"If I could admit that it hurt like hell / you could give me credit–shit, you might as well..."
The gothic noir filmic Official Video for "Don't Look Back" by Michigan songwriter Chris Bathgate finds him with back voids for eyes and driving a white hearse down a rural road lined with beautifully blossomed trees. I won't spoil what else occurs but the song with it's ascending droning organ orchestrations with rustic ambience fluttering in the background, the foreboding bass and drums cadence and Bathgate's vocal aesthetic that is textured in a hollow sound and has a self aware broken sage like quality is hauntingly captivating. The constant drones of sound and the clearly defined high hat like the ticking of a clock freezes you in it's tracks and as mute guitar sounds, double time and more percussion and layers of building sounds envelope you your breath might stop while your heart beat increase.
Regarding the track, Bathgate shares that, "'Don’t Look Back' is an interpretation/echo of Orpheus and Eurydice, one part Greek myth, one part personal myth–it has a bit of an attitude.” In other words, a defiant yet tragic love story, put to song."
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
www.chrisbathgate.org
www.instagram.com/chrisbathgate
www.twitter.com/chrisbathgate
www.facebook.com/chrisbathgate.org
After a half-decade away, Michigan songwriter Chris Bathgate returns with “Bruises,” to announce his sixth full-length album, The Significance of Peaches, for a May 13 release.
Discussing the single, which was produced by Daniel Zott (JR JR), and features backing vocals from fellow Michigan songwriter Samantha Cooper, Bathgate noted, “This song came from walking around downtown San Francisco on my commute. I was often surrounded by people – some doing very well and some whose circumstances were dire. This would be enough, but mix it with all the other issues in the world and it gave me one of those, ‘what is wrong with us’, head-shaking moments. We know where we are, we know where we are headed. What would I say to the world about it all if I could? What's the simplest way to say it?”
The Significance of Peaches finds Chris ruminating on time spent living in the National Forests of Michigan, and after a move to the West Coast, farms in Northern California. Time spent in San Francisco, where he would reconnect with the love of his life, and the mother of his children. An eventual return move to his home state. And the significance of that aforementioned stone fruit. Sonically the album leans heavily on the structural support of a parlor organ, with barely a cymbal in sight, and not a guitar to be found. Chris’ haunted vocals perched atop it all.
Discussing this time, Bathgate stated, “Before I moved to California, I spent a summer in the Huron-Manistee National Forest. I was camping, parking my van in the woods, sometimes working as a carpenter. There are orchards on the westside of Michigan, and late that summer I ate every local Michigan peach I saw. I would give peaches to people I cared about, sometimes trying to express exactly what I meant by the gesture. Here, please have this–a focal point of this exact and singular sacred summer, a ripe local peach. It's been nice to be alive with you here, Carpe Diem, I love you. The interest followed me into a changing life, into the wonderful Co-ops of Northern California. Then to the Embarcadero Farmers market, while living in SF with the now mother of my children.”
Over the course of a last decade, and five albums prior Bathgate has toured across the US and some of Europe, performed a NPR Tiny Desk Concert, had extensive airplay on the BBC, and received praise from outlets such as Paste, NPR Music, No Depression, All Music and The Independent (UK).
* * *
We get by with a little help from our friends
Chris Bathgate, Americana, Acoustic, Indie Rock, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, "Don't Look Back", upcoming album, "The Significance of Peaches", Quite Scientific Records,
"Don't Look Back" is from Chris Bathgate's upcoming album "The Significance of Peaches" due to drop on May 13th (2022) via Quite Scientific.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
www.chrisbathgate.org
www.instagram.com/chrisbathgate
www.twitter.com/chrisbathgate
www.facebook.com/chrisbathgate.org
After a half-decade away, Michigan songwriter Chris Bathgate returns with “Bruises,” to announce his sixth full-length album, The Significance of Peaches, for a May 13 release.
Discussing the single, which was produced by Daniel Zott (JR JR), and features backing vocals from fellow Michigan songwriter Samantha Cooper, Bathgate noted, “This song came from walking around downtown San Francisco on my commute. I was often surrounded by people – some doing very well and some whose circumstances were dire. This would be enough, but mix it with all the other issues in the world and it gave me one of those, ‘what is wrong with us’, head-shaking moments. We know where we are, we know where we are headed. What would I say to the world about it all if I could? What's the simplest way to say it?”
The Significance of Peaches finds Chris ruminating on time spent living in the National Forests of Michigan, and after a move to the West Coast, farms in Northern California. Time spent in San Francisco, where he would reconnect with the love of his life, and the mother of his children. An eventual return move to his home state. And the significance of that aforementioned stone fruit. Sonically the album leans heavily on the structural support of a parlor organ, with barely a cymbal in sight, and not a guitar to be found. Chris’ haunted vocals perched atop it all.
Discussing this time, Bathgate stated, “Before I moved to California, I spent a summer in the Huron-Manistee National Forest. I was camping, parking my van in the woods, sometimes working as a carpenter. There are orchards on the westside of Michigan, and late that summer I ate every local Michigan peach I saw. I would give peaches to people I cared about, sometimes trying to express exactly what I meant by the gesture. Here, please have this–a focal point of this exact and singular sacred summer, a ripe local peach. It's been nice to be alive with you here, Carpe Diem, I love you. The interest followed me into a changing life, into the wonderful Co-ops of Northern California. Then to the Embarcadero Farmers market, while living in SF with the now mother of my children.”
Over the course of a last decade, and five albums prior Bathgate has toured across the US and some of Europe, performed a NPR Tiny Desk Concert, had extensive airplay on the BBC, and received praise from outlets such as Paste, NPR Music, No Depression, All Music and The Independent (UK).
We get by with a little help from our friends
Chris Bathgate, Americana, Acoustic, Indie Rock, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, "Don't Look Back", upcoming album, "The Significance of Peaches", Quite Scientific Records,
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