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New Music and Big Pop

by Another Michael

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1.
New Music 03:19
We were up late online talking about new music And you sent me a link to a song that I’d never heard before I need to get my headphones on Just think about the long pause after it’s gone And never forget the times I was wrong I swear I’ll follow along I was thinking about New England And all the things that I love to say I was hoping to have my voice match up to the singers in every state I am thinking about my own life and for that I feel ashamed Every morning when it rains I want to be in on all of this It seems crazy not to play And I want to make something timeless The time isn’t on my wrist I am willing to hold myself and put up with this awful loneliness I’m kind of new
2.
Thought I saw you take a swing at the door I thought I saw your funny note on the floor It was crowded and I didn't like what we were talking about Oh I, I know you're wrong Texted me a smiley face and a boat I thought about running out in the cold It was dire, and I couldn't write what we were talking about Oh I, I know you're wrong Albany is overdue for snow Want to see the cars stop moving
3.
What Gives? 02:00
I've been here for a long time There's gratitude in my eyes Full and open and so shy Christopher on a cold night I go wandering with height The damage was all right What gives? I'll go upon A fix? You know the odds There's a rough tide in the Gulf Stream waters I'm drinking coffee in the basement Your pitter-patter does the trick The deed is done and it's so sick Comment on it Feel religious I don’t want you to think I'm superstitious  What gives? I'll go upon A fix? You know the odds There's a rough tide in the Gulf Stream waters
4.
My Day 03:29
We spend money on the things we need the most And I can’t slow down Thought I saw you coming from a mile away And I was wrong And I can’t hold back I’m thinking of my day as I go And that’s why We kept looking down and listening to dance music I love my hometown Thought I saw you crying in a silent way And I was right Enough is enough I’m thinking of my day as I go There’s something ‘bout the ledgers and the notes Whatever, I can cope Something ‘bout a story, you choke I’m thinking of my day as I go
5.
Big Pop 03:18
Big pop, Lemon drop, sipping the whole way through Tiptop, Circus cop, I’ve got something crazy to tell you Yeah I’ve been hoping and praying, it’s nothing new You’re an amazing artist, thank you No one else taps into my brain with truth, you know what to do I can’t stop counting and I know I’m not supposed to Big time, circle line, headed out to achieve Concept of a person makes it hard to see what we can believe So come over, let me show you that I can lay down a beat And then you can make a melody and put it on top of me Make a single, make a ballad, make a mockery of- You know what I mean I can’t stop counting and I know it’s not to be a retreat Not too far from hell, not too far from heaven I’ve got a job today; I’m going to be okay Feeling like I’ve never felt so much On the way to where you crush Got to get back to where you belong Tick tock, I’m a clock, wouldn’t have it any other way I’m fine, but I know a lot of people who are feeling a bad way So come over today And just tell me that it’ll be okay Nothing’s wrong with this, no there’s nothing wrong with this I can’t stop counting and I know I’m not supposed to
6.
As soon as the morning hits, it’s summer And the lists we make are getting longer I don’t want to be a bummer in these darker times Next Tuesday you’re leaving and it’s bringing me down I think you are such a pal Let’s get ice cream, let’s go somewhere with no parking lots Who will tell me what the hell is going on? This afternoon I feel frozen, in my target bathing suit And I can’t take nothing away from you Lately I’ve been dressing a bit more normal But still act mad weird like I’ve been all these years Hey things don’t feel as personal as they used to (it’s true) “What am I doing here?” is right What gives me the right? I should just be paying less attention to the lights, and the cameras, and the action in my phone Yeah, who’s going to tell me what the hell is going on? What’s up with you? You tell me in the darkest part of the room And I can’t sleep; I can’t feel my heartbeat in the loop When I’m falling where I’m falling, am I destined to? Yeah I want to find the only road that’s more of the truth Is it with or without you?
7.
I'm Not Home 03:24
Water’s flowing over, here I go Water’s flowing over, here I go I don’t know what to tell him lately, but I love him so Water’s flowing over, here I go Building a boat to assure you I’m composed Building a boat to assure you I’m composed I can be pretty tired and lazy, but I want you all to know That I’m building a boat to assure you that I’m composed Grab me a grab bag, will ya? Need some things Grab me a grab bag, will ya? Need some things It’s a sign, a rhyme, a cymbal of a sound, a ring Grab me a grab bag, will ya? Grab me a grab bag, will ya? Walk out the door if you need me, I’m not home Walk out the door if you need me, I’m not home What’ll you do on our own in the hour of stone? Walk out the door if you need me, I’m not home
8.
Row 04:43
I tried hard to connect I threw it out the window It does not even affect big sky, big ground Move me around like a satellite So you know what it feels like after a fight? And the road, what it looks like after a flight?  What it looks like after awhile? And you forget about your choices from your worst days And you want to know the reason why they could not stay Do you want to row the difference? Well ha, will you look back when you’re seventy-five? Super crossed liar I go walking back outside California on my mind I go walking back outside With California on my mind I say “peace out” to the light And what it feels like after a fight in the road What it looks like after a flight What it looks like after awhile (What it looks like) And you forget about your choices from your worst days And you want to know the reason why they could not stay Do you want to row the difference? Well ha, will you look back when you’re seventy-five? And you forget about your choices from your worst days And you want to let the breeze in, but you blew it away Do you want to row the difference? Well ha, will you look back when you’re seventy-five? Super crossed liar
9.
Hone 03:52
I’ve got time; I think I’ll go for a ride There's not much time to go for a ride And I keep losing all wheel drive, passenger side Well all right, I’m going to cross the line Punched my eye, shouldn't have crossed that line What does it feel like? A sucked up night with some yellow light Anything more specific might break my heart I’m mad tired, stayed up and talked for a while I’ll do whatever Not good at choosing, but it's not my fault I was never taught Humming along to a great record that Evan showed me last week Walking past the place that my new friends work at once a week Rehearsing Anything more specific might break my heart
10.
Shaky Cam 04:48
At a friend's house making dinner We use lots of ingredients  Can’t decide on flavor or focus on the directions Feeling free and fancy like a feather floating up and then down I’ll commit to something in a second Or several years from now And several years from now In the center of town I’ll take a look around Hospitality bound Flat tired out Conversations, asking questions Use my head like a shaky cam Common goals are electric Simple connections Hollow fears in the early evening fly by my house again It’s not often that I notice a sunset So point it out again Several years from now In the center of town I’ll take a look around Hospitality bound Flat tired out In and out of focus Are we focusing enough? Rough In and out of focus Are we focusing too much? Tough

