WATERS (Port O’Brien frontman’s new project) to release debut album, live shows and free download
aaamusic | On 17, Aug 2011
WATERS
DEBUT ALBUM ‘OUT IN THE LIGHT’
OUT SEPTEMBER 19th 2011
LABEL: CITYSLANG
WATERS (the caps are important!), the new project from former Port O’Brien front man Van Pierszalowski, is confirmed to release its debut album, Out In The Light, on September 19th, 2011 via City Slang .
The first track off the album, “For The One,” was recently leaked online and has already topped the blog charts and spread like wildfire – a hugely catchy, raw and impassioned sing-a-long hit unlike anything Pierzalowski has written before.
Their debut London show supporting Wye Oak met rapturous applause and ended with WATERS playing a 45 minute set – the audience cheering for more despite never having heard the songs before.
Mixing fuzzy, pealing guitars and crashing drums with dynamic, indelible melodies, ‘Out in the Light’ ranges from barrelling, grunge-sheathed pop (“For The One,” “Back To You”), to easy, haunting tracks that soar (“O Holy Break Of Day”, “Out In The Light”); from rolling, catchy anthems (“Abridge My Love,” “Take Me Out To The Coast”), to a quieter and ruminative, aching beauty (“Ones You’ve Had Before,” “Mickey Mantle”). Throughout, Pierszalowski’s sanded, reedy tenor sings about starting over, jealousy, and yearning for an easy, steady life, the intimacy and emotional intensity underlined by John Congleton’s (St. Vincent, Explosions In The Sky, The Walkmen) stark production.
In the spring of last year, creative and personal differences led to the collapse of Port O’Brien, and Pierszalowski was left needing a break from touring and from making music. He landed in Oslo, Norway, seeking solace and space, and after some time began writing again. Compelled to fuel his inspiration further, he changed environments once more and spent most of the next year travelling: to Alaska, where he’d spent summers as a teenager fishing salmon with his father; to California, where he’d grown up in a seaside town off Highway 1; and eventually to New York, where in Brooklyn he endured relentless blizzards.
The new songs Pierszalowski wrote were intensively thought-out and pieced together over the year, a new contrast to the frequently loose, punchy anthems of his previous band. He knew he wanted a bigger sound for his new project (which by now he’d dubbed WATERS) than he could create on his own. So, recalibrated and reinvigorated, he headed back to Oslo, where his new life had first begun to take shape. Pierszalowski put together a band and they practiced every day for two months before heading to Dallas, TX, to record with Congleton. Entering the studio with a clear picture of exactly how the songs should sound, Pierszalowski and his band finished Out In The Light over a mere 10 day recording session.
WATERS will be playing the following London shows this September:
13th: The Old Blue Last
14th: Cargo (w/ EMA)
Free Download of ‘O Holy Break of Day’ http://soundcloud.com/cityslang/waters-o-holy-break-of-day/s-G0UFQ
