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A dreamy indie rock reverie, juicer’s debut album ‘Retire the Fences’ is a soothing, stirring document of reflection and reckoning, able to soundtrack our sizzling sunny days and lengthy summer season nights.
for followers of Hovvdy, TOLEDO, Runnner
Stream: “Trickin” – juicer
From the second their debut album begins, juicer wrap listeners in a blanket of goals.
“I hate coming down, down from the excessive, I really like whenever you’re ’spherical, cranky and drained,” frontman James Pratley Watson sings, mild guitars strumming subsequent to him as a bass licks bob up and down. “Who’s trickin who? Who’s trickin who? Who’s trickin?” His voice is a young tempest – delicate and sizzling unexpectedly, like he’s whispering proper into our ears, moderately than right into a far-off microphone in some Brooklyn studio.
The humorous half is, whereas he’s monitoring the comedown, our excessive is simply get began: A dreamy indie rock reverie, Retire the Fences is a soothing, stirring document of reflection and reckoning, able to soundtrack our sizzling sunny days and lengthy summer season nights. Quiet and loud, calm and hard-hitting unexpectedly, it’s a excessive that by no means will get previous – providing increasingly more to its listeners upon repeat listens.
We’re all within the room of countless decay
If I had to decide on I’d hold it the identical
Ponder, really feel the burden
Limitless days (Who’s trickin?)
Heal the ache, really feel it break
How lengthy will it take? (Who’s trickin?)
Promote the paint, hold it secure
Yet one more day (Who’s trickin?)
Confiscate, a method aircraft
Take it away
Who’s trickin who?
Who’s trickin?
Independently launched Might 10, 2024, Retire the Fences is indubitably a diamond within the tough. juicer’s debut album arrives lower than a 12 months after the Brooklyn indie rock band launched themselves, and finds the four-piece of James Pratley Watson (guitar/vocals), Donovan Edelstein (drums), Carlo DiBiaggio (bass) and Greg Crotty (guitar) doing their finest to steadiness a bevy of musical influences that features (however will not be restricted to) ’90s different, shoegaze, slacker rock, dream pop, indie sleaze, and extra.
What initially began as Watson’s solo undertaking has developed right into a vibrant staff effort, and Retire the Fences captures that magnificence in spades.
‘“When Greg and Don joined the band, I had already completed a model of the document. It was combined, mastered, the whole lot, even had paintings,” James Pratley Watson tells Atwood Journal. “After we began taking part in as a band although, it turned clear that some songs labored for us as a bunch and a few didn’t. Even the songs that did work wanted a change on the document, as a result of we had been beginning to kind our personal sound and means of expressing the songs at our exhibits. So in the long run, I solely stored half of that previous document, and what I did hold I completely reworked together with the band to make it really feel extra like how we sounded reside. These songs are ‘Trickin,’ ‘Household Man,’ ‘Heirloom Crimes,’ and ‘Strawberry Life.’ The remainder of the document are songs we constructed from the bottom up as a band – ‘Let Go,’ ‘Why Don’t,’ ‘Bomb,’ and ‘Dream.’ I like each units of songs, however I feel the latter is extra indicative of the place we’re heading as a band.”
“[The vision] modified fully,” he continues. “I scratched the document midway by amidst a rediscovery of the music I really like. After I made the primary model of the document it was as a solo act, and I wished it to be this extremely produced factor. I employed some buddies to behave as producer and mixing engineer and we made one thing that we had been all happy with, however on the finish of the day it didn’t sound just like the music I take heed to. I used to be coming off of a pair years making pop music, the place you’re making an attempt to appease some imagined expectation of a mass viewers, and this primary iteration of the document felt like I nonetheless hadn’t shed myself of that strain. All of that went out the window when Greg and Don joined, and juicer turned extra of a band. Making selections collectively and me letting go of management was simply what this undertaking wanted.”
Closed his eyes within the fog
Straight away, touched the face of god
Presence in decay
Now his solely residing son
Fights the absence with a quiet tongue
However in his eyes there’s one thing
So candy, so candy, I can perceive
So candy, so candy like a household man
Within the eyes of widows’ sons
There’s a light-weight surrounding everybody
Presence in decay
Guess that’s why we aligned
A compassion written in our eyes
Reminiscences of one thing
The album’s title itself is a Seashore Boys lyric from their tune “Free Flows,” featured on 1971’s Surf’s Up. “For me the phrase was so encouraging amidst all of the change I used to be going by when making the document,” Watson explains. “I had simply moved from LA to NYC, I had basically give up all my previous music tasks and I used to be reconnecting with the form of values that first drew me into music – being in a band, searching for neighborhood, letting go.”
For Watson, this document seems like an genuine rendering of juicer’s collective id: The sounds they obtain, and the feelings they evoke, are all a testomony to their strengths and skills taking part in collectively as a collective unit.
“It seems like a really centered album, at the very least I hope it comes off that means,” Watson smiles. “It was undoubtedly much less centered earlier than we reworked it. We began attending to the essence of what we’re with this album, what makes us tick and what we actually need to be listening to from ourselves as a bunch.”
“So far as our artistry, this album and undertaking is only one of many issues every of us are concerned in as artists. Everybody within the band has a wealthy musical lifetime of their very own. Donovan performs in a touring Gamelan Orchestra and produces music for movies. Carlo performs nearly each night time of the week and has a residency together with his Jazz trio in any respect & sundry. Greg writes unbelievable songs underneath Bloodweiser. I’m a composer writing music for movies and placing out instrumental music underneath my very own title. To not downplay it, however I feel Retire the Fences is only one of many issues that we’re expressing as artists.”
Highlights abound on the enchanting journey from the glistening, golden-hued album opener “Trickin” to aptly-titled nearer, “Dream.”
