Tebi Rex know a bit about a world that feels like it’s on fire. Like the majority of their peers in the music industry, plans for eighteen months had to be moved, adapted or abandoned. Instead of making their US debut at SxSW in 2020 they went into the studio and recorded the Brackets EP. Instead of taking their acclaimed live performance to some of the industry’s most prestigious showcase festivals, they appeared online at The Great Escape, Ireland Music Week, ESNS and SxSW. The path to the release of their second album, however, has never wavered.
As with their Greek mythology based 2019 debut The Young Will Eat The Old, It’s Gonna Be Okay is an album that reveals an intriguing narrative across its eleven chapters. The four singles released in advance gave a hint at what was to come – hope, despair, passion, rage, a talking tree – before the full story was revealed in glorious fashion. Featuring some of the band’s darkest, most aggressive songs alongside moments in the alternative pop sunshine, the record tackled life in modern Ireland, politics, the Irish language, racism, death, anxiety, austerity, social media and a moment of clarity on a rainy Dublin evening. Veering from the belief that it indeed will be alright in the end to the exact opposite, it comes to some sort of conclusion. Whether you agree is up to you.
The album’s release saw the band receive praise from the likes of The Link Up, Earmilk, BBC Introducing, Music Crowns, Wordplay, District, I Am Hip-Hop, The Line Of Best and Mystic Sons as well as a short run of UK gigs supporting Pan Amsterdam and a debut London show at The Old Blue Last. Following a Nov 2021 Dublin headliner they returned to the UK in 2022 for the Happy To Be Here tour – taking in dates from Glasgow to Brighton – played select dates across Ireland and travelled to mainland Europe for the first time for the United Islands festival in Prague. Solo projects are on the way from both members, before they begin work on their next move.
“The complex lyricism is still there in abundance, along with their innate infectiousness” Record of The Day
“A reflective, full frontal assault….” The Line of Best Fit
“They bring together poetic sensibilities and delicious pop hooks seamlessly…” Paste Magazine
“Takes this American artform and spins it into a world of deep intimacy and poetic wellspring…” Ones to Watch
“Great lyrics and giddy exploration…” The Irish Times
AGENT: Rob McGee
