Ginger has finished writing a second Wildhearts album while waiting for the first one to come out.
Northern Spirit is due in October. Speaking to Eamon O’Neill of Eonmusic, the frontman confirmed that the material for whatever follows it is already done.
“I’ve wrote a new album for The Wildhearts since waiting for this one to come out,” he said.
One of the songs from that unannounced record is “Stories“, built around the idea that a person amounts to the account of their own life.
“It’s all about how all we are is the story of our life,” Ginger explained. “And some people don’t make any stories. They don’t do anything. Make a story. Live the life that you would be impressed by reading about.”
The album takes its name from where Ginger is from, and from what he says that gives him.
“The album is about being proud of who you are, where you come from,” Ginger said. “I’m obviously from the north, so that’s why it’s called Northern Spirit.”
He described the spirit in the title as something that comes out of feeling settled where you are, tying his own to Newcastle and to Scotland.
“I’m in a great place. That’s where the spirit is.”
Several song titles have now been made public:
- “Motherf**ker In The Sky” — expected as the first single, addressing the nature of God and how people relate to religion
- “Just Make It To Bedtime” — about depression and living with it
- “Gorilla Zen” — which Ginger sums up as “real noisy”
- “Northern Spirit” — the title track
- “Spider Beach” — already being played live
Ginger called the title track celebratory and grand, then made clear that the music underneath it is not.
“It’s got the ugliest riff that I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
Asked whether it might function as a Newcastle anthem in the manner of “Geordie In Wonderland“, he rejected the comparison outright: “No, no, no, no. It’s just horrible. It’s just this horrible, really horrible, dark riff, and the most joyous chorus I’ve ever written in my life.”
Speaking to Rock News earlier this summer, Ginger said the label had asked him to choose a first single and he could not, describing the record as holding together as a single piece and probably the most complete album he has been involved with. He also relayed his producer’s description of it as a journey into the The Wildhearts universe.
Ginger reflected on the point where he decided to continue the band without the lineup that had recorded 21st Century Love Songs, which broke up acrimoniously in March 2022.
“There was a point where I thought; ‘can I do this by myself? Is it possible?'” Ginger said. “And so that first step is that fear and bravery are exactly the same feeling, and so I went with the bravery and started by myself.”
He rebuilt the band in January 2024 around returning bassist Jon Poole, guitarist Ben Marsden and drummer Charles Evans. That lineup made Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts, released March 7, 2025 through Snakefarm Records and produced by Jim Pinder.
Ginger formed the band in Newcastle in 1989 and has fronted it since 1991.
Ginger, whose real name is David Walls, disclosed earlier this year that he has mantle cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer affecting the lymph nodes and, in some cases, the blood, bone marrow and other tissue. He has said he was given three years.
On June 13, he spoke to the “Mike James Rock Show” at the Download festival in Castle Donington, United Kingdom. During the interview, he discussed his recent revelation that he has been given three years to live following a cancer diagnosis.
“My brain is in a fantastic place at the moment. I’m living every second in the moment. When you live in the moment, you can’t be worried about the future, and you can’t be worried about the past. It’s the only place to be. I learned how to do that about three years before I got the diagnosis. But to practice that now in real time after I found out that is great. ‘Cause I would say, ‘Oh, good time to find out that I’m gonna die of cancer.’ But we’re all gonna f**king die. It’s about how much you live. And I’m living. And life is working so well in my favor… People wanna f**king write to me and tell me how great I am and how much I’ve meant to them. I want every one of my friends to have this much joy in their life,” he said at the time.
He continued: “There’s more than the physical world. It goes on. We go on. Things go on. So make this one matter. People won’t remember you when you’re gone. All they’ll remember is how you made them feel or what your job that you did here as being a human, how that affected them. That’s all they’re gonna remember.”
When the host pointed out the positive impact Ginger‘s music has had on his audience over the decades, the singer expressed immense gratitude for the loyal community that has formed around the band: “Thank you very much for that. I really appreciate that. And it’s true, ’cause I meet them all the time, and I hear from them all the time, and it’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been responsible of a big community of people, and they help themselves out. They’ve helped themselves way more than just when we’re playing or when we’re selling something. They help themselves out all the time.”
Addressing how he intends to navigate the time he has left, Ginger made it clear that he plans to live aggressively rather than slow down or retreat: “ I think what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna do exactly the same as I’ve always done. I’m just gonna ramp it up a few notches, ’cause I’m not worried about getting sick and ill in my old age. And I wonder how much damage I can do to myself in, like, two to three years. But I’m gonna find out. And I’m gonna party like a motherf**ker for the rest of my days, every single day. And so far I haven’t had a bad f**king day. It’s full on. I wanna f**king drag my burning corpse to the gates of hell and say, ‘That was f**king brilliant.’”
