© Credit: Cameron Lewis
Matthew E. White shares new song "Electric"
Matthew E. White today shared “Electric,” the ebullient second single from his new solo album K Bay due out on September 10th via Domino. The track’s video, directed by Wes Parker, finds Matthew getting his hair trimmed for the first time in years, a cut as long-awaited as K Bay itself. “I wrote this song after listening to ‘Me, My Baby And My Cadillac’ by Sleepy Brown,” Matthew explains. “I wanted to write something so intentionally direct like that. When we recorded I wanted the playing to come across raw, limit the instruments and let everything redline from start to finish. The lyrics are mostly pure 60’s bubblegum pop - think Brill Building Carole King - an homage to the overtly saccharine songwriting style of that era. There’s really an absurdity, and theater to it all.” Read the extended story of the single’s epic origins via White’s Substack here.
Watch the "Electric" video here.
“Electric” follows the album’s kaleidoscopic first single “Genuine Hesitation,” which earned early praise and support via Pitchfork, NPR Music, The Times, Stereogum, Under the Radar, BBC 6 Music, The New Cue and more.
K Bay - White’s first solo LP in six years and second release of 2021 following a collaboration with Lonnie Holley - is the astounding record he has forever aspired to make. A bold reclamation of independence and identity, K Bay establishes White as one of his era’s most imaginative artists. These 11 pieces are retro-futurist magic tricks that feel instantly classic and contemporary, the product of a musical mind that has internalized the lessons of his idols and used them to build a brilliant world of his own.
After his solo introduction Big Inner became a surprise hit and his 2015 debut for Domino, Fresh Blood, ascended him to late night TV performances and further critical acclaim, career demands nearly overwhelmed White. His record label/studio Spacebomb, for instance, ballooned into a bevy of obligations and expectations. White followed Fresh Blood with 2017’s Gentlewoman, Ruby Man, a set of duets with Flo Morrissey, and continued to produce records for the likes of Natalie Prass, Bedouine, and more - doubtless privileges that sometimes crowded out his ability to work on his own music. So he began building K Bay, a home studio where he could sequester himself with his thoughts. Newly married and starting to talk about children as he inched toward 40, White funneled a lifetime of experiences, enthusiasms, and obsessions into these new songs.
More than love, romance, or self-reliance, this is the animating ideal of K Bay - that we can forever strive for something better, no matter how flawed or blessed we have already been. A decade ago, Matthew E. White made a classic beauty no one expected; on K Bay, he has made a masterpiece by harnessing what he’s learned from that community and life itself in entirely unexpected, electrifying, and reaffirming ways.
K Bay is available to pre-order on exclusive limited Dom Mart vinyl (2 x LP orange), indies exclusive vinyl (2 x LP transparent light green), standard vinyl, CD and digitally. A t-shirt bundle is also available via Dom Mart. Pre-order: Domino Digital
Matthew E. White
Releases New Single “Electric”
Matthew gets a hair makeover in "Electric" infomercial video
New album K Bay out September 10th via Domino
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