about

For Another Michael, it all boils down to trust. In mid-2017, the critically acclaimed indie three-piece packed their bags and collectively relocated from Albany, NY to a shared house in West Philadelphia. This move signaled not only the start of a new chapter for the trio, but also a deepening of the bonds that would come to define their captivating debut LP, ‘New Music and Big Pop.’

“It’s hard for a group of people to get closer than living together,” says bassist and producer Nick Sebastiano. “The stronger our connection grew, the more it shaped the music we found ourselves making.”

It should come as little surprise, then, that ‘New Music and Big Pop’ is Another Michael’s most collaborative work yet. Recorded in a small A-frame house-turned-makeshift studio outside Ferndale, NY, the record finds the trio pushing their sound in a dreamier, more folk-influenced direction, building songs around vulnerable, intimate performances using an ethereal palette of breezy guitars, subtle keyboards, and layered harmonies. As on the band’s early EPs, singer and songwriter Michael Doherty’s mesmerizing voice is front and center here, calling to mind Robin Pecknold or Ben Bridwell in its reedy, crystalline timbre, but it feels more at home than ever before amidst the album’s lush, Technicolor landscape, which the band partnered with producer and fellow housemate Scoops Dardaris to create. The result is a masterfully understated record that belies its status as a full-length debut, a thoughtful, poetic, collection all about growth and change, hope and faith, endings and beginnings, delivered by a band that’s only just begun to scratch the surface of their story.

“Recording a full-length album was something we’d been talking about doing for a while,” says Doherty, “but I think we needed to take our time and get here organically. We had to figure out who we were as a band first.”

