For Seattle-born musician and Longboat founder, Britain has become an unlikely but endless source of inspiration. Now, that fascination takes centre stage on Proud of My Postcode, a forthcoming electronic album exploring London, British history and the everyday details of life in the UK.
Due for release at the end of September 2026, Proud of My Postcode is Longboat’s 37th album and the latest chapter in an extraordinarily prolific catalogue that includes 39 recorded albums and more than 500 songs written over the past 15 years.
Recorded at Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch last August, with Will Davies engineering, the album takes an outsider’s perspective on Britain without attempting to offer a definitive picture of the country. Instead, Longboat looks at the places, people, history and small moments that have made an impression since its founder began spending more time in the UK.
It is a perspective shaped by contrast.
Originally from Seattle, Longboat’s founder grew up surrounded by mountains, forests and wildlife. Britain offered a very different kind of landscape — one defined by thousands of years of history, with stories embedded into its streets, buildings and towns.
That contrast became a creative opportunity.
Rather than simply documenting Britain’s famous landmarks or historical events, Proud of My Postcode is interested in the everyday. It is about observing the country as it actually feels to live in it, from the mundane details of daily life to the strange contradictions that exist alongside political and economic uncertainty.
“I particularly like the way people celebrate the mundane here between various and sundry political and economic crises,” says Longboat’s founder.
That sense of observation is central to Longboat’s songwriting. Romance isn’t the band’s subject matter; instead, its music looks outward at the world around it.
“I don’t write love songs,” he explains. “So that frees me up to be an observer of the world around me. It’s pretty liberating.”
A Longboat Sound
Longboat was formed in Seattle in 2011, originally growing from its founder’s background as a jazz tenor saxophonist. Since then, the band’s sound and format have continued to evolve.
Although Longboat is often a one-person operation in the studio, it isn’t limited to a fixed lineup. Depending on the music, the band can expand to include live rock and jazz musicians, strings, horns and backing singers.
For Proud of My Postcode, however, Longboat has taken an entirely electronic approach.
The result is a record that gives its observations of Britain a deliberately expansive musical setting, moving between past and present while avoiding the boundaries of a conventional genre.
It is also another example of the sheer creative output behind Longboat. With 500-plus songs written and 39 albums recorded, there is an enormous archive of material behind the new release.
Yet the project isn’t confined to recordings.
From Strongroom to Clerkenwell
Longboat’s connection with London has increasingly moved into live performance, too.
Around 100 songs from the band’s repertoire are currently being performed as piano-only versions around Clerkenwell, with hopes of taking the performances further across London and beyond.
The contrast between these stripped-back performances and the electronic world of Proud of My Postcode highlights the flexibility at the heart of Longboat. Whether working with electronic production or a piano alone, the emphasis remains on songwriting and direct musical expression.
That commitment also extends to Longboat’s approach to technology. The band has taken a deliberately human-led approach to its music, rejecting the use of artificial intelligence in its creative work and placing songwriting, musicianship and performance at the centre of what it does.
For a musician who has spent 15 years building an enormous body of work, that philosophy feels less like a marketing statement and more like a continuation of the way Longboat has always operated.
Proud of My Postcode is ultimately an album about looking closely.
It doesn’t claim to explain Britain, nor does it attempt to capture every side of the country. Instead, it offers a personal perspective from an American-born musician who has found an increasingly strong connection with the UK.
From Seattle to Shoreditch, from jazz saxophone to electronic music, and from the recording studio to piano performances around Clerkenwell, Longboat continues to find inspiration in the world immediately around it.
This time, that world is Britain.
Proud of My Postcode is due for release at the end of September 2026.
