Basement Revolver Announce 'Embody Live' LP for June 9th
SHARE NEW VIDEOS FOR "SLOW/BACKHOLE" & "TIRED"
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Hamilton, ON indie dreamgaze band Basement Revolver are following up on their 2022 album, Embody, with its counterpart – Embody Live, set for release on June 9th, 2023 via Sonic Unyon Records. The latest singles to be shared from those sessions are "Slow/Blackhole" and "Tired," and they are available to watch now.
Watch Basement Revolver perform "Tired" + "Slow/Blackhole" live from St. Luke’s.
The group's co-lead Chrisy Hurn grew up in the church, and was given a worldview from which to operate. Unfortunately, their identity, gender and sexuality did not align with that worldview. Coming to see themself as bi and non-binary brought forth guilt, shame and overall disconnection from the world. Hurn also knew that if they kept living within the confines of faith and religion that it would ultimately kill them. "Tired" tackles those realizations and the significant life changes that came with them – an evolution that Hurn is still unpacking today.
The day that we recorded this in the studio, happened to be the day that I came out. It was an incredibly charged moment in time for me. Pretty sure I wept while we were recording ghost vocals. My coming out coincided with an article in the CBC about the Christian university I attended and how it was and continues to be a dangerous place for queer people. This past year, a non-binary student named Beckett Noble attending Redeemer and attempting to reform Redeemer’s 2SLGBTQIA+ "stance" ended their own life. Beckett's death could have been avoided, had the institution listened to what their queer alumni had been saying for years: Spaces that are hostile to queer folks are spaces that kill.
Basement Revolver's career started with a bang, being signed by the UK label fear of missing out records on the strength of their 2016 break-out single, "Johnny." They followed this up with three EPs in quick succession – an eponymous one in 2016, Agatha in 2017, and Wax and Digital in 2019. A full-length, Heavy Eyes, was released later that same year. This punishing schedule of releases was supported by concerts throughout Southern Ontario, the US, the UK, and Germany. 2020/2021 was supposed to be the same – a new full length album, Embody, and touring dates to support it. The pandemic meant less touring, and different ways of being in the world. But, there was also reconsideration of who the band was.
The group's co-lead Nim Agalawatte talks about how they found themselves in the midst of creating an album under these strange circumstances. They waited, and worked out what to do, eventually changing what they wrote. "The world was shifting around us — and there was some global trauma — with that, we decided we wanted to fully express ourselves.…We realized that to be who we are fully and authentically, we needed to share our voice." That voice includes making explicitly public identities that were previously private.
Coming out in the middle of a pandemic means that embodiment has to take new forms, and this album is one of those ways forward. Embody, with its complex sonic landscapes, sometimes lush and sometimes stark, is of a piece with their earlier work, but it’s deeper and more self-aware. Embody is the sound of freedom, especially in the midst of such pain, both locally and globally.
