Young Fathers weave psychedelic soul, post-punk, and left-field currents of hip-hop and pop into their dense, fiery aesthetic. The Edinburgh trio issued multiple EPs and singles prior to their breakthrough with the 2014 debut album Dead, which claimed the Mercury Prize. Heavier follow-up White Men Are Black Men Too arrived in 2015, after which the group’s tracks featured prominently throughout the 2017 film T2 Trainspotting. The more straightforward yet still elusive Cocoa Sugar entered Scotland’s Top Ten in 2018. Following an extended hiatus, the band resurfaced in 2022 via several singles that paved the way for the 2023 album Heavy Heavy.
The members first crossed paths in 2001 at an Edinburgh youth club and officially formed Young Fathers seven years later. Alloysious Massaquoi, born in Liberia, relocated to Edinburgh with his family during childhood. Kayus Bankole, born in Edinburgh, spent time in his parents’ native Nigeria and in the U.S. before returning home. Graham Hastings hails from Edinburgh’s northwest district. While still teenagers, the three began playing nightclubs. They completed the full-length Inconceivable Child...Conceived for Black Sugar Records, yet the project remained unreleased. Subsequent singles and EPs appeared, and the self-released 2011 cassette Tape One was acquired by Anticon the next year. Tape Two followed in 2013, leading to the first widely available album, Dead, issued in February 2014 on Big Dada and Anticon. Its inventive yet gritty rhythms paired with incisive lyrics drew widespread critical notice and secured the 2014 Mercury Prize against higher-profile nominees.
A domestic tour expanded into international dates across South Africa and the U.S., with additional European shows that included an extended stay in Berlin to begin work on the second album. Recording concluded back in Edinburgh, and White Men Are Black Men Too emerged in April 2015. The trio appeared on Massive Attack’s 2016 EP Ritual Spirit, while “Only God Knows,” recorded with the Leith Congregational Choir, featured on the T2 Trainspotting soundtrack alongside several other Young Fathers songs. Early 2018 brought the Ninja Tune singles “In My View” and “Toy,” preceding the tense, pared-down Cocoa Sugar, which reached number nine in Scotland that March.
After four years away, Young Fathers returned in 2022 with three advance tracks from their fourth album—again for Ninja Tune—tracked in the band’s basement studio. “Geronimo,” “I Saw,” and “Tell Somebody” surfaced on the emotionally complex yet uninhibited Heavy Heavy, released the following February.
