Loitering at the intersection of new wave, synth pop and art rock, Formal Sppeedwear make sounds that are at once jagged and hypnotic - a timely parcel of geometric riffs, whirring synthesisers and surreal, apprehensive lyrics.
Initially devised by frontman Beck Clewlow as a solo attempt at creating music without the use of a computer, the Stoke-On-Trent trio fell into existence after several chance encounters between Clewlow and local musicians Charlie Ball and Connor Wells led to the three collaborating on a series of recording sessions directly to tape. The end result (an improvised, krautrock-adjacent series of cassette recordings) left them with a new-found awareness of both their overlapping tastes and musical chemistry as a trio, and the three quickly began to work together on new material under the Sppeedwear name.
Numerous striking live performances across the UK and Europe and radio play for early single ‘The Line’ bagged a record deal with Melodic in 2024. Their debut EP - a self-titled, self-produced 12” sample of elastic bass arrangements, leaping guitar motifs and sparse, un-assuming percussive work - was championed by the likes of BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing and Radio X, and helped to earn festival slots at Left Of The Dial, Float Along and Manchester Psych Fest. 2025’s follow up single ‘Wait (Hatchet Gets a New Hide)’ quickly followed suit; earning features in DIY, The Line Of Best Fit and Hard Of Hearing Magazine, as well as significant radio backing from KEXP, BBC 6 Music and KCRW.
Lovingly described by The Arts Desk as ‘idiosyncratic, razor-sharp and ploughing their own path’ - Sppeedwear are crafting their own agenda by rejecting the well-trodden routes to Manchester or London. Instead, they’ve built a sonic haven in the former industrial hinterlands of Stoke, assembling a home studio from Facebook Marketplace haggling and Cash-Converters curiosities; rewiring ideas sewn by the golden era of recording technology into a dense tangle of sounds for audiences to unpack.