Tanukichan (feat Toro y Moi) shares single and video "Take Care" from the upcoming GIZMO LP out March 3rd on Company Records.
Tanukichan's sophomore LP GIZMO is due out March 3rd via Company Records. A project led by Hannah van Loon, in collaboration with the Grammy-nominated chillwave pioneer Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi, their album is the follow up to their debut LP, Sundays, a release that saw an enthusiastic response when it was released in 2018, earning praise from outlets like Pitchfork, and other international media outlets.
The album's lead single "Don't Give Up" was greeted with excitement upon its release, earning best of the week nods from outlets like MTV and Pitchfork, and the follow up "Thin Air" that featured Aramis Johnson of the Tacoma, Washington band Enumclaw, earned similar acclaim when it was released.
"I wrote 'Take Care' when I was feeling especially depressed," explains Van Loon. "I felt so down and bummed out that I started cutting people out of my life. I felt like whenever I had interactions with others I was such a drag that I would bring down the mood.
I had nothing I wanted to talk about so I just cut off from people. It was painful to feel isolated and I craved companionship or friendship even more, but I knew that someday I would come out of it, and hopefully we would be friends again."
GIZMO is named after van Loon's, who became a much-needed companion while the Bay Area musician wrote her second album as the pandemic began. The album is an exercise in release, whether from situational hindrances — a forced lockdown, for one — or from self-imposed hedonistic coping mechanisms.
“A theme I always had floating around was escape,” van Loon explains of her follow-up to 2018’s Sundays. “Escaping from myself, my problems, sadness and cycles.”
To channel the more uplifting spirit she wanted for GIZMO, van Loon turned to the radio pop-rock of her childhood:
“I was struck by the in-your-face positivity of the lyrics,”
she adds, referencing artists like 311, The Cranberries, and Tom Petty.
“I wanted to bring that positivity while writing about the sad and helpless emotions I’d been grappling with.”
This new found positivity and interesting blend of influences are in evidence on “Don’t Give Up,” a nu metal-meets-Cocteau Twins groove that deals with the experience of trying to overcome imposter syndrome, as van Loon explains:
"This song is about feeling I haven’t done anything with my life, but also knowing that I’ve accomplished a lot and it’s only getting better.
I started writing the lyrics when I was on tour opening for the Drums after my first album came out. We were playing sold out shows in front of hundreds of people, but I knew it could change in an instant.
I felt like I hit rock bottom emotionally, I wasn’t ready for the road and it killed me. I felt so disconnected from the band even though they were my backbone and were making it happen.
The only thing that really helps me at that point is feeling like I can just let everything go, and we all die. Just accepting the fact that I can’t control anything and that in the end it doesn’t matter.
We will all disappear. I wrote the chorus years later when I was finishing a bunch of the songs. I didn’t want it to be depressing, even though that’s where it came from.
It came from giving up but I wanted to keep going. I wanted it to mean something moving on from the negative and I came up with a ridiculously positive chorus.
Don’t give up now you know there’s another day, just know you’re going to get to a better place, a better place meaning a better place in life, or “heaven,” just nothingness where all your worries
are gone."
Picture by Brendan Nakahara.
Tour Dates
3/23 Sacramento, CA @ The Starlet Room
3/24-3/26 Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Festival
4/21Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
4/22 Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
4/23 Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
4/26 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
4/27 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
4/28 Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
4/29 Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
4/30 Montreal, QC Bar @ Le Ritz
5/2 New York, NY @ Baby's All Right
5/3 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
5/4 Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
5/8 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Upstairs
5/9 Austin, TX @ Mohawk (Indoors)
5/10 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
5/12 Denver, CO @ Lost Lake
5/13Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party
5/15 Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
5/16 San Diego, CA @ Casbah
5/17 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
5/19 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
GIZMO will be released on Company Records on March 3rd.
It is available for preorder/presave here.