American Aquarium release new single 'Messy As A Magnolia'
American Aquarium Delve Into The Hard, Ugly Parts Of Love On ‘Messy As A Magnolia’
Listen to ‘Messy As A Magnolia’ here
Latest single from new album The Fear of Standing Still, out July 26th via Losing Side Records/Thirty Tigers
American Aquarium return to Grand Ole Opry on July 26th, kick off a three-month U.S. tour in support of the album in August
Playing The UK
The Long Road Festival, August 23rd
Right outside his office/writing space, American Aquarium songwriter and band leader BJ Barham has a Magnolia tree. Per Barham it’s “by far the messiest tree known to man and it laughs at me at every morning when I sit down to write.” There’s always something to pick up. Blooms in the Spring, seed pods in the Summer and leaves in the Fall. But when the leaves are green and its branches are in bloom, it’s the most beautiful thing in his yard. That Magnolia tree is the inspiration for ‘Messy As A Magnolia’, the latest salvo from American Aquarium’s new album The Fear of Standing Still, out July 26th via Losing Side Records/Thirty Tigers. But the tree is not the only thing the song is truly about.
Listen to ‘Messy As A Magnolia’ here
“’Messy As A Magnolia” is a song about the work we have to put into the relationships that matter,” explains Barham. “At its root, it’s a love song. Not the kind of love that Disney movies try to sell us, but real love. Real love is hard. Real love can be ugly. It requires year-round attention and dedication. For every moment we get to marvel at love in bloom, we must also appreciate how much work went into that love. This song is for my wife and the love that we have nurtured over the last thirteen years. A thank you for seeing the good in me, even when I couldn’t. It’s a song for the people in our lives that put in the work of nurturing the look instead of just cutting down the damn tree.”
For nearly two decades, American Aquarium have pushed toward that rare form of rock-and-roll that’s revelatory in every sense. “For us the sweet spot is when you’ve got a rock band that makes you scream along to every word, and it’s not until you’re coming down at three a.m. that you realise those words are saying something real about your life,” says Barham. “That’s what made us fall in love with music in the first place, and that’s the goal in everything we do.”
On The Fear of Standing Still, the North Carolina-bred band embody that dynamic with more intensity than ever before, endlessly matching their gritty breed of country-rock with Barham’s bravest and most incisive songwriting to date (lead single 'Crier' - co-written with Stephen Wilson Jr - is a great example). As he reflects on matters both personal and sociocultural—e.g., the complexity of Southern identity, the intersection of generational trauma and the dismantling of reproductive rights—American Aquarium instill every moment of The Fear of Standing Still with equal parts unbridled spirit and illuminating empathy.
Recorded live at the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, The Fear of Standing Still marks American Aquarium’s second outing with producer Shooter Jennings—a three-time Grammy winner who also helmed production on 2020’s critically lauded Lamentations, as well as albums from the likes of Brandi Carlile and Tanya Tucker. In a departure from the stripped-down subtlety of 2022’s Chicamacomico (a largely acoustic rumination on grief), the band’s tenth studio LP piles on plenty of explosive riffs and hard-charging rhythms, bringing a visceral energy to the most nuanced and poetic of lyrics. “In our live show the band’s like a freight train that never lets up, and for this record I really wanted to showcase how big and anthemic we can be,” notes Barham, whose bandmates include guitarist Shane Boeker, pedal-steel guitarist Neil Jones, keyboardist Rhett Huffman, drummer Ryan Van Fleet, and bassist Alden Hedges.
Mixed by four-time Grammy winner Trina Shoemaker (Queens of the Stone Age, Emmylou Harris), The Fear of Standing Still shares its title with one of the first songs Barham wrote for the album—a soul-baring look at how raising a family has radically altered his priorities and perspective. In the process of creating what he refers to as “a record about growing up and growing older,” Barham also found his songwriting closely informed by his ten years of sobriety, as well as his ever-deepening connection with American Aquarium’s community of fans. “Whenever someone tells me that one of our songs helped them in some way, it encourages me to be more and more open—almost like peeling a layer off an onion,” he says. “This album is a writer 18 years into his career, peeling away the next layer and seeing just how human we can make this thing.”
American Aquarium will be coming to the UK in August and playing at The Long Road Festival on Fri 23rd. For more information and all tour dates please head to the band’s website here.
Pre-order/pre-save The Fear of Standing Still here
Download new press photo here (photo credit Joshua Black Wilkins)
Download The Fear of Standing Still cover art here
For more information on American Aquarium, please contact Chris Dean at Gardenia Publicity on chris@gardeniapublicity.com
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