Wintersleep's Paul Murphy Details New Solo Album LET'S BE WILDERNESS

Wintersleep's Paul Murphy has revealed details of this new solo album as POSTDATA. Let's Be Wilderness will be released May 18th on Paper Bag Records. Listen to two new songs form the album, "Evil" and "Black Cloud", hereor here on Exclaim.ca. Pre-order Let's Be Wilderness here. POSTDATA has also announced a handful of shows in support of the album. Full details below.

Let's Be Wilderness came together much the same as Murphy's other projects: through a community of friends and family. A vacation in Europe found Murphy ringing up friends and former tourmates Grant Hutchison and Andy Monaghan (both of Scottish indie rock triumph Frightened Rabbit). It was these meetings with old pals that birthed Let's Be Wilderness. The cast was rounded out by Murphy's Wintersleep bandmates Loel Campbell and Tim D'Eon, with additional work from Simone Pace (Blonde Redhead) and production from acclaimed Scottish producer Tony Doogan.

Let's Be Wilderness bears two qualities: familiarity and mystery. The title suggests as much. The words are an invitation to become something entirely untamed. "It felt like it was a good, welcoming title that also has this 'wonder' quality as well," Murphy says. "I want it to be inviting," he adds earnestly. The record opens with "Wilderness," a track that finds Murphy's warm, homey lilt paired with rich acoustic strings. "Let's be wilderness," he sings longingly, a blissful start. But nothing gold can stay, as the chorus finds him lamenting, "I'm a loneliness."

The album plays out as probe of that urgent duality: the desire for warmth and community, and the burrowing, unavoidable reality that, one day, it will be no more. On Wilderness, Murphy reconciles that spectrum that, as he's grown older, he's become more comfortable with navigating. "You go through a lot of different emotions," he says of the years between POSTDATA releases. "Getting older is a theme that's present in a lot of the writing."

Photo Credit: Norman Wong

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