Since then, Fred has shared new music featuring Swedish House Mafia and Future ‘Turn Out the Lights Again..’ and ‘I. Jordan (‘Admit It (U Don’t Want 2)’. His Boiler Room set in July 2022 received critical acclaim and fans have been long awaiting his follow-up. “I really truly really really wanna say thank you so so much for all of the love on this @boilerroomtv” he wrote on Instagram reflecting on the performance, “I can’t tell you how much it means.”

Before the release of the new album, he shared clips on his Instagram of him sharing songs from Actual Life 3 with fans at his shows and to strangers on trains via AirDrop and filming their reactions. “Okayyyy SO I am so so really very VERY happy to say that Actual Life 3 will be out on October 28th!!!!! You can pre-order it today and the first song is out nowwwww!!” he said on Instagram. The post also revealed he will be playing shows across Europe alongside a hometown gig at his “favourite venue ever”, Brixton Academy. Tickets go on sale on Friday 23rd September but fans can get early access to tickets if they pre-order the album from the official store before 2 pm on Wednesday 20th September. “I really really can’t wait”, he said.

Despite his debut album being released in 2021, Fred had received notable acclaim working as a producer for some of the biggest recording artists today. He worked with Ed Sheeran on his fourth studio album, No.6 Collaborations Project, and is credited with writing and/or producing 12 of 15 of the tracks. His credited songs collectively held 14 weeks at Number 1 in the charts. Prior to this, he co-wrote ‘Shotgun’ with George Ezra which also reached number one, and worked with Demi Lovato, Clean Bandit and Rita Ora. He went on to win Producer of the Year at the 2020 Brit Awards and he still continues to write and produce songs for artists including Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and AJ Tracey.

Fred Again.. UK tour dates:

08/12/22 – O2 Academy Brixton – London

The album opens with ‘April 14th 2020’ and ends with ‘December 17th 2020’, two brief vocal snippets from the 26-year-old himself. In between the spoken intro and outro, Fred constructs an album featuring personal samples and obscure audio clips embedded within electro-pop grooves. The sample-orientated tracks conjure a sort of musical realism that allows actual life, as the album title suggests, to take centre-stage.

Importantly, the stage is given to ordinary life and ordinary people. For instance, the artist recently shared a clip on Instagram of a man named Carlos enthusiastically talking to the camera, alongside a video of him weaving the audio from this clip into downtempo, piano-driven production. The video was a preview of ‘Carlos (Make It Thru)’, track thirteen on the new project.

Accompanying the video, Fred wrote, “Carlos is the OG in this for me. He was the first video that I woke up wit on my phone that was like oh wow this guy is music. I feel enormously indebted to this dudes spirit. I’ve made like at least 8 different tunes out of him as I’ve developed what I was wanting to do over the last year or so, and I think maybe I’ll have a song called Carlos on every record I do now. I think so. Like there’s a mad up beat one, there’s a 160bpm techno one, there’s one wit like all these rap features n shit.”

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The music is almost an afterthought for Fred; it is the people wrapped up within these songs that truly matter. Each sample captures a feeling or an emotion, and his music merely offers a way to explore such moments. The original vocal sample of ‘Carlos (Make It Thru)’ captures the upbeat spirit of Carlos, which the London-based producer then transposes into the musical mantra ‘we gon make it thru’. In doing so, an individual’s attitude to life is transformed into a universal rallying call, one that has never been more pertinent given the struggles of the past year.

Throughout ‘Actual Life’, Fred’s music is a site where personal moments are given universal meaning in such a manner. Whilst life and people have always been muses for artists, his use of samples literalises this notion, creating music with a very tangible connection to the real world.

‘Actual Life’ is available to stream below: