Brand new single from Brandes

Brandes is a UK-based singer-songwriter whose music represents a new chapter in a life already influenced by extraordinary change. The project is the work of Peter Bradley, an acclaimed author and former Labour MP who’s turned his attention towards songwriting after years in which politics, career and family took priority. Writing now under the name Brandes, reclaimed from his family’s Holocaust history, Peter brings an unusually personal perspective to music, exploring love, loss, memory and identity through songs based in real life experience.

The history gives Brandes’ songwriting an inherent sense of gravity but there’s nothing overly ornate about his output. He allows the words to carry the emotional impact, combining folk-styles lyricism with spoken-word influences, understated musical arrangements and occasional flashes of indie rock energy. His half-spoken delivery adds another facet to the storytelling, creating songs that feel like intimate reflections being shared directly with the listener.

Brandes made his musical debut in July 2024 with “Please Don’t Call,” subsequently releasing a trio of songs ahead of his debut album, The Distance Between Dreams. Arriving in April last year, the record fully mapped out his musical identity through a balance of lyrical detail and sonic restraint, crystallising his entrance as a compelling singer-songwriter with a thoroughly meaningful vision. Now Brandes begins the next stage of that story with “Love In Two Degrees,” the first single lifted from his forthcoming sophomore album, Still Life, scheduled for release in 2027.

The track also marks his first release since The Distance Between Dreams, returning to familiar sphere while introducing a new uncertainty into the story. Thematically, “Love In Two Degrees” is concerned with what happens after love has seemingly ended; beginning in the aftermath of a failed relationship, the song moves through the emotional barrenness of winter before gradually reaching towards the possibility of renewal. The arrival of spring becomes a metaphor for the return of love, transforming a story that begins with rejection and loss into one of hope.

The song’s enigmatic ending leaves open the possibility that this new love may not be what it appears to be, asking whether it’s genuine renewal, or has the narrator simply created a version of happiness because the alternative is too painful? That ambiguity gives “Love In Two Degrees” its emotional tension, capturing the strange experience of falling in love again while still carrying the fear that it could disappear just as quickly. Forming with the steady taps of drums and intricate guitar tones, Brandes’ recognisable vocal style floats above to cast a mesmeric sonic spell while the gentle pulse of bass carries the song with a lilting rhythmic sway.

Taking listeners on an engrossing musical tale, “Love In Two Degrees” revisits themes that shaped The Distance Between Dreams such as fragile relationships, loss, guilt and the possibility of recovered love but approaches them from a different emotional position. It’s ultimately a song about the strange courage required to believe in love after being hurt by it. Sometimes moving forward means accepting that certainty is impossible and sometimes, Brandes suggests, the dream is worth pursuing even when you cannot quite tell whether it is real.

Commenting on the release, he shares, “In all my songs, I try to achieve clarity of thought and honesty of emotion. In Love In Two Degrees, I set out to capture a personal experience and convey how it felt then and what it means now. But it’s not meant just for me. I hope it’ll have meaning for those who hear it and help them engage with their own thoughts and experiences.”

Listen to Love In Two Degrees below

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