“Green Tea” - trainboy
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
London’s own trainboy, the quirky musical project of singer-songwriter Dave Macleod, arrives on the scene with their January 2025 single “Green Tea”—a woozy, wistful, and wonderfully offbeat slice of lo-fi indie pop that feels like bumping into a close friend on a rainy walk through Camden. If you like your music with a little nostalgia, a lot of honesty, and just enough fuzz to make you lean in closer, this one’s for you.
“Green Tea” is a song about the everyday magic of small things—drinking absurd amounts of green tea, taking slow strolls along the Camden canal, watching Sunday footie matches on Hackney Marshes, and trying to make sense of it all through hazy melodies and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Think of it as a musical postcard from your favorite over-thinker who reads zines, owns several vintage jumpers, and still carries a Walkman for aesthetic reasons.
But don’t be fooled—underneath the cozy veneer, there's some real artistry at play.
Musically, “Green Tea” lives in that warm, homespun corner of the indie universe where bedroom pop, Britpop nostalgia, and modern shoegaze gently collide. If The Velvet Underground, Blur, and Snail Mail formed a book club and decided to start a band, it might sound something like this.
The guitar hits a lo-fi jangle, slightly drunk on delay, toeing the line between lazy and laser-sharp. The drums, courtesy of French dynamo Guillaume Boisselet are understated, metronomic, but with just the right amount of groove to make your shoulders sway.
Dave’s vocals delivery is deadpan but endearing, equal parts Jarvis Cocker charm and Stephen Malkmus cool.The sweet backing vocals from Bex Vines add the indie frosting on this soft-spoken banger.
Recorded in Kentish Town, rehearsed in what’s apparently a haunted toilet-slash-hotel-room, the track oozes DIY authenticity. There’s no overproduction here—just good ideas, good vibes, and a heap of personality.
Lyrically, “Green Tea” taps into the art of saying something by saying very little—a kind of casual philosophy that you only realize hit you halfway through the third listen. It’s filled with self-deprecating charm.
This isn’t music that shouts at you. It shrugs, smirks, and hands you a cup of tea while it meanders through existential micro-dilemmas. It’s the soundtrack to overthinking your way through a rainy Sunday in a secondhand coat. It’s British indie in its most delightful, unbothered form.
Because “Green Tea” doesn’t try to be more than it is—and that’s exactly why it works. It’s a snapshot of a moment, a mood in motion, and a reminder that the best music doesn’t always need a chorus that explodes or a hook that screams. Sometimes it just needs to walk beside you, mumbling clever things under its breath.
And in a world obsessed with over-polishing everything, trainboy’s dusty, charming, slightly off-center delivery is exactly the kind of human touch we all need.
“Green Tea” is a track that’s easy to miss and hard to forget. It doesn’t shout, it simmers—like the slow steep of your favorite blend. And with their debut tour on the horizon, trainboy is a name to keep an eye (and ear) on.
Sometimes the most important songs aren’t the ones that change the world. They’re the ones that change your afternoon.
“Green Tea” is available now on all major streaming platforms
