WILL SHEFF (OKKERVIL RIVER) RELEASES SOLO DEBUT ‘NOTHING SPECIAL’, OUT NOW ON ATO RECORDS
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ALBUM OPENER ‘THE SPIRAL SEASON’ HERE
UK & EUROPEAN TOUR IN MARCH
“Harnesses both the glow of poetry and the gravity of hymns” — The New York Times
“A great place to jump into the lush and brainy folk rock he’s been perfecting for years” — Vanity Fair
Today, Will Sheff — known for his work with his acclaimed indie rock project Okkervil River —releases his debut solo album ‘Nothing Special‘ on ATO Records. Produced by Sheff and recorded over three different sessions with John Congleton (St. Vincent, The War On Drugs), Matt Linesch (Edward Sharpe, Gil Landry), and Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers, Conor Oberst), Nothing Special finds Sheff reprocessing his sense of self, reflecting on misguided past ambitions, and reclaiming his sense of purpose. It’s an album that consolidates Sheff’s considerable strengths as a songwriter — deft poeticism, earnest and earned emotionality, a knack for melodic catharsis — and casts them onto a broad and unhurried sonic architecture. Like the album’s artwork, it finds Sheff gazing out into the expanse and witnessing the possibilities that await.
LISTEN TO ‘NOTHING SPECIAL’ HERE
And watch the video for album opener “The Spiral Season” — a triumphant piece of music that depicts Sheff’s personal journey with fantastical metaphors, before culminating in an ecstatic guitar solo.
WATCH ‘THE SPIRAL SEASON’ VIDEO HERE
Says Sheff about “The Spiral Season”: “The Spiral Season” went through many incarnations. It was a fantasy narrative, and then an autobiography of myself, and then it turned into an autobiography of a 16th-century magician, and then I opened the window and all of those ideas flew out and the California landscape came crashing in with all its grandeur and its vulnerability, and fireworks went off and the moon rose overhead and Benjamin Lazar Davis and I wrote a big shouty chorus and everything finally started to make sense. And then we went into the studio and everybody played it wonderfully, and Will Graefe jumped in with that soaring guitar solo that we just let run out as long as it needed to be because it felt so good.”
Recording with some old friends (guitarist Will Graefe and bassist Benjamin Lazar Davis) as well as new collaborators (singer/songwriter Christian Lee Hutson, Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and Death Cab For Cutie pianist Zac Rae, as well as guest vocals from Cassandra Jenkins and Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and Bonny Light Horseman), Sheff took a less participatory and more painterly approach than his production on Okkervil River records. The result is a gorgeously orchestrated record that eschews pop orthodoxy in favor of letting its knotty narratives play out and allowing the musicians to explore the more daring passages just a little longer.
The album is already attracting praise from the likes of The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, NPR Music, Stereogum, Uncut, Brooklyn Vegan, and many more. See quotes below.
Will Sheff has announced a UK and European tour for Spring 2023. Full dates below.
Mar 2 — Liverpool, UK @ Futureyard
Mar 3 — Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute
Mar 4 — Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
Mar 5 — Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Mar 7 — Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade
Mar 8 — London, UK @ Omeara
Mar 10 — Brussels, BE @ Botanique Rotonde
Mar 11 — Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire
Mar 12 — Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Mar 14 — Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
Mar 15 — Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree
Mar 16 — Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
In a new profile at Stereogum, Sheff discusses the creation of Nothing Special, as well as his complicated career trajectory, and more. Read
here.
Praise For Nothing Special
“Harnesses both the glow of poetry and the gravity of hymns.” — The New York Times
“A great place to jump into the lush and brainy folk rock he’s been perfecting for years.” — Vanity Fair
“Wonderful.” — NPR Music
“Nothing Special has a way of reminding you of Okkervil River at their best…a necessary, narrative jolt for an artist who’d largely been taken for granted over the past decade.” — Stereogum
“Superb…Beautiful, Lambchop-ish ballads which, while lengthy, never outstay their welcome.” — Uncut
“An anxious parable about society’s decline that somehow manages to sound futuristic and ramshackle all at once.” — Stereogum, on “Estrangement Zone”
“A delicate, pretty, melancholic waltz.” — Brooklyn Vegan, on “Nothing Special”
‘NOTHING SPECIAL’ TRACKLISTING
“The Spiral Season”
“In The Thick Of It”
“Estrangement Zone”
“Nothing Special”
“Holy Man”
“Like The Last Time”
“Marathon Girl”
“Evidence”
WATCH VIDEO FOR ‘NOTHING SPECIAL’
WATCH ‘ESTRANGEMENT ZONE’ VIDEO
Connect With Will Sheff
Photo Credit: Bret Curry
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