Born from a hunger to start afresh, London-based Liu Bei started as a collaborative project amongst friends with an eye to embark on something new. The shimmering single 'Infatuation' is their first offering, a cinematic soundscape that haunts with reverberating vocals and escalating rhythm. An honest and epic ballad on the devastating effects of love, Liu Bei's debut single sets an exciting forecast for what's to come. 

We spoke to frontman Richard Walters about falling into a new band and writing without perimeters. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Richard. I sing and play guitar in a band from London called Liu Bei.

You've had a very fruitful career in music; tell us about your past, and how you got to where you are now. 

I've been making music for a few years, mostly by myself. Creative solitude is a great thing to a point, and then you really need some company and other brains to connect with. I released three albums and toured almost constantly without a gang. I just reached my limit with that way of working, and luckily met the others in Liu Bei right on the verge of giving up. It brought me back.

You've also written music for tv; how do you find the experience of writing commercial music in comparison to writing music for yourself? 

Being given a brief and strict boundaries to work within is the best thing in the world some days - you can just sit down and switch on. But it is work, not pure expression. If you're fighting against the perimeters you've been set it can be absolute hell. It works the other way round too - sometimes there's too much going on in your head and your life to turn into a song, you occasionally need that roped off area in your brain to get things out.

Tell us about Liu Bei.

I moved to London last year and told myself that it was the right time to find a new way of making music. New home, new project. I wanted to do something that was purely for the love of music with no commercial agenda. I was lucky to meet the others in the band just as I was feeling a little hopeless about what I was creating, and the pleasure of writing and playing with other people was immense. We've not stopped since.

Is there a story behind the band's name?

It came to us via the radio, as all good things should. There was a documentary on Radio 4 about Chinese folklore and they discussed this incredible, kind hearted and gigantic (8ft tall, apparently) warlord called Liu Bei. Nothing else would do after that. There's a sick part of me that really gets a kick from people being a bit lost about how to say it. For the record, it's 'Loo Bay'.

Where do you turn to for inspiration?

I find that reading books and listening to records that leave me a little envious tends to push me to write, as though I've got to justify my existence in the light of such brilliance. Getting out and walking round London is also good. Late nights and hangovers tend to get things ticking too, which is weird but quite common I think. Maybe your brain shutting down a little allows a few more honest ideas to come through.

Introduce us to Infatuation.

This is a song about the sanity-wrecking power of love and obsession. I've seen the clearest-headed people in my life turn into absolute wrecks over the end of a relationship, but they always come out the other end wondering what they said or did, because you're just utterly lost in it sometimes. The strangest thing is that as much as it hurts and tears you up, there's always part of you that doesn't want it to end; there's something right about feeling utterly overwhelmed by your own head and heart.

Infatuation is released on 7th July through ParadYse/Transgressive Records.