Slowdive & Orcas
Orcas
Next Life
New single co-written with Slowdive’s Simon Scott
Taken from new album How to Color a Thousand Mistakes
Released 19th July 2024 via Morr Music
Orcas is the project of multi-instrumentalists Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoît Pioulard.
How to Color a Thousand Mistakes is the duos first album in 10 years, expanding their sound and vision into a full-spectrum ensemble, alongside the new addition of Simon Scott - the drummer in Slowdive - and longtime friend of the pair, who co-wrote new single “Next Life”:
Simon Scott: "I wrote “Next Life” during a difficult time that brought a lot of changes and personal reflection. The original demo was straightforward, a pretty minimal arrangement for modular synth drones and vocals. When I showed it to Raf during our drum tracking sessions in Cambridge, he saw potential for it to become something more intricate. After passing it to Tom (Benoît Pioulard), he found that the backstory resonated with his own, so he modified the lyrics, while retaining all of the original sentiments, and added harmonies to the main melodic line I had written on the demo. The musical arrangement was a joint effort between the three of us. Tom and Raf recorded their parts remotely in New York and I went into Courtyard Studios in Oxford to lay down the drums. The final version suits the melancholic spirit of the first draft really nicely, Tom’s added lyrics uncannily mirrors the intention of why I wrote it”
Benoît Pioulard: "Simon was already a personal hero of mine before we worked together on the Orcas songs, so it was an honor to develop "Next Life" based on his ideas. I'd gone through a separation and cross-country move not long before teasing out the lyrics, which are about loss and surrendering to the unknown, so it was a perfect project for my headspace at the time
https://youtu.be/2P2cU_EVWEU?si=W8DsHAqnc2WcgIov
In the time since their last major collaboration, Irisarri and Pioulard have done plenty on their own, while also traversing significant life changes: relocation from Seattle to New York, separation and divorce, illness, hospitalizations, and the loss of siblings, parents, and friends. Yet from these tribulations, they gleaned inspiration to reconstruct their lives, creating music with new collaborators and partners. Recorded in a variety of studios and cities including Brooklyn, Cambridge, Oxford, Seattle, and upstate New York, the resulting album, under the tutelage of UK producer James Brown (Arctic Monkeys, Kevin Shields, Nine Inch Nails), is a patiently-crafted beast, equally inspired by impressionism, British new wave, and dream pop.
Throughout »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes«, Irisarri uses his deep well of production experience to paint the stereo field with meticulously designed textures, exemplified on the slow burn of »Heaven’s Despite« and the heady rush of »Swells«. As a mixing and mastering engineer with Black Knoll, he has built a client list that reads as a who’s-who of modern, forward-thinking composition, including Temporary Residence, All Saints Records, and Ghostly International, among many others.
As with previous collaborations, Irisarri and Pioulard bring disparate styles and specialties to the table, but with an interpersonal dynamic that transcends friendship into brotherhood, their open-minded workflow and mutual respect are evident at every turn. »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes« brims with tight, complex art rock songwriting, masterful production, and sonic versatility, informed by a plethora of genres and tonal hues.
