Interview: Total Fucking Darkness Chase Pop Glory Into the Great Void on “This Is The Last Time,” New Album Coming in 2027

Total Fucking Darkness return with “This Is The Last Time,” a skyscraping piece of electronic pop schmaltz about letting go, following your dreams, and setting your heart on fire. Epic and yearning in equal measure, the track finds Torquil Campbell, Stephen Ramsay, and Tom McFall shamelessly reaching toward pop transcendence while remaining acutely aware of how ridiculous that pursuit can be. It’s taken from Total Fucking Darkness’ upcoming new album, set for release in 2027.

When asked what inspired it, Ramsay offers a characteristically economical answer: “New Order.”

“This Is The Last Time” arrived with similarly little ceremony. Ramsay had barely made it through the instrumental once before Campbell had the lyrics ready. “It may as well be called ‘Real Time’ because Torq wrote this in real time,” Ramsay explains. “By the time I played him the instrumental once, he had written the lyrics.”

For all the band’s instinctive irreverence, the song reaches for something sincere beneath the electronic grandeur. “This Is The Last Time” is about the point where letting go becomes forward motion: following whatever dream remains, committing to it completely, and accepting that sometimes the only sensible response to uncertainty is to set your heart on fire and see what survives.

Sonically, the track looks backward to move forward. Total Fucking Darkness have always harboured an unresolved obsession with late-’80s and early-’90s electronic music, and “This Is The Last Time” pushes that fixation toward its biggest pop instincts. There are no software shortcuts hiding beneath the surface either. “No plug-ins, anywhere. This track is all analog, baby.” The result is unapologetically oversized electronic pop: yearning, melodic, synthetic, and built with one eye permanently fixed on an imagined past. 

“Every band says their latest music is the best thing they’ve ever done,” Ramsay says. “It’s obviously cliché at this point and therefore categorically untrue in almost all cases, but I’m telling you, this is the best song we’ve written.”

Had they released it in 1991, he argues, somebody would currently be sitting on a yacht in the Mediterranean rather than answering interview questions from a Starbucks bathroom. History has denied them that opportunity. “This Is The Last Time” will have to do.

1. What did you enjoy most about creating this new release?
we made it on a porch in the country after ingesting industrial amounts of psylocibin. the whole thing was terrifying.

2. Share a nugget of advice that has resonated with you most over the years.
“fuck the man.”

3. Who would be your dream artist or band to co-headline a tour with?
real lies or anthony szimerek or decius.

4. What sets your music apart from others in your genre?
it’s better. much, much better. just kidding. um….what sets us apart….we like the pet shop boys. not a lot of electronic artists listen to them. but they should…

5. Tell us your favourite song at the moment and why.
toi et moi by Paradis. because it absolutely, utterly fucks.