Mesh return with ‘Exile’ video single and announce new album ‘The Truth Doesn’t Matter’ on Dependent Records
Mesh return with "Exile" video single and announce new album "The Truth Doesn't Matter" on Dependent Records
British electronic alternative duo Mesh have released the video single “Exile“, their first new song in nine years, and confirmed details of the forthcoming studio album “The Truth Doesn’t Matter” which we already announced a while back on Side-Line. The album is scheduled for release on March 27, 2026 via Dependent Records, with pre-orders available now.
“Exile”, the first new song to be released by Mesh since the 2016 full-length “Looking Skyward”, appears as an edit of the album’s opening track. Below is the official video, directed and shot by Kieran Gallop (GLK Media) and featuring Olivia Heath.
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Mesh about writing and recording “Exile”
The band says that “Exile” went through a two-stage creation process, with the instrumental groundwork laid in Bristol and the lyrics completed during the album mixing sessions in Germany.
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Silverthorn explains how the music took shape: “I was trying to write some music that was uplifting but had a dark and moody undertone. I had the chord structure and the chorus, but felt something was missing. That’s when I added the arpeggio type line at the start. This changed the character of the song and gave it that hypnotic, driving feel. It is the glue that holds it all together. After we had finished mixing the album and almost a year after the music was written, Mark sent me the track with the vocals added. It was one of those moments when I knew immediately that this track had to be the single. It was as quick as that.”
Vocalist and lyricist Mark Hockings describes how the words were written under time pressure around the final mixes with producer Olaf Wollschläger in Burscheid, Germany: “We were about to go to Germany to mix the album with Olaf, I still had a couple of instrumentals from Rich which had no lyrics or vocals. I loaded one into Cubasis on my phone and started working on it in dead time during the mixing. I needed inspiration, and Judit, the wife of our producer Olaf, gave me the only English books that she had: ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul – Stories for a Better World’ by various authors, and ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’, which is a Bowie biography. I was also reading Heinlein’s ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ on my pad. The lyrics kind of just fell out of those influences. I recorded the vocals on the phone outside on Olaf’s balcony and recorded them properly when I got home. It was all very last minute, but worth that last push.”
The finished version of “Exile” was mixed by Olaf Wollschläger together with Mesh at Cottonbeat Studio in Burscheid.
About the new Mesh album “The Truth Doesn’t Matter”
Mesh describe the theme of “The Truth Doesn’t Matter” as being about an “age of post-factual lies”. All tracks were written and recorded by Mark Hockings and Richard Silverthorn at Mesh HQ and The Summerhouse in Bristol, UK. Mixing was handled by Olaf Wollschläger together with the band at Cottonbeat Studio in Burscheid, Germany, with mastering credited to Mesh and supplementary mastering by Wollschläger.
Guest vocalist Mari Kattman contributes additional vocals to “Bury Me Again” and will also appears in a few concerts as part of the 2026 tour line-up.
The 16-track album includes the following tracks:
- “The Truth Doesn’t Matter”
- “A Storm Is Coming”
- “I Lost a Friend Today”
- “Polygraph”
- “Trying to Save You”
- “Bury Me Again”
- “I Bleed through You”
- “Kill Us with Silence”
- “1031030”
- “This World”
- “Exile”
- “Everything as It Should Be”
- “Hey Stranger”
- “Cipher”
- “Not Everyone Is Lonely”
- “Be Kind”
“The Truth Doesn’t Matter” will be released in several physical editions on Dependent Records:
- Limited boxset (500 copies): A deluxe boxset containing the standard album on double vinyl, an exclusive vinyl version of the bonus CD, an artbook and other items, accompanied by a hand-numbered certificate signed by Mesh.
- 48-page hardcover 2CD artbook: This edition includes the main album on CD plus an exclusive nine-track bonus CD titled “The Full Truth”, packaged in a 48-page hardcover artbook with expanded visuals and credits.
- Gatefold black vinyl 2LP: A standard double vinyl pressing housed in a gatefold sleeve, featuring the 16-track album.
- Jewelcase CD: A regular CD edition in a jewelcase for the core album.
Mesh 2026 “The Truth Doesn’t Matter” tour
The release of “The Truth Doesn’t Matter” is accompanied by an extensive European and UK tour throughout 2026 under the same title. The first leg covers Germany and the Czech Republic in April, followed by UK shows in May, Scandinavian dates, a summer open-air performance, and an additional Czech date in November.
Current tour dates announced include:
- 02 April 2026 – Oberhausen (DE), Kulttempel – sold out
- 03 April 2026 – Berlin (DE), Huxleys
- 04 April 2026 – Hamburg (DE), Docks
- 05 April 2026 – Leipzig (DE), Felsenkeller
- 06 April 2026 – Praha (CZ), Lucerna Music Bar
- 08 April 2026 – München (DE), Backstage
- 09 April 2026 – Frankfurt (DE), Batschkapp
- 10 April 2026 – Köln (DE), Carlswerk Victoria
- 11 April 2026 – Hannover (DE), Pavillon
- 01 May 2026 – Bristol (UK), Trinity
- 02 May 2026 – London (UK), 229 Club
- 03 May 2026 – Sheffield (UK), Corporation
- 14 May 2026 – Malmö (SE), Plan B
- 15 May 2026 – Göteborg (SE), Musikens Hus
- 16 May 2026 – København (DK), Viften
- 30 August 2026 – Taunton (UK), Vivary Park Open Air, Electric Summer (with Howard Jones)
- 11 November 2026 – Liberec (CZ), Dům kultury
About Mesh
Mesh are a British electronic alternative duo from Bristol, England, formed in 1991 by vocalist and guitarist Mark Hockings and keyboardist, guitarist and backing vocalist Richard Silverthorn, with Neil Taylor joining on keyboards in the early years. While Silverthorn composes the music, Hockings writes the lyrics and delivers lead vocals.
Signed initially to Swedish label Memento Materia, Mesh released the EP “Fragile” in 1994, followed by their debut album “In This Place Forever” in 1996. A compilation titled “Fragmente” arrived in 1998, consolidating early material before the 1999 studio album “The Point At Which It Falls Apart”.
The early 2000s saw Mesh move onto a major-label platform with “Who Watches Over Me?” (2002), supported by singles such as “Leave You Nothing”. Subsequent records “We Collide” (2006), co-produced with Gareth Jones, “A Perfect Solution” (2009), “Automation Baby” (2013) and “Looking Skyward” (2016) followed including several hit singles like “Crash”, “Born to Lie”, “Adjust Your Set”, “Kill Your Darlings” and “Runway”.
Live, Mesh expanded to a four-piece configuration, adding drummer Sean Suleman and live keyboardist Vaughn George, which remains the standard line-up for recent tours. The band have repeatedly toured across Germany, Scandinavia and the UK, including appearances at festivals such as Amphi and Infest. In 2017, they released the orchestral live set “Live at Neues Gewandhaus Leipzig“.
In 2024, the band marked the 25th anniversary of “The Point At Which It Falls Apart” with a remixed and expanded reissue, continuing a re-examination of their catalogue in collaboration with Dependent Records.
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