Black Marble has shared the video for new single Feels. The track is the propulsive new single from Black Marble aka Chris Stewart. The song appears on the forthcoming album ‘Bigger Than Life,’ due out October 25 via new label home Sacred Bones Records.
As Stewart states: “Feels is an impression more than a story really, told through visual snapshots.”He adds, “Speaking about having a radio show and working a blood drive in DC are memories from sort of a fictional character’s “nineties” past, when that part of the country was central to underground music in America and having radio shows on college radio was a popular thing for students to do. These local scenes seemed more cohesive and unified and maybe a little more innocent. The idea that now the quote unquote “scene” is more a digital pastiche of correlated yet not at all united artists, ostensibly associating with one another more for self-promotion than any kind of ethical unity seems a little sad by comparison. It’s interesting that music, a communal thing by nature, is experienced by some artists as an atomized, perfunctory, and maybe even a bit lonely experience, considering its always been a tool for people to find their voice and find others like themselves.”
The Feels video perfectly brings the song to visual life through “the use of real VHS footage from family archives,” says the video director, Izrayl Brinsdon, thereby establishing “a source of nostalgia that is honest and without fabrication.” Additionally, Brinsdon considers the song to be “a reflection of past trauma triggered by space and place. Physical objects transcend time and present an intangible past to the subject.” He goes on to say, “While conversing with Black Marble, it became evident that the lyrical and visual narratives were cohesive. Combined, the audience is left with a farewell note to the past. No matter how vivid a memory, we must all keep moving forward.”
Check out the video clip directed by Izrayl Brinsdon via YouTube below.
Feels is now available as a single here.
When Chris Stewart set out to write and record his third album as Black Marble, he had recently relocated to Los Angeles, fresh off a move from New York. His new home brought excitement and possibility, but the distance had proved too much for the car he brought along. With it out of commission indefinitely, he purchased a bus pass and planned his daily commute from his Echo Park apartment to his downtown studio, where he began to shape ‘Bigger Than Life’. The route wound all through the city, from the small local shops of Echo Park to the rising glass of the business district, to the desperation of Skid Row. The hurried energy of the environment provided a backdrop for the daily trip. When Stewart finally arrived at his studio, he’d look through his window at the mountains and the sky, seeing the beauty that makes L.A. unique — the same beauty his fellow commuters, some pushed to the edge of human endurance, had seen. That was the headspace he was in when he began to map out the syncopated drums and staccato arpeggiation of ‘Bigger Than Life,’ an ode to his new condition and a shimmering synth-pop response to its cacophony.
“The album comes out of seeing and experiencing a lot of turmoil but wanting to create something positive out of it,” Stewart explains. “I wanted to take a less selfish approach on this record. Maybe I’m just getting older, but that approach starts to feel a little self-indulgent. Like, ‘Oh, look at me I’m so complicated, I get that life isn’t fair,’ It’s like, yeah, so does everyone. So with this record, it’s less about how I see things and more about the way things just are. Seeing myself as a part of a lineage of people trying to do a little something instead of trying to create a platform for myself individually.”
As with every Black Marble album, Stewart recorded, produced, and played everything you hear on ‘Bigger Than Life’ using entirely analog gear, though the process was new. This time around, he wrote everything on his MPC and sequenced it live to his synths — only using the computer to record, not to create. “I try new approaches every time, which helps me stay engaged but also its kind of a trick I play on the creative side of my brain,” Stewart says. “Keeping one side of my mind busy on organizational creativity I think frees up the other side where the inspirational creativity comes from.”
He also approached his vocals in a new way this time, bringing them forward in the mix and retreating from the reverb-drenched affect he has utilized in the past. The result is the finest vocal performance of his career, still processed and distant-sounding, but more immediate than ever before. The beguiling vocal hooks, always present in Black Marble’s music but formerly obscured by the production, are now the focal point of songs like One Eye Open and Feels.
“Everything about this record from the album art to the title, to the themes to all the sounds on the record is my response to this particular time,” Stewart says. “Music is what I choose to do in response to this time. I think it’s a time where it’s easy to feel powerless, but I’m trying to express humility, because I think gratitude comes from humility and that’s a powerful thing. The people that practice the least humility also seem to be the least grateful. I’m learning the two are connected.”
‘Bigger Than Life’ is available for preorder here.
‘Bigger Than Life’ track listing
Out October 25, 2019 via Sacred Bones Records
1. Never Tell
2. One Eye Open
3. Daily Driver
4. Feels
5. The Usual
6. Grey Eyeliner
7. Bigger Than Life
8. Private Show
9. Shoulder
10. Hit Show
11. Call
Black Marble tour dates
Nov 2 – Los Angeles, CA – SUBSTANCE at the Los Angeles Theater
Nov 7 – Austin, TX – Levitation at Empire Control Room
Nov 22 – Brooklyn, NY – at Bowery Ballroom (Record Release Show) w/ Automatic
