The Los Angeles Indie folk band Sea Wolf, led by Alex Brown Church, has premiered a new song ‘Old Friend’ via the Los Angeles Times.
The song, which will be featured on their upcoming and third album ‘Old World Romance’ (released on September 11 on Dangerbird Records), starts with a nostalgic feeling fed by a gentle guitar plucking, subtle percussion and Church’s fragile vocals, before blossoming into a fuller sound and a clear and simple hook, illustrated by the first straightforward lines: ‘Old friend come back home/ Because I know you always were alone’.
According to Church, who talked to the LA Times, the album was written when he moved back to LA after living in Montréal where his girlfriend was finishing her studies. He composed and recorded his previous album over there, and with this new album he just wants to express the comfort to be back home as he said in an interview:
‘This record is about a lot of things, but some of it is about coming home after being away and facing the realities of one’s life, and life in general. Things you may have run away from, and things you are ready to embrace. Reconnecting and growing up.’
Now, Sea Wolf never had an aggressive sound, only lush harmonies and smooth melodies evoking fall landscapes and gloomy fairytales, but Church explained to the LA Times, he wanted to mellow down even more:
‘One of the goals for this record was I didn’t want it to be as aggressive or as doom-and-gloom as the last record was, I wanted this to be a little less intense, and a little bit more smooth, in a way. I played around with different songs starting this record, but I feel like ‘Old Friends' kind of draws you in rather than punches you in the face.’
It certainly is not a punch anywhere, and Church added:
‘Songwriting-wise, I wanted the songs to be more straightforward. Lyrically and structurally, I wanted them to be more simple. I wanted to emphasize melody a bit more on this record than on the previous record. I wanted to write as many songs as I possibly could with those thoughts in my mind and then tinker with them as much as possible.’
Church said he has been creatively rejuvenated since he moved back to LA, as Montréal was a lonely experience for him:
‘It was inspiring to be in another city, but it also felt very alone, other than being with her and her friends. She’s a French Canadian, and all of her friends are French Canadian, so I didn’t have any English friends there. There’s a cultural barrier that goes along with that. Coming home to California was really inspiring. I just felt comfortable.’
That was just a matter of language barrier? I don’t know, if ‘Old Friend’ is a celebration to be back home, the song sounds quite bittersweet nevertheless.
OLD WORLD ROMANCE TRACKLIST:
1. Old Friend
2. In Nothing
3. Priscilla
4. Kasper
5. Blue Stockings
6. Saint Catherine St.
7. Changing Seasons
8. Dear Fellow Traveller
9. Miracle Cure
10. Whirlpool