ATRIP Had To Lose His Debut Album Before He Could Make PLASTERBOY
After an earlier version of his debut disappeared with a stolen laptop and hard drives, ATRIP rebuilt the record into PLASTERBOY — a wider, more collaborative album led by “pull u right thru”.
An earlier version of ATRIP’s debut album disappeared when his laptop and hard drives were stolen following a show in Bristol last year. Years of music went with them, including work intended for the record that would eventually become PLASTERBOY.
Due 4 December via TANZPARTEI, PLASTERBOY came out of the period that followed. ATRIP has described the album as shaped by grief, self-doubt and a changing relationship with making music.
“After losing all my life’s work in a car theft last year, I found myself having to rebuild not just my music, but my relationship with making it. This album grew out of that process — moving through grief, self-doubt and the pressure to return to who I was, and eventually allowing myself to make something quieter, stranger and more honest.”
ATRIP had already built much of his reputation through club-focused electronic music, from the TANZPARTEI mixtapes to KLUBPARTEI and releases through Live From Earth. With PLASTERBOY, he says that palette stretches into UK rap, shoegaze, trip-hop and leftfield pop.
The 12-track album also brings in FLOHIO, Bawo, Enola, Jessica Winter, Izza Gara, Leela Rose and Oscar Farrell, alongside songwriter Jo Hill.
The record also stopped being such a solitary process. ATRIP has spoken about questioning the instincts he previously relied on, while working with friends helped him put feelings into music that he was struggling to articulate himself.
“The people you hear throughout these records are not just collaborators, but my friends, and in many ways they became vessels for emotions I struggled to communicate on my own. Their voices, ideas and interpretations helped me give shape to feelings that were often difficult to articulate. I’m eternally grateful to them.”
You hear that shift most clearly in new single “pull u right thru”.
ATRIP wrote the track with close friend Jo Hill in her kitchen while he was still finding his feet after the theft. They approached the lyrics from the perspective of a friend trying to support somebody going through grief.
“This one feels particularly close to my heart, as I wrote this in the midst of finding my feet and my rhythm again after having my laptop & album stolen after a show in Bristol last year. Writing the lyrics with a very close friend - Jo Hill - in her kitchen, was a therapeutic exercise for me at that time, as we wanted to capture the perspective of a friend to a grieving person, who is desperately trying to communicate support, love and affirmation.”
That song gives the clearest idea of where PLASTERBOY sits. ATRIP says the record still carries the rhythmic instinct of his earlier work, but places it inside a broader emotional and sonic frame rather than building everything around the club.
The theft changed the route into his debut, but PLASTERBOY is not framed as an attempt to recover what disappeared.
As ATRIP puts it: “It’s about loss, healing and forgiveness, but ultimately it’s about finding a way forward without needing to become the person I was before.”
PLASTERBOY arrives on 4 December via TANZPARTEI. “pull u right thru” is out now.
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