South Arcade tap into “reckless optimism” on new single DEADMEAT

South Arcade have dropped a sugary new single DEADMEAT ahead of their main stage show at Download next week.

The song is their second new release of 2026 following April’s SUPERMAN and arrives on the heels of their arena tour with 5 Seconds of Summer this past spring.

“We went into writing wanting to tell a sort of modern Romeo and Juliet story (but with a less depressing ending), and we left with DEADMEAT,” say the band. “It has this reckless optimism about it where the two characters’ worlds shouldn’t really overlap but they’ve found each other regardless - they want to escape all of that noise, steal a car and leave town. It had this ‘us against the world’ energy that we loved.”

Check it out below:

South Arcade also recently announced they’d be headlining London’s O2 Academy Brixton on February 25, 2027.

Ahead of that and Download, they’ll be tearing up the K! Pit on June 9. Entries have now closed, but keep an eye on our YouTube for when footage of the show drops.

Read this next:

• South Arcade: “We’re finding people who like all these different areas of music and showing them our different sides”
• The Sound Of 2026: The 26 essential new artists coming to shape your year
• South Arcade: “We’re inspired by the ’00s, but we don’t feel limited by it"