FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PETE BRILEY RETURNS WITH NEW SINGLE ‘BEST BAD DECISIONS’
New single arrives 27 November ahead of second album The Haunting of Pete Briley, out 8 January 2027 — with CD and vinyl pre-orders available now
Pete Briley returns with ‘Best Bad Decisions’, a restless, off-kilter new single released on 27 November 2026, and the first clear signal that his long-promised second album is finally ready to emerge.
The track leads into Briley’s second album, The Haunting of Pete Briley, released on 8 January 2027, with CD and vinyl pre-orders available now via petebriley.com/store
Fans who pre-order the physical album will receive their copies ahead of the official release, in time for Christmas, while both the CD and vinyl editions will feature three exclusive tracks that will not be available on streaming platforms.
Written and produced by Briley in his own Top Floor studio, ‘Best Bad Decisions’ has been sitting in various forms for some time, beginning with an image that refused to leave him alone:
“I’ve got a little stone in my shoe
No matter what I do
This little stone won’t ever shake loose…”
For Briley, that stone became a metaphor for the persistent urge to break out of routine — the feeling that there ought to be something beyond the familiar cycle of work, television, sleep and repeat.
“I liked the idea of the stone in the shoe representing that ever-present feeling of wanting to break out of the norm,” he explains. “Breaking out of the shackles of what society expects, and out of the monotony that it’s so easy to get stuck in.”
The final piece of the song arrived during a particularly chaotic summer.
Having signed up to run a 50km race, Briley found much of his training colliding with festival season — resulting in days that might involve a 20-mile training run in the morning followed by a show that evening, or squeezing interval sessions in before travelling to the next gig.
“Everyone around me thought I was crazy,” he says. “Then one day the line ‘you know I make the best bad decisions’ appeared, and I immediately knew where it belonged.”
The result is a song about the choices that might look unreasonable from the outside, but somehow make perfect sense to the person making them.
Musically, ‘Best Bad Decisions’ began with touchstones including Johnny Cash, Frankie Laine and Townes Van Zandt, before evolving into something considerably stranger.
Briley brought in layered backing vocals and counter-melodies inspired by classic Motown and the Holland-Dozier-Holland catalogue, added percussion designed to give the track what he describes as a slightly “drunken cowboy” lilt, and finally let the whole thing break loose with a full-throttle rock guitar solo.
“This song just kept wanting to evolve,” says Briley. “Every time I thought I understood what it was, it seemed to ask for something else. So I kept feeding the fire. After three or four versions, it finally felt like it had arrived where it needed to be.”
That exploratory approach sits at the heart of Briley’s solo work.
Rather than beginning with a fixed genre or production template, each song is allowed to develop its own identity — whether through guitar, banjo and pedal steel, synthesizers, unusual recording techniques, complex vocal arrangements or the occasional strange time signature.
“There’s a lot more experimentation in my solo work than in some of the other projects I’ve been involved with,” Briley says. “I think the people who connect with it tend to like that there’s something a little weird going on from the start.
“They’re the kind of people who are probably looking for creators sitting slightly away from the campfire — somewhere on the periphery doing something a little different from the rest of what you might hear on Americana, rock or indie radio.”
‘Best Bad Decisions’ marks the beginning of the final run towards The Haunting of Pete Briley, a record several years in the making.
Since releasing his first solo album in 2024, Briley has spent much of his time fitting his own material around touring and recording with The Outlaw Orchestra, session and studio work with artists including James O’Hurley, Oli Sanders, JUKES and Elena Erin, travelling to the US to play pedal steel with Toria Richings, composition work for video games and the continuing development of Top Floor Music.
“I’ve been promising this album for a long time,” Briley admits. “The people who listen to my music have been incredibly patient. Calling them fans always feels a bit weird to me — they feel much more like family.”
With pre-orders now live, Briley is giving those listeners the chance to hear the album before its general release.
CD and vinyl editions of The Haunting of Pete Briley can be pre-ordered now from petebriley.com/store, with physical copies shipping in time for Christmas.
The physical editions will also contain three additional tracks unavailable on streaming services, making them distinct versions of the album rather than simply physical copies of the digital release.
The visual identity surrounding the record reflects the same philosophy as the music: bold blocks of colour pushing through black backgrounds, accompanied by Briley’s gold sparkle logo.
The aesthetic is deliberately tactile, retro and imperfect.
“There’s a kind of 90s, analogue feel to it,” says Briley. “I wanted the artwork and photography to feel like the music — like there was a human touch behind all of it.”
For Briley, that increasingly means leaning into the imperfections of handmade work at a time when machine-generated content is becoming ever more commonplace.
“The more AI-generated stuff there is, the more I find myself valuing something hand-made, hand-animated, a real photograph, a real instrument or a mix made by human ears. The imperfections are part of what make those things interesting.”
That idea runs through ‘Best Bad Decisions’ itself: a song built through instinct, experimentation, overthinking, bad ideas, good ideas and eventually something worth keeping.
In early 2027, Briley will also join comedian Pete K Mally for selected special live performances during Mally’s final stand-up tour, with dates planned in Wolverhampton, Salford, London and Bournemouth.
For an artist whose best ideas often seem to emerge from doing too many things at once, ‘Best Bad Decisions’ may be an unusually appropriate title.
‘Best Bad Decisions’ is released on 27 November 2026.
The Haunting of Pete Briley follows on 8 January 2027.
CD and vinyl pre-orders are available now at petebriley.com/store
Credits
Written, Performed and Produced by: Pete Briley
Recorded at: The Top Floor
Single release: 27 November 2026
Album: The Haunting of Pete Briley
Album release: 8 January 2027
Album pre-orders: petebriley.com/store
Physical pre-orders will be delivered ahead of general release and include three exclusive tracks unavailable on streaming platforms.
BIO:
An overrated upstart with ideas above his station — if his own lyrics are to be believed — or, depending on the direction of the wind, the self-proclaimed “Poet Prince of the Southern Dust” or “King of the Southern Waifs and Strays.”
A songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from the south coast of England, Briley makes music for people who like their Americana, indie and rock with something slightly strange happening around the edges.
Armed with guitars, banjos, pedal steel, synths and an entrenched fascination with anything capable of making a noise, his solo work is where all the rules come off. Traditional songwriting collides with unusual arrangements, layered harmonies, strange textures and the occasional musical left turn — all held together by Briley’s distinctive way with melody and words.
Formerly a member of The Outlaw Orchestra, Briley spent years touring extensively across the UK and beyond, playing banjo, guitar and pedal steel and appearing on bills alongside artists including RAYE, Inhaler, The Darkness, Ash and Newton Faulkner.
But his own records have always occupied a different corner of the room.
His debut album established an idiosyncratic solo sound that earned support from BBC Introducing, including Track of the Week and Best of the Year recognition for Elvis, alongside praise from Backseat Mafia, Overtone Magazine, Emerging Rock Bands and New Noise Magazine.
Since then, actually finishing album number two has proved slightly more complicated.
Between his own releases, Briley has rarely stopped moving. He has travelled to the US to play pedal steel with Toria Richings, recorded and performed with James O’Hurley, contributed session work to artists including Elena Erin and JUKES, written music for video games and other commissioned projects, and continued building Top Floor Music, the independent music company through which he produces, records, masters and helps develop other artists.
He is also a founding member of The Quiet Life, the alternative project built around deeply personal songwriting, male/female vocals and a more collaborative, emotionally exposed approach to arrangement. Briley has played a central role in shaping the band’s sound from the studio outward, recording, producing, mixing and mastering its early material while helping develop a musical identity that sits somewhere between indie rock, folk and the darker edges of alternative songwriting.
Somewhere amongst all of that, he made another record.
The Haunting of Pete Briley, his long-awaited second album, arrives on 8 January 2027.
Built slowly and somewhat obsessively in Briley’s own Top Floor studio, the album reflects an artist increasingly comfortable operating outside obvious genre boundaries. Americana and roots songwriting remain somewhere in the foundations, but across the record they rub shoulders with indie rock, classic pop, psychedelia, unusual instrumentation, dense vocal arrangements and whatever other ideas happened to wander into the studio.
Its latest single, ‘Best Bad Decisions’, arrives on 27 November 2026 — a lopsided collision of Johnny Cash and Townes Van Zandt influences, Motown-inspired counter-melodies, “drunken cowboy” percussion and a decidedly unsubtle rock guitar solo.
It is an appropriate introduction to an album built through instinct rather than efficiency.
Briley’s creative philosophy is increasingly simple: in a world becoming smoother, faster and more automated, make things that still have fingerprints on them.
The music, artwork and visual world surrounding The Haunting of Pete Briley lean deliberately towards the handmade, analogue and imperfect — bold colour against darkness, real instruments, real photographs and ideas allowed to become a little weird before anybody tells them not to.
Maybe that explains the Southern Waifs and Strays.
The people slightly away from the campfire. The ones on the periphery. The listeners looking for something familiar enough to pull them in, but strange enough to make them stay.
Pete Briley might just be their king.
PRESS QUOTES
“Pete is one hell of a songwriter and has produced something that feels wholly unique.”
— Overtone Magazine
“A gorgeous blend of paces, styles and ambiences.”
— New Noise Magazine
“Pete’s voice and his music are totally unique — I love it.”
— BBC Introducing
“A glorious hidden gem… an album of substance that sits like a full banquet.”
— Backseat Mafia