Protomartyr announce new album Formal Growth In The Desert, out June 2nd

Today, Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr announce their new album, Formal Growth In The Desert, out June 2nd on Domino, and present its lead single/video, “Make Way.” Additionally, they announce 2023 North American, UK and EU tour dates including SXSW. Composed of vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson, Protomartyr have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique. Casey describes the underlying theme of Formal Growth In The Desert as a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.

The moody lead single/video, “Make Way,” doubles as Formal Growth In The Desert’s opening track, with Casey beginning the record by facing tragedy head-on: “Welcome to the haunted earth // The living after life // Where we chose to forget // the years of the Hungry Knife.” The accompanying video, directed by Trevor Naud, is a striking cinematic feat. Of the video, Naud says: “There's a deliberate through-line between the videos for Make Way and 2020's Worm In Heaven. The two songs feel partnered with each other. So I wanted the videos to feel like they exist in the same world. There are layers of experiments happening--all within a closed environment. We don't know what's happened to the world outside, but there's an undertone that things maybe aren't quite right."

Stream “Make Way” here

Since their 2012 debut, No Passion All Technique, Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. Formal Growth In The Desert was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas and whilst Casey did have a humbling experience staring at awe-inspiring Sonoran rock formations and reckoning with his own smallness in the scheme of things, the group’s sixth album is not necessarily a nod to the sandy expanses of the Southwest. The record proves Detroit, too, is like a desert. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol” Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.”

On Formal Growth In The Desert, the desert brings an existential awareness that is ultimately internal. The “growth” came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother, who struggled with Alzheimer’s for a decade and a half. Now 45, Casey had lived in the family home in northwest Detroit all his life. Immortalized in Protomartyr’s essential SPIN cover story, the neighborhood informed many of Protomartyr’s acclaimed albums, serving as a base through the band’s growth from scrappy punks to ones capable of touring the globe or bringing in The Breeder’s Kelley Deal as a touring member in 2020. In 2021, though, a rash of repeated break-ins signaled that it was time to finally move out.

Protomartyr’s music — more spacious and dynamic than ever — helped pull Casey up. “The band still being viable was very important to me,” Casey adds, “and it definitely lifted my spirits.” Having long served as Protomartyr’s unofficial musical director, guitarist Greg Ahee co-produced Formal Growth In The Desert alongside Jake Aron (Snail Mail, L’Rain). Ahee knew what Casey was going through and the challenges he’d been processing, and as Ahee was conceptualizing the music, he thought about how to make it all “like a narrative film.” Ahee explains, “I started to write at home on a piano and on a keyboard and then play along to short films, and watch how you can affect and heighten moods as you play.” The filmic sensibility is manifest in Casey’s storytelling, too, whether he’s critiquing ominous techno-capitalism or processing aging, the future, and the possibility of love.

In some sense, Formal Growth In The Desert is a testament to conflicting realities — the inevitability of loss, the necessity of finding joy through it and persisting — that come with living longer and continuing to create. It begins with pain but endures through it, cracking itself open into a gently-sweeping torrent of sound that is, for Protomartyr, totally new.

Tracklisting:

1. Make Way

2. For Tomorrow

3. Elimination Dances

4. Fun In Hi Skool

5. Let’s Tip the Creator

6. Graft Vs. Host

7. 3800 Tigers

8. Polacrilex Kid

9. Fulfillment Center

10. We Know the Rats

11. The Author

12. Rain Garden

Upcoming tour dates

• Sat 11th March – Soupfest, Columbus
• Sun 12th March - JJ’s Bohemia, Chattanooga
• Mon 13th March - Gasa Gasa, New Orleans
• Wed 15th March – SXSW, Laneway Official Showcase @ Lucille, Austin
• Thurs 16th March - SXSW, Levitation @ Hotel Vegas, Austin
• Thurs 16th March - SXSW, Brooklyn Vegan @ Empire, Austin
• Fri 17th March - SXSW, Third Man @ 13th Floor, Austin
• Sat 18th March - Texas Theater, Dallas
• Mon 20th March – Rebel, Phoenix
• Tues 21st March – Casbah, San Diego
• Wed 22nd March – Teragram, Los Angeles
• Fri 24th March – Temblor Brewing, Bakersfield
• Sat 25th March - Holland Project, Reno
• Sun 26th March – Treefort, Boise
• Tues 28th March - Hi-Dive, Denver
• Wed 29th March – Slowdown, Omaha
• Thurs 30th March - Raccoon Motel, Davenport
• Fri 31st March - Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids
• Tues 13th June – Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto
• Wed 14th June – Fairmount, Montreal
• Fri 16th June – Bowery Ballroom, New York
• Sat 17th June – Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia
• Tues 20th June – Black Cat, Washington
• Wed 21st June – Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
• Thurs 22nd June – Terminal West, Atlanta
• Fri 23rd June – Blue Room, Nashville
• Sat 24th June – Off Broadway, St Louis
• Mon 26th June – 89th Street, Oklahoma
• Wed 28th June – 191 Toole, Tucson
• Thurs 29th June – Observatory, Santa Ana
• Sat 1st July – The Chapel, San Francisco
• Sun 2nd July – Moe’s Alley, Santa Cruz
• Wed 5th July – Wonder Ballroom, Portland
• Thurs 6th July – Cobalt, Vancouver
• Fri 7th July – Crocodile, Seattle
• Sat 8th July – Lucky You, Spokane
• Tues 11th July – Turf Club, St Paul
• Wed 12th July – High Noon, Madison
• Thurs 13th July – Thalia Hall, Chicago
• Sun 6th August – Zoom, Frankfurt
• Mon 7th August – Paradiso, Amsterdam
• Wed 9th August – Concorde 2, Brighton
• Thurs 10th August – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
• Fri 11th August – Clwb Ifor Back, Cardiff
• Sat 12th August – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
• Mon 14th August – Effenaar, Eindhoven
• Tues 15th August – Indiego Glocksee, Hannover
• Thurs 17th August – Loppen, Copenhagen
• Fri 18th August – Parkenfestivalen, Bodo
• Sat 18th August – Pstereo Festival, Trondheim
• Thurs 26th October – Electric Ballroom, London