WILL SHEFF (OKKERVIL RIVER)
UK & EUROPEAN TOUR STARTS NEXT WEEK
SOLO DEBUT ALBUM ‘NOTHING SPECIAL’ OUT NOW
Will Sheff, known for his work with his acclaimed indie rock project Okkervil River, will head over to the UK and Europe for a tour starting next week.
Full dates are below. Tickets available here.
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
Will Sheff has recently his solo debut album ‘Nothing Special’. 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 DEBUT SOLO ALBUM ‘NOTHING SPECIAL’ HERE
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 favour of letting its knotty narratives play out and allowing the musicians to explore the more daring passages just a little longer.
The album has attracted 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.
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”
WATCH VIDEO FOR ‘NOTHING SPECIAL’
WATCH ‘ESTRANGEMENT ZONE’ VIDEO
WATCH VIDEO FOR ‘THE SPIRAL SEASON’
Connect With Will Sheff
Photo Credit: Bret Curry