Not long after announcing the breakup of Chairlift and farewell tour dates, Caroline Polachek has delivered her first solo project. Titled Drawing the Target Around the Arrow, the instrumental album is out today (January 19).
Polachek released the album through The Creative Independent under her initials, CEP, and you can download it here for free. The album arrives through Pannonica, a subsidiary of Bella Union.
In an interview with The Creative Independent, Polachek revealed that the title comes from 18th century Jewish Lithuanian preacher Dubno Maggid, while also having this to say about the decision to go instrumental:
I was compelled by how functional it was and it felt strange to me that I'd never really looked at music that way before. I'd always approached music as being a narrative or being aesthetic or having meaning by way of reference or being political, and I'd never looked at it just so cleanly as, "This is useful." That was very exciting to me.
Naturally I did want to experiment with putting vocals on it because that's sort of what I do. I tried half the record with vocals on it. I actually recorded it and I realized the whole thing falls apart once you put vocals on it. It becomes distracting. For me, it takes the pleasure out of it because I'm suddenly hearing myself. It loses its conceptual purity.
Polachek also revealed she'll be performing the songs live at New York's National Sawdust with a 12-piece vocal ensemble. Her interview also included a few things she wished she had known when she was starting out in music. You can read her full conversation here.
Polachek released the album through The Creative Independent under her initials, CEP, and you can download it here for free. The album arrives through Pannonica, a subsidiary of Bella Union.
In an interview with The Creative Independent, Polachek revealed that the title comes from 18th century Jewish Lithuanian preacher Dubno Maggid, while also having this to say about the decision to go instrumental:
I was compelled by how functional it was and it felt strange to me that I'd never really looked at music that way before. I'd always approached music as being a narrative or being aesthetic or having meaning by way of reference or being political, and I'd never looked at it just so cleanly as, "This is useful." That was very exciting to me.
Naturally I did want to experiment with putting vocals on it because that's sort of what I do. I tried half the record with vocals on it. I actually recorded it and I realized the whole thing falls apart once you put vocals on it. It becomes distracting. For me, it takes the pleasure out of it because I'm suddenly hearing myself. It loses its conceptual purity.
Polachek also revealed she'll be performing the songs live at New York's National Sawdust with a 12-piece vocal ensemble. Her interview also included a few things she wished she had known when she was starting out in music. You can read her full conversation here.