Los Angeles via Louisville, KY artist, has announced a new EP titled Projections co-produced by Alex G and shares video for its lead single "Wasted".
Tomberlin, the Los Angeles via Louisville, KY artist, has announced a new EP titled Projections with a Busy Philipps-directed video for its lead single "Wasted" The EP, which was co-produced by Alex G (Alex Giannascoli) and band-mate Sam Acchione, continues the arc of her critically acclaimed 2018 debut, At Weddings. The rich vocal harmonies and guitar lines that made At Weddings so riveting still provide the EP's foundation, but new percussive backing and instrumental flourishes open a path forward for Tomberlin.
What hides in the fog that keeps people apart, and what does it take to cut through it? These questions hang heavily over Sarah Beth Tomberlin's music, whose hushed and intimate tones orbit answers as much as they savor the unanswerable. To be in relation to another human being is to engage with a deep mystery: We are all fundamentally alone, siloed into confusing bodies, and yet occasionally we find someone who lets us feel as if we weren't. Tomberlin delights in articulating and amplifying that mystery, picking out its details and marveling at its scale. In singing her aloneness she soothes it, and extends a hand to others reckoning with their own solitude--a paradox that warms her spectral songs.
Of the song and video, Sarah Beth Tomberlin says:
"'Wasted' was the most fun song to record. I brought the song with the guitar part and knew I wanted drums, but wasn't sure what kind of beat I wanted. Alex played this drum beat for me and was all 'kinda left field but maybe this would be cool.' It took the song to a whole new level.
Sad song or summer banger? You tell me. The video was made with the help of Busy Philipps (who directed) and Marc Silverstein (who shot it), who are more like family then friends at this point.
I was quarantined with them and their girls in South Carolina and we came up with the idea and shot it in about 4 days on an iPhone."
The video's director, Busy Philipps, says:
"It was such a collaborative and intimate experience- We'd been listening a lot to the EP in the house. The concept evolved from how striking SB looked in that dress, combined with the lushness of the greenery and watching our pre-teen daughter and her friend having this kind of magical few
weeks of freedom and childhood in the middle of what has been such a heavy time, obviously.
Being able to just shoot it on our phones meant we could do it whenever the girls were up for it, or when the light was perfect or even right after the hurricane cleared.
We would just run out and do it. I would hold up my little beats pill and play the music on repeat and we would just get stuff. Honestly, it was magic. I feel like it comes through when you watch the video."
Tomberlin's new Projections EP weaves new collaborators and new techniques into her signature dusky milieu. Since her debut's release, Tomberlin has toured with Pedro the Lion, Andy Shauf, American Football, and Alex G, played a Tiny Desk concert for NPR, and given a riveting performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The five-song EP, capped with a cover of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's stunning "Natural Light," reflects this period of intensive growth and self-discovery. "I wrote these songs while getting to know myself outside of people's perceived notions of who I was," says Tomberlin.
"I just started being like, What am I interested in? What do I want out of relationships and friendships? What am I looking for that I don't have in myself already?"
After touring the US with Alex G and playing new songs for the band in their shared green room, Tomberlin reached out to Alex Giannascoli and bandmate Sam Acchione to produce the EP's four original tracks. She recorded her new songs in Giannascoli's Philadelphia apartment alonside Acchione and frequent collaborator Molly Germer. The fleshed out sound lends a sense of urgency to tracks like "Wasted," an uptempo romp across the kind of thorny relationship that withholds as much as it gives.
Projections is available for pre-order now and due digitally October 16th via Saddle Creek, with a limited edition picture disc release to follow on November 13th.
Tomberlin - Projections