With his forthcoming sophomore solo record, Cut Yourself Free, The Fresh & Onlys’ Wymond Miles told Interview he was trying to get away from the “jangly Anglophile acoustic guitar stuff” of last June’s excellent Under the Pale Moon. The post-punk love song “Passion Plays” was certainly a first step, and Miles continues down a New Wave-inspired path with “Night Drives”. With a synth ripped from the catalog of Ultravox, Miles forges an uber theatrical ballad that would be all but wind up as a saccharine overload if it weren’t for his forceful vocal performance. Listen in below.
“I think the song defines the stately modernism that I was going for and my reaction away from playing these jangly chords,” Miles said of the song. “I just grabbed a synthesizer and wrote a song. It didn’t exactly sound like Bowie’s ‘Heroes,’ but it was that kind of approach. The feeling is pretty universal, looking out on the night sky at sunset, feeling like you’re a part of it and it’s a part of you. That’s what the song is getting at, the yearning to touch and get at that feeling and needing to be healed by it. It’s so free of noise and concerns of religion. What you’re reaching for is even more fundamental.”
Cut Yourself Free is due out October 17th via Sacred Bones Records. (The Fresh & Onlys also have a new EP, Soothsayer, out September 24th.) In support, Miles will be on tour with Crocodiles. Consult the full schedule below.
Cut Yourself Free Tracklist:
01. The Ascension
02. Passion Plays
03. Night Drives
04. White Nights
05. Bronza Patina
06. Vacant Eyes
07. Anniversary Song
08. Why Are You Afraid?
09. Love Will Rise
Wymond Miles 2013 Tour Dates:
10/17 – San Francisco, CA @ The Eagle
11/06 – Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit &
11/07 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah &
11/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo &
11/09 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel &
11/11 – Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar &
11/12 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza &
11/15 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club &
11/16 – Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle ¥
11/19 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace &
11/20 – Montreal QC @ Divan Orange &
11/21 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott &
11/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle &
11/23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg &
& = w/ Crocodiles
