Pushing The Backseat Lovers onto the next chapter of what is shaping up to be an epic storybook of runaway, word-of-mouth hits, soul-searching song writing and an expanding, international family of fans, the band celebrate the release of their second album, Waiting To Spill – OUT NOW. The Utah four-piece and DIY alt-rock phenomenon presents a new collection of songs that stand as the finest and most intricate of their short, yet eventful career together as a band and as friends.
Revealing that a new album was on the way in the heat of August, The Backseat Lovers had already closed in on almost 400 million total worldwide streams with experience of main stage appearances at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and The Great Escape, arena/stadium support slots with The Killers and Jack White and sell out tours in their native USA and through Europe all under their belts. Such gifts had all arrived, unexpectedly, on the back of one, DIY recorded and released album: 2019’s When We Were Friends
The Backseat Lovers’ ejection seat propulsion out of Salt Lake City and into the hearts of music fans around the world would have been a head spinner for experienced, long-time band mates, but four, young musicians that barely still barely knew each other? The intensity of that experience, and the parallel process of growing into adulthood alone and together, with and away from the fans and the music, is what forms the intensely personal, fractured and satisfyingly whole second album.
Released today on Polydor, the album represents the four bandmates concerted, and overwhelmingly successful attempt, in the words of front man and co-songwriter, Joshua Harmon, “to make something that was honest and real, something that meant the world.” Joining The Backseat Lovers on such a personally and artistically important mission was six-time Grammy Award-winning producer, David Greenbaum (Paul McCartney, Gorillaz, Beck), helping to guide a band in experimental mood through the new and brave studio capabilities they had rising to the surface. The twelve, resulting, unrestrained songs, described by Harmon after the fact as “the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” form a rewarding experience of deep listening and complex moods.
The mega streaming, viral success story of Kilby Girl and the peppy single’s radio and stage-friendliness supercharged the home-recorded juggernaut of When We Were Friends, a record that only came together, piece-by-piece, out of curiosity and necessity for the brand-new band. Peeling back the lid on Waiting To Spill, and immediately encountering the undulating, babbling stream to raging torrent instrumental of Silhouette, it becomes bracingly clear that, whilst listeners are enjoying the same band, their message has changed and they’ve learned new tricks.
“The biggest production note of ‘Silhouette’ is the use of the doppler effect,” says Harmon, “We created a long loop of my voice droning on the same note,and bounced a massive loop of the single note. We then teamed up, two of us holding microphones facing one in the direction a car was coming from and one in the direction it was going to end up. The other two were driving the car and holding a big speaker out the side of the window, blaring the single E note. The doppler effect was captured, creating a natural pitch shift of the note from E to D, the key of the next song, ‘Close Your Eyes’.”
Following the release of the album, the band heads out on a sold-out US Tour, returning to Europe next March with tickets for all venues selling fast. All of the confirmed The Backseat Lovers UK & Ireland Spring 2023 Tour dates are as follows:
Wed 8 March – O2 Ritz, Manchester
Thu 9 March – O2 Academy, Birmingham
Fri 10 March – QMU, Glasgow
Sun 12 March – Vicar Street, Dublin
Tue 14 March – Stylus, Leeds
Wed 15 March – SWX, Bristol
Thu 16 March – O2 Kentish Town Forum, London
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