Six years is a long time. But if ‘Tears, Vol 1’ is what patience sounds like, we’ll wait.
Psychobuildings — the Brooklyn-born project fronted by multidisciplinary artist Peter LaBier — just announced their first album in six years: ‘Tears, Vol 1’, dropping May 1. Along with the news comes the lead single and video, The Beach, and it’s a whole vibe.
Psychobuildings came together in 2010 when LaBier linked up with multi-instrumentalist and producer Juan Pieczanski (of Small Black) in Brooklyn. The band has picked up love from Fader, Pitchfork, Spin, and NME over the years, and even landed on the iconic Kitsuné Maison Compilation 10. The Fader’s Peter Macia once described them as “like ‘Ghostrider’ filtered through ‘Let’s Dance’” — and yeah, that pretty much nails it. ‘Tears, Vol 1’ is their first full-length since 2020’s ‘Blackout’.
On the Album
LaBier opens up about where this record came from, and it’s raw and real:
“I started work on this album in the first year of the pandemic, living in Brooklyn. Alone, feeling the effects of isolation, uncertain times and processing a break up, feeling the loss of love and the loss of contact with friends… This album is a reflection of and a testament to all of that time — to all of the grief, sadness, political turmoil, and growth both myself and many others experienced from 2020 until now.”
He also touches on the loss of a mentor — the legendary New York vocalist and teacher Barbara Maier Gustern — the push and pull of life between Brooklyn and LA, a serious knee injury and the long road back to dancing. Heavy stuff, but it all feeds into the music. The record features contributions from a whole community of collaborators, old friends and new, across both coasts, all collectively finding creative joy in some genuinely hard years.
About ‘The Beach’
Here’s where the story gets wild. The Beach was originally written and recorded way back in 2009 — one of the earliest Psychobuildings songs, alongside early singles like Birds of Prey, Paradise, and Terror Management. The original demo was presumed lost after the computer it lived on got stolen in 2012. Then, during the pandemic, LaBier found it burned onto a CD.
“Somehow the lyrics — describing police brutality, protest, and even disease — seemed more relevant than ever. The song was dusted off and the original demo used as the skeletal structure, new instruments were added, some parts replayed, vocals doubled. Old meeting new — a quasi-prophetic time capsule was uncovered and assembled with a fresh perspective.“
The video, directed by Brooklyn-based painter and filmmaker Leigha Mason, was shot in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Coney Island. LaBier plays three roles: himself, a “freaky blonde bombshell walking her dog while manically glued to her phone,” and a human/dog/cop hybrid. Grainy footage, aquatic atmospherics, bizarre costumes — seedy, creepy, and coy all at once. Truly can’t look away.
‘Tears, Vol 1’ track listing
- Tears
- The Beach
- No One
- New Hand
- Run Away
- Outside
- Live Once
*3 additional songs appear exclusively on the vinyl release.
A Little More on Peter LaBier
LaBier holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University and has exhibited his work nationally and internationally — painting, drawing, video, performance. His recent focus has been large-scale drawings and video series. He’s also a self-taught dancer, choreographing his own movement for live shows and music videos, drawing influence from the full spectrum: Michael Jackson, James Brown, contemporary dance figures like Jodi Melnick and the late Trisha Brown, legendary drag performer Willi Ninja, and the Memphis Jookin’ community’s own Lil’ Buck and Lil’ Daniel. The man contains multitudes.
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