Novelty Island

Led by Tom McConnell, a Liverpool-based songwriter and producer, Novelty Island develops an universe situated between dream pop, psychedelic indie pop, and lo‑fi, with short, melodic, and slightly off-kilter songs, threaded by an imagination drawn from childhood, television, trains, roads, and everyday objects. The project takes shape at the end of the 2010s and sits within a British tradition of songwriting where pop harmonies cross foggy textures and a melancholic tone. Under the name Novelty Island, McConnell notably releases How Are You Coping with This Century? and Wallsend Weekend Television, two albums that establish this writing as both immediate and oblique, before Jigsaw Causeway, a darker record in its colors, nourished by lo‑fi aesthetics and cottony atmospheres. In concert, Novelty Island also exists as a band, with a live setup that extends the artisanal and surreal aspect of the project through handmade sets and props. Novelty Island has played festivals like Glastonbury and toured the United Kingdom both as a headliner and in support of artists such as Sea Power, The Pale White, Scott Lavene or China Crisis. Tom McConnell’s visual work closely accompanies the music of Novel Island, between papier‑mâché, rudimentary animation and collages, in a coherent continuity with his songs.