Premiere | Matt Bachmann, "Hi Beams"
Best of friends-Matt Bachmann and Erin Birgy of Mega Bog; Polaroid courtesy of the artists/icons.
You may already be familiar with Matt Bachmann from Mega Bog and Big Eater and now the Brooklyn based artist has recently proclaimed the new forthcoming album Unconditional Love arriving November 2 via the excellent independent imprint Orindal Records. It’s a record made to remind us of the things that endear and enamor us during times of unrest and international insanity. Unconditional Love is the yin and the yang of all the antimonies and paradoxes that practically cave-in on us daily. It’s a survey and study in the pursuit of balance while seeking to make sense of our world that rotates in a off-kilter in a spin that threatens to wildly swing off its axis like an uncontrollable carousel. It’s an album that explores our capacity to exhibit empathy as we observe and better understand the bonds that bring us together, the inconsistencies of our lives that are consistent and the connections that are rife with both conflict and care.
Featured off the upcoming full-length—Matt Bachmann unveils the grand debut of the intimate headlamp glow “Hi Beams”; a collaboration between the artist and fellow DIY visionary Erin Birgy of Mega Bog. Following up the gorgeous ballad "To Be In Love" featured on the second Orindal Records Sampler installment titled Gentle Weirdos, “Hi Beams” serenely drives with a sentimental sincerity that coasts sweetly and deeply into the calm mysteries of night. The understated and intimate vocal trade-off between and Bachmann and Birgy creates the sensation of spending time on a late evening road trip with a loved one. The feeling of infinite friendship and the care that the artists pour into the song instills an emotional stirring that shines with a sense of ineffable safety and warmth. Matt and Erin’s song works in ways that conveys a timeless sense of togetherness, a song that reminds us all to better appreciate one another in our own lives that are oft consumed with self-interests and the business of busy-ness. “Hi Beams” shimmers with the sparkle of engaging conversations shared that stems from the thoughts that wander like nomadic spirits spinning their rubber wheels along the endless array of asphalt laden roads. The headlights here cast their brightest luster on the brilliance that brings us closer with a musical arrangement that creates a calm centered around the bonds that are beyond petty judgment and beyond any and all measure.
Matt Bachmann provided some reflective thoughts on both the single “Hi Beams” and the solo album Unconditional Love:
We referred to “Hi Beams” as the “fun song” while recording Unconditional Love. On a record with a prime directive of restraint, “Hi Beams” was an opportunity to let loose and goof off. I imagined the song having a festive and playful sound; the only concrete idea was the need for a wah bass solo. After a lot of guilt free playing and heavy editing, we arrived at what you hear today.
The lyrics are inspired by a blissful night spent with the Mega Bog family in Las Vegas. After playing a cowboy themed bar with a Nirvana cover band, we stayed up all night wandering lavish casinos, taking pictures with plastic-monkeys-in-plastic-peach-trees, and getting in trouble for trying to look up “how to play blackjack” on casino wi-fi. We were surrounded by people chasing the Las Vegas you see in movies and it all seemed pretty miserable— I think Derek, Erin and James were much more bummed out by this. But I was riding high on spending this manically strange night with three of my best friends. I woke up with a weary clarity that “I love my friends and my friends love me.” But that feeling slowly transformed to a clinging “I hope I never lose this clarity; I hope I never feel bad again.”
The last mantra that Erin repeats at the end of “Hi Beams” is the automotive thematic knot tied to the first song of Unconditional Love—being unable to relax and find balance. On “Drive,” it’s about being unable to escape the city; on “Hi Beams,” it’s riding the unbalanced mania of the city.
Matt Bachmann’s new album Unconditional Love will be available November 2 through Orindal Records.