Launched initially as a solo project, Another Michael began garnering national attention with a pair of early EPs—2016’s ‘Sans’ and 2018’s ‘Land’—that synthesized an astonishingly broad range of influence, from lo-fi bedroom pop and dense chamber folk to PC music and electronic R&B. The sound reflected the eclectic nature of Doherty’s voracious musical appetite, which he honed through a lifetime of careful listening.

“I’ve always been obsessed with discovery,” he explains. “As a kid, I was really into pop radio, and as I got older, I started finding music through MTV and VH1, and then through the internet. I’d listen to everything I could get my hands on, from Damien Rice and Bright Eyes to Usher and Kanye West to Radiohead and Dirty Projectors.”

When launching the band, Doherty found ideal partners in Sebastiano, who grew up loving R&B and dance music, and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Alenni Davis, who got their start in the video game and classical worlds, and critics quickly took note of the band’s intoxicating chemistry. The Deli praised Doherty’s “clear-headed, stream-of-consciousness lyrics,” while Bandcamp Best Finds called the band’s sound “fresh and poignant in the most beautiful way,” and The Collaborative Magazine hailed their “breathtakingly peaceful songs about feeling chronically anxious.” The group toured extensively in support of both releases, eventually fleshing out their road lineup with a drummer, whose presence helped influence the music’s evolution.

“When we started touring with a drummer, it really changed how I approached my role in the band,” says Davis. “I started gravitating more towards effects pedals and experimenting with sound and rhythm in ways that I never had before.”

That spirit of experimentation lies at the heart of ‘New Music and Big Pop,’ which bears the distinct fingerprints of all three bandmates, from Sebastiano’s buoyant bass lines and Davis’ warm, open tuning guitar arrangements to Doherty’s gentle finger-picking and evocative lyricism, which focuses as much on the sound of the words as their meaning. While some of the material on the album dates back to the group’s earliest days, the vast majority of it was written after the move to Philadelphia, and very little of it was ever demoed or rehearsed before work on the album began. Instead, the band treated these songs as a space for free-range discovery and exploration, building tracks up spontaneously and together in the moment.

That sonic freedom and deep emotional connection colors nearly every aspect of the album, which opens with the hypnotic “New Music.” Slow and steady, the track builds from a spare, fingerpicked intro to a sweeping, cinematic finale as Doherty reflects on the simple joy of falling in love with a song (and perhaps the person who shared it with you, as well). It’s an ideal entry point into the record, which balances beauty and uncertainty in equal measure as it takes an often meta look at what it means to devote your life to music. The driving “I Know You’re Wrong,” for instance, grapples with the day-to-day realities that pull us away from our creative pursuits, while the airy “What Gives?” relishes in the satisfaction that comes with crafting something out of nothing, and the playful “Big Pop” celebrates music’s power to communicate the otherwise inexplicable.

“For a long time, I thought writing music about music was taboo, that songwriting needed to just focus on your personal life experiences,” says Doherty. “But then I realized that listening to music actually is a huge part of my personal life experiences. It felt so liberating to let go on this record and embrace how powerful music can be and what an important role it’s played in shaping who I am.”

While Doherty frequently finds comfort in his relationship with art and music on the album, his relationship with himself and other humans tends to be a bit more complicated. The melancholic “What The Hell Is Going On?” struggles to connect with a lover before they depart for good, while the swirling “Shaky Cam” frets over the inherent frailty of our physical and mental health, and the wistful “Hone” tries to find something, anything to fill the emptiness that perpetually lurks inside of us.

“In a way, my goal as a songwriter is to pack down these big life experiences into something that can breeze by and feel almost casual,” says Doherty. “I’m trying to tell a story using fragments of the big picture, focusing on these little moments and tiny details as a way of making sense of everything around me.”

Indeed, the world can be a chaotic, confusing, heartbreaking place. It takes guts to face it openly and honestly, to lower your guard and let others in, but ‘New Music and Big Pop’ proves that the rewards will always outweigh the risk. All you need is trust.

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released February 19, 2021

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Another Michael Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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