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Father John Misty returns with ‘The Payoff’ and lines up London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire show
Father John Misty shares the baroque new single 'The Payoff' and announces a June 12 London headline show at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire.
Father John Misty has come back with a new single, and a new London date to go with it. Joshua Tillman has shared “The Payoff”, a harpsichord-heavy track that follows January’s “The Old Law” and leans harder into the baroque, vintage-rock tendencies that have long sat somewhere in the orbit of his work. The song is credited to Tillman and arranger Drew Erickson, who also handled production with him. It was mixed and engineered by Michael Harris at Fivestar Studios in Topanga, California, then mastered by Adam Ayan Mastering.
The track arrives with a familiar set of reference points baked in: psych rock, late-period John Lennon, and enough ornate detail to keep it from sounding like a simple genre exercise. “The Payoff” is not a left turn so much as another pass through a style Tillman has been circling for years, only with a little more stately polish this time around.
He has also announced an “Evening With Father John Misty” show at London’s O2 Shepherds Bush Empire for Friday, June 12. The gig is essentially a replacement for his cancelled appearance at LIDO Festival, which had been booked for the same day before the event was pulled last month because of concerns about the grounds at Victoria Park.
Tickets for the West London headline date go on presale at 10am on Wednesday (May 13), with general sale beginning at the same time on Friday (May 15). Find yours here.
He is also set for a run of North American shows in May find tickets here, followed by a series of European dates in June tickets here. He was also recently announced for All Things Go in Maryland.
Earlier in 2025, Tillman marked the 10th anniversary of “I Love You, Honeybear”, his second album, with a remastered reissue. He also pointedly joked about the anniversary landing on the same day as Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, writing: “Today of all days.”
His last studio album, “Mahashmashana”, arrived in 2024 and picked up a four-star review from NME. The review noted that the record “doesn’t quite mainline the zeitgeist in the same way that Honeybear and Pure Comedy did,” but added that there was something to be said “for logging off in favour of self-reflection.” It also singled out “Mental Health,” writing that Misty “rejects the hive mind,” before closing on the observation that, beard or not, he still cannot help but hand out words of wisdom.
