Where The Tragic Happens by New Age Healers - Track by Track

Owen Murphy é a mente por trás do já predileto da aqui do TBTCI, New Age Healers.

Se por ventura você não conhece, melhor começar a se mexer, porque desde o "Ghosts" o debute, lançado ano passado o NAH mostrou exatamente ao que veio, barulho e diversão como nos velhos tempos.

E o NAH soltou seu mais novo petardo, "Where The Tragic Happens" veio ao mundo há pouco menos e 15 dias e Owen, injetou querosene na receita. O disco é um mix poderoso de Love & Rockets, J&MC, fase Automatic e o indie rock noventista sem firulas.

O disco é tão poderoso que o TBTCI pediu ao seu criador que o decupasse faixa a faixa para melhor compreendermos a essência de "Where The Tragic Happens"

Enquanto você lê, dê play e escute no volume máximo, vai ser mais sentido, se é que você me entende.

***** "Where The Tragic Happens" by New Age Healers *****

Track by Track - by Owen Murphy

If I’m going to talk about each of these songs and what inspired them, I have to talk about where I work. It’s a radio station in Seattle called KEXP and I am outrageously lucky to produce the morning show with John Richards. This station has been a huge influence on the music I make. Even before I got here a year ago, I was an avid listener blown away by the curatorial powers of John, mid-day host Cheryl Waters and afternoon drive host Kevin Cole. One would think it would inspire an indie-rock (what does that even mean now?) sound, but I’m not someone who can control how I sound, and finally decided to not even worry about it and just let the sonics fall where they should. So some will say this album sounds like The Jesus and Mary Chain, or Suicide, or whatever else you can think of, but all I can say is these are the sounds that fell out of my head, and I’ve long since stopped bothering with trying to change them. It’s also important to spotlight the fine work of James Aparicio, who mixed this album and who you may know from his work with Spiritualized, Factory Floor, Liars, and now the GREAT sounding new Sun Colony. James took my oddly recorded sounds and turned it into a cohesive, huge sound that all fit together nicely and I am indebted to him forever. Onward…

Track 1 on this album is called “He Took A Bullet To Heaven,” and was always intended to be the first song on an album and live set. Musically it’s built, like many of these songs, around a mix of guitar pedals and dark harmonies. It’s also a lyrical, shit-happens, shrug about life and relationships in which we never know which way our paths will turn.

Track 2, called “With Regrets,” may be my favorite and it’s a nod to trusting in simplicity. It’s built around a distorted bass sound inspired by the low tones of some PJ Harvey songs. The story finds the singer realizing, maybe wrongly, that it would be best if he “cut and run” from his family and was inspired by a number of friends who were having difficulties in their relationships.

Track 3, “The Drowning,” is about watching the cruelty of a pal being fired from a job with no warning, and not being able to help in a meaningful manner. Happens all the time. Sonically I wanted something softer to take the edge off the first two songs which are fairly heavy.

Track 4 is called “Another Side,” and is the most shoegaze sounding song on the album. It’s my internal argument regarding spirituality. Sonically it’s all about drone and rhythm.

Track 5, “Disasters Offshore,” is my view of essentially all that is wrong with our amazing country. It’s a quieter sound inspired by the sounds of one of my favorite record labels, Touch and Go out of Chicago. Think Slint, Trump, and how oil interests fuck this world on a daily basis.

Track 6 is a song called “Stop,” and it fits well next to “Disasters Offshore” as it’s about the power of ideas that infiltrate our belief systems. It’s dark, brooding and sonically inspired by, among others, the bass playing of Jawbox’s Kim Coletta who played the e-string better than most anyone I’ve ever seen. I know that makes little sense...maybe it’s a gut feeling.

“Love is For Free,” is the seventh track on the album and is also how we usually finish the live set. It’s a love-triangle in which two out of the three people have no interest in playing along. Musically it’s a classic blues riff, and almost a mix of The James Gang meets JATM, built to make you move your ass. Dance m-f-ers, dance.

The final track, called “Surprise Party,” was inspired by a friends wife surprising him with a divorce. Musically it’s supposed to feel like one is dying in space while admiring the beauty all around that last view. It’s a complex series of ideas that ebb and flow around two notes. Complexity through simplicity? That’s unpossible.

I’m really fucking proud of this work and can’t wait for you to hear it. Oh, and I’ve got five more songs for the next one close to being finished already.
*
*
*
Thanks

https://newagehealers.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeHealers