plays the lead guitar melody), the rougher original version of this song was released in February 2000.
“Little Miss Suicide (25)” is out now, available to download, alongside the B-side “I Am Defective” and a trance remix by Gary Hughes.
Stagger Lee’s lyrics challenged the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide that prevailed at that time – an environment where openly discussing one’s personal struggles was discouraged. Projecting his own depression and suicidal thoughts on to an imagined female character, Stagger relays the character’s experience of not being taken seriously, as reflected in the title – a nod towards the popular “Mr. Men and Little Miss” series by British author Roger Hargreaves back in the 70s and 80s.
“This was our first song to really feature major chords, which Del wasn’t at all convinced by. In the end Stagger and I won him round by assuring him we were only using happy chords ironically to contrast with the dark subject matter. It’s probably the closest we’ve ever come to an actual proper pop song,” recalls Max Rael.
Del Alien adds, “We knew all too well that sincerity wasn’t respected or valued in the 90s, so from early on we’d incorporate humour amongst the darkness, we said because we wanted to reflect the whole of life and experience, the good and the bad, but it also gave us a way of talking about the terrible things that were happening to us and our friends, but we could never be accused of taking ourselves too seriously, or being emo or whatever. We may, at times, have taken this a bit too far at times.”
Last year, the band released their eighth album “Half Light“.
About History of Guns
Formed in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1996, the duo became frontrunners of the Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s. The band went on hiatus in 2012, returning with 2022’s album “Forever Dying In Your Eyes” before setting about finishing an electronic project they’d begun in 2008 – resulting in “Half Light”.
The starting point for this album lays in Robert Anton Wilson’s words “The future is up for grabs; it belongs to any and all who will take the risk and accept the responsibility of consciously creating the future they want.” The release contains elements of a story currently being written as a novel by Max Rael, with these 10 tracks exploring inner and outer space.
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.