Young Rival frontman Aron D'Alesio shared his untitled cassette release with us back in 2015, and he is now set to take his solo work to new heights with a full-length LP. D'Alesio's self-titled debut disc will arrive through Paper Bag Records on August 25.
As a press release reveals, D'Alesio struck out solo to record the 13-track effort in Hamilton in the windowless basement of a commercial development. The record is pegged as "a collection of ethereal, imaginative, self-contained songs perhaps best described as bedroom pop, despite their basement origins."
A taste of what's to come from the album can be found below with "Diamond Ring," arriving alongside a video directed by Justin Singer.
D'Alesio elaborated on the experience of overseeing a solo project in comparison to writing music as a band:
The way music works in the context of a band feels really slow, and there's a sort of process of alienation from what you're making that happens in that context. I was feeling increasingly frustrated and unfulfilled by it, but this project was immediately different. I'd go into the studio every night and I wouldn't walk away until it was done. Normally I'd leave as the sun was coming up, or sometimes I'd just sleep there.
I guess I could have tried to figure out something more convenient, but I'm a frugal bastard, and I quite quickly found that between 2 and 6 in the morning was my most productive time. I'd just get going and it was nice to be free from anything that would take me out of it.
The press release also notes that D'Alesio taught himself to record as he went, at times spending entire evenings tracking drums hit by hit to have the utmost control over tone and timbre. Such a process was born from a focus on what felt natural to him.
"Making this was intense for me but I found it quite meditative and it made sense for me as I was just trying to make everything serve the songs rather than convenience or any other concerns," D'Alesio said. "When I first started I wasn't sure it was going to work this way, or if it made sense to make something so involved but in the end I don't think it could have worked any other way. I was just trying to make an interesting record and I did what I could do."
Read through the record's tracklist to watch the video for "Diamond Ring" in the player below.
Aron D'Alesio:
1. Cave Zone
2. Destroyer
3. Wrong End Of A Knife
4. Where You Going To
5. A Long Time
6. The Old River
7. The Hume
8. Best Of My Time
9. Answer To A Question
10. Long Way Gone
11. Run
12. Seeya
13. Diamond Ring
As a press release reveals, D'Alesio struck out solo to record the 13-track effort in Hamilton in the windowless basement of a commercial development. The record is pegged as "a collection of ethereal, imaginative, self-contained songs perhaps best described as bedroom pop, despite their basement origins."
A taste of what's to come from the album can be found below with "Diamond Ring," arriving alongside a video directed by Justin Singer.
D'Alesio elaborated on the experience of overseeing a solo project in comparison to writing music as a band:
The way music works in the context of a band feels really slow, and there's a sort of process of alienation from what you're making that happens in that context. I was feeling increasingly frustrated and unfulfilled by it, but this project was immediately different. I'd go into the studio every night and I wouldn't walk away until it was done. Normally I'd leave as the sun was coming up, or sometimes I'd just sleep there.
I guess I could have tried to figure out something more convenient, but I'm a frugal bastard, and I quite quickly found that between 2 and 6 in the morning was my most productive time. I'd just get going and it was nice to be free from anything that would take me out of it.
The press release also notes that D'Alesio taught himself to record as he went, at times spending entire evenings tracking drums hit by hit to have the utmost control over tone and timbre. Such a process was born from a focus on what felt natural to him.
"Making this was intense for me but I found it quite meditative and it made sense for me as I was just trying to make everything serve the songs rather than convenience or any other concerns," D'Alesio said. "When I first started I wasn't sure it was going to work this way, or if it made sense to make something so involved but in the end I don't think it could have worked any other way. I was just trying to make an interesting record and I did what I could do."
Read through the record's tracklist to watch the video for "Diamond Ring" in the player below.
Aron D'Alesio:
1. Cave Zone
2. Destroyer
3. Wrong End Of A Knife
4. Where You Going To
5. A Long Time
6. The Old River
7. The Hume
8. Best Of My Time
9. Answer To A Question
10. Long Way Gone
11. Run
12. Seeya
13. Diamond Ring
