Acclaimed singer-songwriter-producer-musician Scott Hirsch releases “Night People” off his upcoming album Windless Day, which comes out on October 8 through Echo Magic Records with Soundly Music. Listen to the “Night People” through the DSPs here and watch the art video for the song on YouTube here. The album is available for pre-order here.
“We are all trapped in our minds, for better or for worse” says Hirsch, “This is a forever dilemma, but it has felt even more acute in recent days, hasn’t it? ‘Night People’ explores these corners of our minds --a place often shrouded in darkness, but sometimes, there’s a little light in there too. William Tyler, a frequent collaborator of mine wrote, ‘the psychic toll of the last few years, the fatigue, and the need to imagine something different and more hopeful all emerge in the songs on this record.’ On “Night People”, in the midst of a rhythmic strut and fuzzed-out guitars, Hirsch reaches into the murk to pull out some precious gems and hold them up for us so we can admire them glistening in the purple light. Hirsch acknowledges, "I wanted to capture a feeling that is simultaneously serene and fleeting, like a Windless Day."
Hirsch will be promoting the release with Windless Day with tour dates on the west coast, including some with the venerable folk band Fruit Bats (see below).
A founding member of such groundbreaking bands as Hiss Golden Messenger and The Court & Spark, Scott Hirsch has spent much of the past half-decade gradually growing an acclaimed solo canon, staking his own visionary, deeply personal approach towards traditional American studio craft and songwriting. Hailed by the Chicago Reader as “an album of kaleidoscopic range and beauty that encompasses his varied interests,” 2016’s BLUE RIDER SONGS prompted Pitchfork to enthuse, “It’s taken a long time for (Hirsch) to let out his voice – a cool, soulful thing filled with deep reverence for his source material, if some cynicism about the myths it’s spun…On BLUE RIDER SONGS, Hirsch debunks the idea that redemption is ever a cakewalk, and finds something more truthful and lasting in the pursuit of accepting responsibility.”
Hirsch followed up two years later with LOST TIME BEHIND THE MOON, praised by Sungenre as “a genre-defying blend of all things Americana, showcasing Hirsch’s innate songwriting ability…a mixture of country, blues, folk-rock and psychedelic which come together to create something wholly different from the separate parts. It is moving and contemplative, bold and adventurous, whilst also delicate and sensitive.” LOST TIME BEHIND THE MOON “answers the question of what we might have gotten if Lou Reed had headed for Tulsa instead of Long Island when he bolted from the Velvet Underground,” declared MAGNET, while Pitchfork wrote, “There’s a new confidence here…These songs suggest that Hirsch has reached a destination, at least with his music: that he has arrived at a place where he is able to harness these sounds and allusions to convey the particulars of his wanderlust.” “LOST TIME BEHIND THE MOON bristles and broods,” raved Raven Sings The Blues, “and in the end is a salve and solace to lost souls…Hirsch’s vision of country elegance and barbiturate boogie hangs heavy on the diaphragm, groovin’, and singin’ in the same breath.”
Hirsch continues to work closely with Hiss Golden Messenger as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and most recently, mixer on this year’s acclaimed QUIETLY BLOWING IT. The founder of Ojai, CA-based studio and sound design firm, Echo Magic, Hirsch received a 2015 GRAMMY® Award nomination for his work as engineer and mixer on folk music legend Alice Gerrard’s FOLLOW THE MUSIC. Other recent credits include collaborations with like-minded artists including Mikael Jorgensen, Orpheo McCord, Daniel Rossen, and William Tyler, the latter of whom recently wrote of Hirsch’s journey to WINDLESS DAY, “To the wandering soul, the promise of travel, the motion of the road, and necessary transience instills a love of the novel experience and fortifies the restless spirit. But when travel is no longer possible, when ‘the road’ becomes the familiar paths around your town and home, is there the time and space to create a new kind of journey? When else would we go inward, by choice or practice, then when the world shuts down around us and we are left with the thoughts and melodies in our heads?”
TOUR DATES
OCTOBER
14 - Los Angeles CA - Gold Diggers
15 - Ojai CA - Deer Lodge
16 - Pioneertown CA - Pappy & Harriet's*
21 - San Rafael CA - Terrapin Crossroads*
22 - Sonoma CA - Sebastiani Theatre*
23 - Big Sur CA – Fernwood*
24 - San Luis Obispo CA - SLO Brew Concert Hall*
*w/ Fruit Bats