“‘Let Go,’ ‘Bomb,’ and ‘Dream’ are favorites they usually form of really feel like the place we’re heading for the subsequent document,” Watson says. “However the lyrics in ‘Trickin’ stand out for me. Ever since I got here to NY I’ve been grappling with mortality, I assume that’s what the town does to you. There’s this line in there that I by no means get uninterested in singing: ‘We’re all within the room of countless decay. If I had to decide on, I’d hold it the identical.’ The sheer quantity of individuals I used to be encountering in NYC in comparison with LA was stunning and made me really feel small and insignificant. With that lyric I’m making an attempt to say that possibly when you give up to that feeling there’s a light-weight on the opposite aspect.”
Whereas “Trickin” is a private favourite, Watson hopes people tune into what is definitely juicer’s most “explosive” tune. “I hope individuals take heed to ‘Bomb’ on some good audio system or headphones,” he provides. “Stoked on how the guitars sound on that one, particularly on the first refrain. These songs will accrue which means the extra individuals interpret them in their very own means. I’m undoubtedly coping with some heavier, extra complicated themes on this album than I’ve up to now – particularly on ‘Household Man,’ ‘Heirloom Crimes,’ and ‘Strawberry Life’ – so I’m curious how individuals will gleam which means from them. I’m wanting ahead to individuals respiration life into these songs by their very own understanding of them.”
Wherever you press ‘play’ on Retire the Fences, you’re positive to be met with a world of dreamy indie rock heat and marvel.
Whereas juicer recall the dusty sounds of bands like Hovvdy, TOLEDO, and Runnner, they’re clearly an entity unto themselves, and one we will’t wait to listen to extra from within the years to return.
“Somebody left a touch upon our Bandcamp saying how they cherished the stream of the album. I hope listeners really feel the document is a cohesive world that we made,” Watson shares. “We went by lot of curation and stripping away to get to the essence of what we wished, and I feel that comes by. The concepts on this album – breaking by issues holding you again, surrendering to the arduous information of life, discovering your footing in a brand new world – aren’t essentially the most easygoing themes, however I hope that listeners can discover some form of encouragement in them.”
“So far as what we’re taking away – this was a tough document to make. We scrapped songs, reworked mixes, and went by an entire transformation as a band. We launched it independently too, so we’re performing as our personal label – funding the manufacturing, selling it, securing press (shoutout Atwood for having us!). I can’t say the subsequent document will probably be simpler, however at the very least we’ll have been by it and may know what to anticipate. Past the enterprise stuff although, I’m personally, creatively simply so happy with this album. This would possibly sound dramatic, but it surely seems like my entire musical life has been main to creating an album like this.”
Expertise the total document through our beneath stream, and peek inside juicer’s Retire the Fences with Atwood Journal because the band take us track-by-track by the music and lyrics of their debut album!
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Stream: ‘Retire the Fences’ – juicer
:: Inside Retire the Fences ::
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Trickin
My associate and I spent a winter in LA at my good friend’s place in Echo Park. I’ve these fond recollections of scripting this tune and ‘Household Man’ on her porch, which ignored the again of Peter Sellar’s studio. This tune propelled me into writing the remainder of the album as a result of it felt prefer it was an entryway into a bigger world.
Household Man
This was one other one I wrote throughout that LA journey. I used to be studying Leonard Cohen’s e book, ‘The Flame,’ on the time which has his drawings alongside his poems and lyrics. I’d flip by it earlier than writing to get impressed. I’ve just a few buddies whose Dads handed away once they had been younger, this one is about them.
Let Go
Greg has this tiny nylon string guitar that I choose up and mindlessly strum whereas we’re hanging out at his place, this tune was born from a few of that strumming. We recorded it and ‘Why Don’t’ up at his childhood residence in Bridgewater, Massachusetts over the course of some Dunkin’ Donuts-fueled days. Donovan created this washy, driving sound and Greg wrote these enormous guitar components that actually glued the whole lot collectively. This was an apt one to trace in suburbia, because the lyrics are from the standpoint of somebody searching the window of their suburban residence, eager for extra.
Heirloom Crimes
I wrote the melody and chords for this on piano years in the past, I don’t even understand how lengthy, it’s simply a type of issues I’d all the time play and sing. On piano it was extra of this Zombies-esque pop factor, however then I translated it to guitar and it felt extra part of the world of the document. This one sounds means completely different reside, Carlo does these wild bass harmonics and Greg creates a wall of distortion which aren’t on the document. We hold growing the songs after we’ve recorded, so issues are all the time going to be just a little completely different between the recordings and the present.
Why Don’t
That is additionally and previous tune that I used to play and sing on piano. I introduced it to Don and Greg as I used to be placing it to guitar. It was initially this very heavy, darkish, nearly math-rock factor, however once we performed it collectively it remodeled into this “driving down PCH” vibe. We had been all completely satisfied about that.
Strawberry Life
This one began out as a part of an instrumental album I used to be making. I had Preston Fulks monitor some drums over these minimalist loops I had made. I stored layering issues in till it began to take the form of a tune. After I obtained Covid I’d take lengthy walks within the park and work out lyrics in my head. By some means this one ended up being a few pig who loves strawberries.
Bomb
Our horniest tune.
Dream
We used to have this ballad in our set that I’d play solo. Don and Greg and I had been at Hartley’s and I used to be speaking about the way it didn’t really feel prefer it was becoming with the course we had been going. Don had the thought to play it twice as quick with the total band and it completely labored. I noticed The Feelies play with Yo La Tengo final December throughout their Hanukkah exhibits at Bowery Ballroom. It was my first time listening to them and I fell in love with their sound. They completely influenced how this tune turned out.
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© Barrett Shuler
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