25 years and 10 genre-defining albums into their storied career, GRAMMY®-nominated Between the Buried and Me return with their most immersive and eclectic record yet: The Blue Nowhere, out Sept. 12 via InsideOutMusic. The release also serves as the band’s debut for the label.
Known for their conceptual albums, vocalist Tommy Rogers explains that the 10-track collection “exists in a world that’s not tied to a storyline. It’s more about a feeling, where the songs live for me.” He describes the lyrical approach to The Blue Nowhere as “journal entries, fleeting and introspective thoughts – chaotic at times, depending on the music.”
The band offers fans a first feel for the new album with today’s release of “Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark” (https://btbam.lnk.to/thingswetellourselvesinthedark) and its accompanying video:
Director Miles Skarin shares insight into the clip: “For ‘Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark,’ we wanted to create the hotel from the album concept and artwork – we 3D-modeled the hotel based on the artwork and began to create shots of it at different times of day. Marigold is a theme across the record, so we have a scene where lots of marigold petals start to cover the hotel. This was quite an intense particle simulation that took 17 hours to process and render. We also added surreal elements to the video, including infinite hotel corridors and strange space sequences with the doors to the different rooms in the hotel. We’re really pleased with the final look and hope that everyone enjoys seeing the hotel come to life!”
“This track emerged from the maniac genius of Dan Briggs,” Rogers shares. “The song deals with the dark cloud that is ego, so I tried to vocally approach it with a different kind of confidence than normal, almost like a pop song… even though it takes you down crazy avenues, you can sit back and sing along.”
Dan Briggs adds: “It’s one of the rare songs I started around the bass and that foundational funky idea, while also maintaining a pretty straightforward melodic idea underneath everything, no matter how dense it got rhythmically. I love when we have arrangements that feel like they have a page turn into another dimension, but I thought it was important for this one to feel really seamless as it moved dynamically. Even when it gets heavy, I thought it’d be fun at the core to still feel like it was Prince’s band playing, keeping it funky.”
Produced by longtime collaborator Jamie King, The Blue Nowhere is also the first Between the Buried and Me album to feature an extensive string and horn section. It is available as a Special Edition CD, Gatefold 2LP, and digitally. A Deluxe Gatefold Special Colored 2LP + 2CD edition includes a bonus track on Side D, the full album and instrumentals across 2CDs, an exclusive door-hanger, and alternate artwork. Pre-orders are available tomorrow via Betweentheburiedandme.com.
Photo credit: Randy Edwards
The Blue Nowhere track listing:
1. Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark
2. God Terror
3. Absent Thereafter
4. Pause
5. Door #3
6. Mirador Uncoil
7. Psychomanteum
8. Slow Paranoia
9. The Blue Nowhere
10. Beautifully Human
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