Fans of enigmatic singer-songwriter Richard Bucker may be wondering why it has taken so long for him to release a follow-up to his last album, 2006's Meadow, and the answers are more than a little surprising.
Apart from having to deal with malfunctioning technology that forced him to re-record most of the upcoming Our Blood -- set to be released on August 2 via Merge -- several times, Buckner was also sidetracked after being named as a suspect in an upstate New York murder investigation.
Asked to describe that frightening run-in with the law, Buckner tells Exclaim!, "When you're sitting in a locked-door cinder-block room in the basement of a small-town police station, being questioned about something so strange and horrible, even innocence doesn't save you from intimidation."
While it was thankfully concluded that Buckner had no connection to the case, he later was a victim of crime himself when one of the laptops containing tracks for Our Blood was stolen when thieves ransacked his home.
He credits Merge with having the patience and faith in him to complete the album, a nine-song collection that finds his familiar minor-key acoustic melodies blended with haunting ambient instrumentation, and says that he is ready to resume his career.
He compares the entire ordeal of the past five years to "being caught in an avalanche," but adds, "As soon as I finally finished the recording, mixing and artwork, though, things started slowly coming back. I've already started writing again and have a few other projects in mind. It was just overload and deprivation, hand-in-hand."
In support of the new album, Buckner will be touring the U.S. with Merge labelmate/Clean member David Kilgour throughout August. You can see all Buckner's currently scheduled dates here.
Apart from having to deal with malfunctioning technology that forced him to re-record most of the upcoming Our Blood -- set to be released on August 2 via Merge -- several times, Buckner was also sidetracked after being named as a suspect in an upstate New York murder investigation.
Asked to describe that frightening run-in with the law, Buckner tells Exclaim!, "When you're sitting in a locked-door cinder-block room in the basement of a small-town police station, being questioned about something so strange and horrible, even innocence doesn't save you from intimidation."
While it was thankfully concluded that Buckner had no connection to the case, he later was a victim of crime himself when one of the laptops containing tracks for Our Blood was stolen when thieves ransacked his home.
He credits Merge with having the patience and faith in him to complete the album, a nine-song collection that finds his familiar minor-key acoustic melodies blended with haunting ambient instrumentation, and says that he is ready to resume his career.
He compares the entire ordeal of the past five years to "being caught in an avalanche," but adds, "As soon as I finally finished the recording, mixing and artwork, though, things started slowly coming back. I've already started writing again and have a few other projects in mind. It was just overload and deprivation, hand-in-hand."
In support of the new album, Buckner will be touring the U.S. with Merge labelmate/Clean member David Kilgour throughout August. You can see all Buckner's currently scheduled dates here.
