Tarragon has announced his new album Home At Cofa’s for release on May 1st 2026 which is available to pre-order now here.
The album is the second from Coventry-based singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Callum Pickard and follows his debut album I’ve Just Seen A Scene in 2022. Now returning in 2026 with Tarragon, he delivers a beautifully expansive and immersive record of ethereal indie electronica alongside a host of collaborators from the likes of The 1975, Tame Impala, The War On Drugs, Supertramp, Bon Iver and more.
“I like to think of Tarragon as a community rather than it just being about me,” he says.
The first taste comes with lead single ‘Kiss Me On The Line (feat. My Brightest Diamond)’ out today. The song captures questions in a romantic relationship and plays as a musical conversation with Callum’s dreamy musings raising the thoughts, while My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Nova reflects these sentiments with her weightless vocals.
Callum also plays piano, electronics, drums and percussion on ‘Kiss Me On The Line’ while also arranging the stunning strings. Along with My Brightest Diamond they are also joined on the song by John Waugh of The 1975 (alto, tenor saxophone), The War on Drugs’ Dave Hartley (bass) and Robbie Bennett (electronics), as well as Bobby Hawk (Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Taylor Swift) who plays strings and adds to their arrangement.
Regarding the single Callum says, “‘Kiss Me On The Line’ is about the point when you start asking questions and having doubts about if something is right for you. I wanted there to be a female voice on that track to ask those questions with me and Shara’s voice felt like the perfect fit - she’s one of my favourite vocalists.”
The many cooks involved in the forthcoming album Home At Cofa’s is reflected in the name of the project, Tarragon, as Callum explains, “It’s a herb that makes a dish into something better. It’s like collaboration.”
If cooking is about taking complimentary ingredients that elevate the whole to another level, then the same attitude permeates through this new record. Callum is head chef, and has self-produced, mixed and engineered the record, alongside mastering engineers Greg Calbi (John Lennon, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen) and Steve Fallone (Pet Shop Boys, The Strokes, Kurt Vile).
These collaborations came about naturally - a follow on from Callum reaching out to some of his favourite musicians on social media and building a mutual rapport. “I'm really inspired by Bon Iver’s self-titled record from 2011 and one of the first shows I went to was seeing that at Hammersmith Apollo; seeing all those players and being really amazed by it,” he remembers. Two of that record’s players now feature on Home At Cofa’s too: Mike Noyce, lends backing vocals on the meditative ‘MDM’, while CJ Camerieri, plays trumpet, flugelhorn and french horn across songs including ‘Catching Full On’, ‘Cold To The Bone’, ‘Hail Hollow’, ‘Tucked In Despair’ and ‘MDM’.
Elsewhere Tame Impala drummer Julien Barbagallo plays on the dappled ‘Blueprint’ and John Helliwell from Callum’s childhood inspirations Supertramp plays clarinet on the beautifully pensive title track. “The title track is about being from where I'm from, and wanting to be proud of that, but still feeling uncomfortable a lot of the time,” he says.
While the music here is firmly the result of collaboration, the story of Home At Cofa’s - titled after the legendary Cofa’s Tree that gave Coventry its name - is all Callum’s. Fittingly, it’s a record all about belonging; how you fit into a city that sometimes feels like the wrong shape, how you move through life trying to adapt and grow with others, and what the notion of home means anyway.
Alongside this, Callum was funding the making of the records through a series of jobs as a Covid tester (which he details on ‘Reel Lives’), a Deliveroo cyclist and, now, a postman for the Royal Mail. All extremely public-facing roles that gave him a window into the full spectrum of Coventry life around him, and the people existing within it. “I'm always out of my comfort zone in those jobs,” he says. “I always feel like I'm awkward, but I’m learning from them at the same time. Sometimes I won’t be able to digest the situation until I sit down and write about it, but I was able to see people and experience life and be inspired by all those times.”
It’s this unique mix – slightly removed social observation and frontline immersion; solitary working but with a group of peripheral musicians around him – which makes Tarragon a truly intriguing proposition. On Home At Cofa’s, Callum has found a way to communicate all of it in his own musical language. “It’s been a labour of love,” he says. “Even more than anything I’ve done before, with this album I wanted to go the extra mile.”
HOME AT COFA’S TRACK LISTING
1.Dice
2.Kiss Me On The Line (feat. My Brightest Diamond)
3.Tucked In Despair
4.Blueprint
5.Home At Cofa’s
6.Catching Full On
7.Reel Lives
8.Cold To The Bone
9.Recover Your Light
10.MDM
11.Small Colt Leader
12.Hail Hollow
13.It’s Time We Go Now (Trading Hearts)