WOLF MANHATTAN
WATCH VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE ‘WANT TO GO BACK’ HERE
TAKEN FROM SELF-TITLED DEBUT ALBUM
Following the release of ‘Sometimes‘ last month, Wolf Manhattan, the alter-ego of musician, composer, producer and post-punk electronic wizard João Vieira, has shared ‘Want to Go Back‘, the latest single taken from his debut self-titled album, out on 17th March.
João explains: “The song is the poppiest song of the album, there’s a Beatles-esque and 60’s vibe to it, but also some early 70’s glam era going on there. The lyrics are very straightforward and somehow nostalgic. I was listening to The Shangri-las and the Kinks a lot when I wrote this, I love the whole backing vocals vibe from the 60’s groups and I wanted to recreate that in some way, it’s kind of an homage to that era of rock ‘n’ roll”.
For the video, João wanted something that fit the overall sound and lo-fi identity of the album and the whole project, and he also wanted to replicate the feeling of scrolling through reels on social media. He started collecting short videos from talented friends as well as started shooting some himself on his phone, and then passed them all to director André Tentugal. Watch the results here:
WATCH ‘WANT TO GO BACK’ VIDEO HERE
Wolf Manhattan is a bedroom producer who, in a non-specific time, lives alone above a local shop in New York City. Surrounded by his uncle’s record collection, a 4-track and a guitar from the 50s that belonged to a well-known artist, he finds that the only way to ease his loneliness is to listen to The Velvet Underground, Daniel Johnston, Jonathan Richman, Adam Green and The Shangri-Las. Composing and recording become his only and best friends. Thirteen straightforward pop-garage songs about heartbreaks, self-doubt, bad decisions, lost dreams and minimum-wage jobs are the result of that friendship. All those lost songs have now been found and compiled in his debut, self-titled album.
João sees Wolf Manhattan, his new folk-punky-garage persona, as a true escape from the complexities of day-to-day life. The 13 sharply-outlined songs, the warmth of the analogue sound and the familiar themes of his debut album are the perfect (self)relief for an overproduced and saturated world.
Continuing the journey into the world of Wolf Manhattan, the book ‘The Story of Wolf’ has beeen published in a bilingual limited and numbered edition of 100 hardcover copies in risograph (two colours) published by Stolen Books. The book tells the story of a New York bedroom musician who wrote some fabulous songs that were only discovered many years later. Written by João Vieira and illustrated by Toby Evans-Jesra, illustrator and musician based in London, the book is available at Stolen Books.
WATCH ‘SOMETIMES’ VIDEO HERE
